After some solid advice from everyone, it looks like I’ll have to give the Sony TV a miss – it unfortunately won’t work too well in Australia, due to a bad transformer (not a Decepticon – more of the electrical type) and an incompatible tuner.
I suppose if I really wanted to buy that particular one, I could run it off a video in Australia to get around the tuner problem – but I think I’d still lose the picture-in-picture functionality. I’d also have to get Andrew to custom build a transformer for me…
Anyway, after doing some research on the web last night, it seems that most of the TVs over here are only built to accomodate NTSC. The only one that seems to hold promise is the Samsung HL-P6163W – which states it tunes to UHF, VHF, and CATV. Without knowing much about various TV and tuner formats, I’m hoping that UHF and VHF will cover the Australian standard (PAL), whilst the CATV will cover the American channels (NTSC). Kristy and I are off to The Samsung Experience tonight (if they’re open) to try and find out some more information.
7 comments
They’re open from 10am – 9pm. Woohoo!
How much is it to just rent a TV? Then you can save your money and buy an even bigger one when you get back home.
I’ve been looking online for a TV rental but haven’t been able to find a suitable company. Maybe I’m using the wrong search terms… do you know of any companies?
Isn’t HDTV a global standard? Why not buy a TV with either a SD or HD digital tuner? It should work a treat here and I believe they are replacing analogue (NTSC) with digital in the States in 2006 anyway. That just leaves you with the transformer issue, though I don’t think that it will be a major drama.
Have you thought of buying something similar, albeit secondhand, off ebay?
Admittedly not, but that’s not a bad idea.
The Samsung guy tonight was fairly certain that the TV isn’t going to work in Australia. I think you’re right about the HDTV; but most of them have twin tuners (for picture in picture) so you’d still lose that functionality.
Looks like it’s just not going to happen
. I’ll have to look more seriously at the rental option. Though, given you can lease a car for like $100, how much would a TV be? $5?
HDTV is not a global standard. In the US they use the ATSC standard, Australia uses the DVB-T standard.
See http://www.pc.gov.au/inquiry/broadcst/subs/sub166.pdf
Anyway if you are sure you want to purchase such a beast over their buy a monitor, that way you can purchase a hdtv set top box, sell it when you are ready to leave and then just buy a set top box here.
Thanks for pointing that out Shane. Damn those Yanks!
I now change my position to: “Listen to the radio!”