Bring LCD TV from UK to NZ

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sakiwi

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#11144 5-Jan-2007 11:37

HI, we are moving to NZ this year and have been told our CRT tv will not work in NZ. As I will have to buy a new tv I was thinking of upgrading to a LCD. Can I buy a LCD tv in the UK and move it out there or would I have to buy a NZ one. The prices has drop a lot over the xmaas period and there are really good bargains out here at the moment.

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

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#56974 5-Jan-2007 12:05

It will work fine with the exception of trying to view TV off the air (ie from an aerial). A lot of TV's in the UK now only have DVB-T digital tuners, DVB-T broadcasts are not yet available in NZ.

Assuming you're going to get something like Sky and use the AV inputs there will be no issues.

alasta

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#56975 5-Jan-2007 12:06

In New Zealand, television broadcasters use both the VHF and UHF bands and from what I understand television receivers sold in the UK are only able to receive signals on the UHF band.

In short, if a CRT television from the UK won't work here's no reason why an LCD television would. It's the receiver - not the display type - that makes the difference.

alasta

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#56976 5-Jan-2007 12:08

sbiddle: It will work fine with the exception of trying to view TV off the air (ie from an aerial). A lot of TV's in the UK now only have DVB-T digital tuners, DVB-T broadcasts are not yet available in NZ

Okay, it seems that my information may be out of date. Is analog television broadcasting effectively dead in the UK now?

chiefie

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#56982 5-Jan-2007 13:04

The other question is, is it worth the risk to bring that in? You may have to pay tax, and worse, what if it is broken during the process of moving over here in shipping?

Won't it be safer and smarter to get a new TV here with warranty and insurance from NZ's purchase?

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sbiddle

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#57018 5-Jan-2007 18:04

alasta:
sbiddle: It will work fine with the exception of trying to view TV off the air (ie from an aerial). A lot of TV's in the UK now only have DVB-T digital tuners, DVB-T broadcasts are not yet available in NZ

Okay, it seems that my information may be out of date. Is analog television broadcasting effectively dead in the UK now?

It's still being broadcast but virtually all LCD & Plasma TV's sold in the UK now have DVB-T (called Freeview in the UK) tuners in them. The same thing is happening in Australia now as well. A small% of these TV's still have old VHF/UHF analogue tuners in them as well but as you point out this is no good either unless the TV lets you specify the tuning system which is pretty rare.

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#57028 5-Jan-2007 19:55

alasta: In New Zealand, television broadcasters use both the VHF and UHF bands and from what I understand television receivers sold in the UK are only able to receive signals on the UHF band.

In short, if a CRT television from the UK won't work here's no reason why an LCD television would. It's the receiver - not the display type - that makes the difference.

We were ready to ship our NZ TV to the UK many moons ago (when we first went over), and our carrier told us not to bother. The polarity of CRT's in the southern hemisphere differ from the northern, so our southern region CRT won't work. At least that's what I was told. Ended up buying a TV from Dixons for £79 and it worked brilliantly for 7 years.

I *did* take our NZ video over, and all channels tuned fine in the UK, but I never ever got the sound working....

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#57031 5-Jan-2007 20:36

antoniosk:
I *did* take our NZ video over, and all channels tuned fine in the UK, but I never ever got the sound working....

NZ uses PAL B/G (B=VHF and G=UHF) as the video standard and the UK uses PAL I (UHF). The video is the same for both apart from slightly different channel spacing same but from memory PAL I uses a 6.0Mhz sound carrier vs 5.5Mhz on PAL B/G (ie sound is 5.5MHz above the video signal) so you can tune UHF channels in OK but won't get any sound.

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alasta

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#57034 5-Jan-2007 21:10

antoniosk: We were ready to ship our NZ TV to the UK many moons ago (when we first went over), and our carrier told us not to bother. The polarity of CRT's in the southern hemisphere differ from the northern, so our southern region CRT won't work. At least that's what I was told.

