NTSC to PAL converters

Sell your American TV before you leave and buy a new one locally once you get to Angola.

NSTC is not in HD in the United States. All OTA HD is ATSC.

Generally those converters are just SD and not good quality at that. It's possible your Samsung may be multi system and just not advertised that way but for sure it won't have a PAL tuner.
Cheaper brands have a better tendency to be multi system than major brands like: Sony, Panasonic, etc.
The most common brand that are generally multi system would be Vizio. Both my Vizios are multi system from line inputs but my Sony and Panasonic are not
Haven't tried a PAL signal to either my LG or Sammy. Oh an Insignia that I had was also multi system even no mention of it in the manual.

I was just in Australia visiting my friend that moved there from the USA. He found an over the air digital receiver for Australia television that will output in either PAL or NTSC. This feeds his old NTSC TV from the USA. Don't remember how he handles the voltage and power frequency difference.

By the way in the TV stores there they all advertise 100 hz TVs versus the 120 hz TVs here. I assume that is because their digital standard supports this.

Rick R

Most (if not all in my experience - but that is in Europe) 50Hz TVs also have 60Hz compatibility - it is just the reverse situation which isn't the case (i.e. Most sets sold in 50Hz territories also handle 60Hz, but many sets sold in 60Hz territories DON'T handle 50Hz stuff).

There is also the difference between whether a set has a tuner capable of receiving OTA analogue in the various standards (PAL B/G, PAL I, SECAM L, NTSC M etc.) and whether it can take an externally tuned (say via a VCR) composite input (or component) which will be just NTSC, PAL or SECAM - or a 50 or 60Hz component/HDMI signal (with no composite encoding)

In Europe all HDTVs with the "HD Ready" logo have to support both 50Hz and 60Hz 720p and 1080i HD inputs - and I haven't come across any that don't also support 480i/p at 60Hz as well as 576i/p at 50Hz. Even every European SD "PAL" TV I've owned since the early 90s has has both an NTSC and a PAL decoder in it - and syncs to both 50Hz and 60Hz SD inputs from NTSC and PAL composite sources as well as RGB (European SCART connectors cope with SD RGB outputs from digital set top boxes and DVD players - avoiding the quality drop that composite and S-video introduce).

Since I went HD all of my HD sets (all licensed as "HD Ready") bought in Europe have coped with NTSC and PAL composite, and 50 and 60Hz HD inputs (all of them were also 1080p at 50 and 60Hz - and the most recent one also 24Hz) and have had multistandard tuners to cope with PAL I, PAL B/G (and SD MPEG 2 DVB-T - the pan-European SD digital TV standard)

Similarly almost all DVD players sold in Europe will output both 50 and 60Hz natively. (Meaning 50Hz "PAL" DVDs replay at 50Hz and 60Hz "NTSC" DVDs replay at 60Hz - as the TVs in Europe will accept both natively)

Standards conversion at the consumer level is usually pretty awful - particularly on large screens. Best avoided unless you don't care about picture quality.

According to one list I've found online Angola uses PAL-I for OTA broadcasts - which is actually one of the less common variants. We use it in the UK on UHF only, and the Republic of Ireland uses it for both UHF and VHF - and the main other locations that use it are either current/former British Dependent Territories or Commonwealth countries.

I'd look at a European "HD Ready" TV - and if Angola is PAL I I suspect these models will be the ones sold in Angola anyway?

These days many TVs sold across Europe are fine with all of the main European analogue standards : PAL I, PAL B/G and PAL D/K (the systems differ in sound carrier frequency and vision bandwith mainly) as well as many having SECAM L (French system)

Are you moving to Angola permanently? If so, I definitely think you should just sell your USA set, and buy a new one there.

Where in Angola are you moving to? My G-(x8)-Grandmother was born there, in Luanda, in the late 1500's. She came to America on the "Black Mayflower".

Nothing specific to digital TV - it's just the sets offering in-display doubling or quadrupling of the source refresh rate (often with interpolation)

Australian SD and HD - analogue and digital - TV is 50Hz (like Europe)
North American SD and HD - analogue and digital - TV is 60Hz

Therefore in the US you have displays marketed as 120Hz and 240Hz for 60Hz (and 24Hz) content.

