OT - Does UK TV work in Oz?

PeterWright wrote on 8/9/2003, 3:55 AM

I have a friend with a large screen Home Theatre type TV in UK, wondering whether to bring it to Australia.

I know we're both PAL, but does anyone definitely know the situation?

Thanks

peter

Comments

davepettitt wrote on 8/9/2003, 6:44 AM

Hi Peter

The answer is yes and no. Yes the UK TV will show a perfect picture here in Oz but there will be no sound. The reason is that the PAL system in the UK uses a different frequency for the sound carrier than is used in Oz. So although both systems are PAL there are in fact variations of the PAL system.

I know this because I emigrated from the UK and bought out our UK PAL TV. Great picture but no sound.

There are a couple of workarounds.

Get the TV converted by having the audio part of the TV replaced with the Australian version. In the case of modern TV's this is simply a chip change. A few companies in Perth offer this service just check the yellow pages.

Or connect the TV using a digital set top box throught the SCART connectors or RCA connectors or connect an Australian television in the same way.

All of the above of course just refers to broadcast reception through an aerial, sorry antenna. Still getting used to the Ozzy terms :)

Dave

farss wrote on 8/9/2003, 8:32 AM

From my experience if you've spent the bucks on a large screen TV and you're not using a DVB STB your wasting your money.

I'm not certain on this but perhaps this TV is already setup for DVB and I believe Oz has for once used the international standard so it may work of our digital transmissions.

PeterWright wrote on 8/9/2003, 10:58 PM

Thanks for the info Dave and Robert - I'll pass it on to the new migrant ...

peter