I've heard this one many times and have been lead to believe that it's an urban myth, but I'd be interested if someone in the know could confirm or deny.

sbiddle: NZ uses PAL B/G (B=VHF and G=UHF) as the video standard and the UK uses PAL I (UHF). The video is the same for both apart from slightly different channel spacing same but from memory PAL I uses a 6.0Mhz sound carrier vs 5.5Mhz on PAL B/G (ie sound is 5.5MHz above the video signal) so you can tune UHF channels in OK but won't get any sound.

Most modern TVs that I've played with allow you to choose from a selection of audio modes.

grant_k

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#57040 5-Jan-2007 22:04

alasta:
antoniosk: We were ready to ship our NZ TV to the UK many moons ago (when we first went over), and our carrier told us not to bother. The polarity of CRT's in the southern hemisphere differ from the northern, so our southern region CRT won't work. At least that's what I was told.

I've heard this one many times and have been lead to believe that it's an urban myth, but I'd be interested if someone in the know could confirm or deny.

There is an element of truth to this, although its significance is often overstated. The difference between hemispheres is due to the earth's magnetic field in any given location being affected by proximity to the North or South Pole.

With a CRT display, this can cause convergence errors and hence coloured fringes around high-low luminance transitions on the screen. With LCDs however, the earth's magnetic field has no effect whatsoever.

So it's no longer an issue really, but sometimes did cause problems in the past.

alasta

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#57078 6-Jan-2007 09:38

Grant17: There is an element of truth to this, although its significance is often overstated. The difference between hemispheres is due to the earth's magnetic field in any given location being affected by proximity to the North or South Pole.

With a CRT display, this can cause convergence errors and hence coloured fringes around high-low luminance transitions on the screen.

Thanks for clarifying that.

sakiwi

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#57120 6-Jan-2007 21:46

Hi Guy's thanks for the reply's. I now understand why people were saying CRT tv's won't work in NZ.

We still have analogue signal here, the switch off is starting in 2008. Most LCD tv's have both UHF & VHF tuners in them. They also come with digital tuners so you can get Freeview (digital channels for those people who do not subscribe to Sky). So from your replies it should work.

Shipping should not be a problem, we're shipping a household hence a full container, so no additional shipping cost but more insurance. Also as I would have the original packaging to put it back in damage should be limited.

We should not have to pay import duty as my wife is from NZ so it would go through with the normal household.

The other question is about having a NZ warranty, if I buy a leading brand then there should not be a problem. A Sony warranty should still stand up in NZ even though I bought the tv in the UK.

Price will then be the swing factor. As we have another 6 months before we go I will do some searching on-line to see what the best prices are in NZ.

Thanks again for all the reply's.

Rickles

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#57145 7-Jan-2007 09:57

sakiwi,

Don't forget that UK electrical plugs are those great big clunky two-pin things ... here we have three-pin plugs of relatively small format. The 'converters" are just as big and clunky ... you may want to check if simple plug replacement will fire up your appliances/TV etc., else you will have a house full of additional plug converters hanging out the wall sockets

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#57158 7-Jan-2007 14:09

Save your pound and spend it herein NZ dollars. Beside you got more spending power with pound.

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photoman

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#58042 16-Jan-2007 11:22

sakiwi

The only thing you need to check is the TV manual to see if it supports Pal B/G as well as Pal I. If it does, then ship it over. When you get here, cut off the UK 3 pin plug and replace with a NZ 3 pin plug, which you can get from Dick Smiths for less than $5. That's it.

I shipped over a Toshiba 36inch TV, a Panasonic video recorder and a Pioneer DVD recorder in 2005, and all work fine.

BTW All the best for your move.

oldfartt

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#58344 19-Jan-2007 14:38

Photman is spot on. Just check that the receiver supports Pal b/g . The issue about the earth,s gravitational influence only affect CRT tv,s and is easily fixed by turning off the TV, waiting a few moments and turning it on again. There is a circuit in the TV which applies a magnetic field around the picture tube which slowly decays to cancel any of the effects of the earth,s magnetic field. My preference would be to sell your existing TV and buy new in NZ, for the reasons outlined by Chiefie.

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