In Aus and Europe we have displays marketed as 100Hz and 200Hz for 50Hz content. (Though these displays usually also run at 120 and 240Hz for 60Hz and 24Hz content...)

Nothing to do with the digital TV standard per se - Aus uses (or has used in the past) MPEG2 DVB-T with 576i, 576p, 720p and 1080i all at 50Hz.

So what I'm learning here is that while I could save butt loads of money (technical term) by buying a VT30 BEFORE I move to the UK, I should wait and buy one over there because the US one isn't going to work for s**t.

But the good news is that should I not live there too long and still enjoy said VT30, I could bring the UK model back and use it here.

That all sound correct?

(sorry for hijacking the thread )
-Nick

Can you be more explicit than VT30? (Manufacturer? Full model name/number?)

Bottom line - if your US-bought display doesn't support 50Hz, it will be next-to-useless for use watching broadcast TV in 50Hz Europe. AIUI many big-name brand sets sold in the US won't support 50Hz inputs.

However any "HD Ready" (an EU-wide licence scheme) display bought in the EU (and non-EU countries like Norway, Switzerland etc.) will support both 50Hz and 60Hz HD inputs (it's a licensing requirement) via HDMI and Component (and although its not part of the licence they are almost certainly going to support 60Hz composite/S-video/component and RGB SD inputs) - and so will work (if you can sort power issues out) if taken back to the US with HDMI and Component sources - and almost certainly SD sources as well (though it won't have any US ATSC digital TV tuners in it so won't be any use with an aerial/antenna or direct cable connection)

So this means that - for example - a US Sony or Panasconis HDTV may only support 60Hz inputs, a European Sony or Panasonic TV is guaranteed to support both 50Hz and 60Hz inputs (if it has the "HD Ready" logo - and all of them sold in the last 4 or 4 years do). We have to have 60Hz compatibility on our HD displays because so many Blu-rays are mastered at 24p and Blu-ray players won't output this content at 50Hz, only 24Hz or 60Hz.

(Every TV I've bought since 1993 in Europe has supported both 50Hz and 60Hz SD inputs - including NTSC 3.58 composite - and every HD display I've bought has supported 50 and 60Hz at SD and HD. Watching R1 480i DVDs has never been an issue in Europe - as our TVs can happily run at "NTSC" frame/field rates.)

I have a European Samsung B550 Series and I can confirm that it can take 110/240 Volts and play anything you wish to throw at it (at least through HDMI). Obviously, the DVB-T tuner would be useless in the US, but any other source such as satellite or cable should hook up with no problem.

I bought by father-in-law in New Jersey the same model with US specs and it was a real disappointment to see how it had been crippled in comparison.

Suspect you'll find S-video and Composite NTSC 3.58 (and NTSC 4.43) inputs will also work fine, as will 480i/p and 720p/1080i component sources at 60Hz, into your European display. (You may have fun finding SCART leads for it in the US though!)

As sneals2000 says, you can throw anything at it as long as it functions as a monitor. As far as I am concerned, the integrated TV+receiver is just a way for manufacturers to sell stuff.

At my last count, I have 1 IPTV receiver, 1 Freesat, 1 AFN satellite receiver, 1 DVD player, 1 media player, 1 Wii and 1 xbox360 connected to the Samsung, directly or through the AV receiver. What is missing? Any DTT connection. I suspect that is the case in many localities. It would in fact make more sense to integrate the DTT receiver into the AV receiver as an option.

Think it depends on the country you are in. In the UK DTT is widespread and expected as a standard facility on a TV - and far more people watch DTT than have separate AV receivers. I've never lived in a British flat or house where an aerial/antenna socket hasn't been standard - and I've always used it.

Set top boxes were popular as a means to upgrade existing analogue CRT displays - but since LCD and Plasma have arrived, DVB-T (and soon/now DVB-T2) are expected as standard.