American TV in Ireland with converter

ballyharpat

Hey, I brought over my 32" tv from the USA with me-seemed like a good idea at the time, I also purchased one of these-
http://www.world-import.com/Com_World_CMD-RF1080p_PAL_RF_TV_Tuner_to_NTSC_HDMI_Video_Converter.htm

I brought one over and it would not function with the remote or the buttons, I sent it back, after a few months they sent me on another one, same thing, it functions for a few minutes when I plug it in-not long enough even for me to see if it does the job or not, then when it's plugged in for a few minutes, it stops working when buttons are pressed on the system and doesn't even respond to the remote.

I can currently use the TV to play DVD's, but that's all it's good for, anyone have any definite solutions or have any experience with this brand of converter, thanks in advance.

Johnmb

How old is the TV? Most of the TV's sold over here for about the last decade (at least, that I'm aware of) have been capable of playing either PAL or NTSC without the need for an external adapter.

watty

US TVs generally only do 480 NTSC. Except for HDMI ones, they do 720p60 and 1080i30fps/60
Still useless here.

Never ever buy or import video gear for North American Japan, Chinese or South America market to Europe.

USA people that want to Play PAL and NTSC in USA actually have to import a European multi-standard TV.


Buy a good European TV. It will also do USAian 525 NTSC/480, and USA 720p60 and 1080i30 as well as PAL625line (576 digital), 720p50 and 1080i25fps/50Hz.

European DVDs give about 30% more quality than US ones too (576 vs 480 lines)

This is a total was of money. Junk. A decent one costs as much as a 42" HD TV that does Saorview.
http://www.world-import.com/Com_World_CMD-RF1080p_PAL_RF_TV_Tuner_to_NTSC_HDMI_Video_Converter.htm

Stinicker

watty wrote: »

US TVs generally only do 480 NTSC. Except for HDMI ones, they do 720p60 and 1080i30
Still useless here.

Never ever buy or import video gear for North American Japan, Chinese or South America market to Europe.

Whats the difference between the HDMI HD standards of Europe and the United States? I thought that HDTV was a new global format? Modern American TV's might also have an ATSC Tuner which is their version of digital terrestrial tv and they use mpeg2 and ATSC instead of DVB-T.

ballyharpat

lol, okay, so the TV was bought in the USA about 4 years ago, It cannot play the Irish signal, I have plugged the cable directly into the tv and I get black and white with no sound. SO basically, the TV is of no use to me to watch a station here? I can use it to watch DVD's, is it of any use as a computer monitor, does anyone know? Thanks for the replies, is there a sub forum of geeks on here that I could pose this question to, they may be able to help me get the converter sorted. The converter definitely seems like a piece of crap.

watty

Unless it has VGA, DVI or HDMI and Full HD resolution, no use as a PC monitor.

I'm familar with design of Convertors. You will not get other than junk at that price. Even if it worked the degradation of quality is enormous.


Sorry

ballyharpat

watty wrote: »

Unless it has VGA, DVI or HDMI and Full HD resolution, no use as a PC monitor.

I'm familar with design of Convertors. You will not get other than junk at that price. Even if it worked the degradation of quality is enormous.


Sorry

Thanks for the reply, I partly guessed the converters would be junk-FFS!!-that's what I get for being stubborn.
The TV has an HDMI input, it is one of the bigger ports, so I bought a reducer to bring it down to regular size and have been using it to play European DVD's, no problems there. I also went through the different sources and it has 'PC' as an input/source, along with DVI, AV1, AV2, AV3 etc. DOes this make it ok as a computer monitor?

watty

DVI = PC

winston_1

Most DVB-T boxes sold in Europe (not UK however) can output in PAL or NTSC. You need to get an MPEG 4 capable one however. I would suggest a TNT HD box from France.
I bought an Akira TNT HD box on my last trip to France for around 60 euros and it can be set to output in NTSC. No MHEG however.
Just check the one you order can output in NTSC.

Assuming you are in a Saorview reception area this will solve your problem.

ballyharpat

winston_1 wrote: »

Most DVB-T boxes sold in Europe (not UK however) can output in PAL or NTSC. You need to get an MPEG 4 capable one however. I would suggest a TNT HD box from France.
I bought an Akira TNT HD box on my last trip to France for around 60 euros and it can be set to output in NTSC. No MHEG however.
Just check the one you order can output in NTSC.

Assuming you are in a Saorview reception area this will solve your problem.

Thanks for the response. I am in the town of Killarney, i am assuming that the service would be good here.

Have you used your DVB-T box for the same purpose I intend. I am worried that if I purchase the other TNT HD box, that it will not work and don't want to fire good money after bad. Also, do I need an additional set top box? I am currently receiving RTE 1, Net 2, TV 3 and TG 4 using just the antenna on the roof.
Thanks in advance.

winston_1

I don't have an American TV, but European TV's work to both standards. I can confirm that my TNT HD box can be changed from PAL to NTSC in the menus. Doing so changes the scart outputs from PALto NTSC and the HDMI output from 1080i/50 to 1080i/60.

Last summer I was on a camp site in my motor home about 20 minutes walk south of Killarney and Saroview reception was excellent there.

watty

Not all European TVs. Just many.

winston_1

Looking back at your post no 5 I noticed that you could tune it in to Irish analogue channels and it locked up in monochrome. This implies that it does work with a 50Hz signal. (N0 colour as it won't do PAL, no sound due to different spacing). In that case you would be able to use a Saroview or Freeview HD box, or anything with an HDMI output.

You mention DVD's. Are these European ones with a European player connected via HDMI? If so that would prove the case.

watty

No, ability to do HDMI HD 50Hz is not implied by analogue 25fpd 50Hz interlace working. Quite separate.

It may do.

winston_1

I wasn't aware of that. Be interesting if the OP replies about his DVD's however.

ballyharpat

Hey,
thanks for taking the time on this, it's appreciated.
I brought some DVD's with me, they would not play on the DVD player I bought here.
I played some here, and they worked perfect on the TV. I connected with HDMI.

What does this mean? Sorry, I am pretty useless at this stuff, I will get the specs for the TV tomorrow and post them, thanks again.

Antenna

ballyharpat wrote: »

I brought some DVD's with me, they would not play on the DVD player I bought here.
I played some here, and they worked perfect on the TV. I connected with HDMI.

What does this mean? Sorry, I am pretty useless at this stuff, I will get the specs for the TV tomorrow and post them, thanks again.

The DVDs you bought in the US would be locked to Region 1.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD_region_code

This is a separate issue from TV compatibility. "DVD video discs may be encoded with a region code restricting the area of the world in which they can be played."
There is often a (hidden) way of getting DVD players bought here to play Region 1 DVDs, try google etc.
Or bring over a DVD player from the US!

winston_1 wrote: »

I can confirm that my TNT HD box can be changed from PAL to NTSC in the menus. Doing so changes the scart outputs from PALto NTSC and the HDMI output from 1080i/50 to 1080i/60.
.

Many of the FTA satellite receivers, including all the Lidl ones I have tried, can be set to output as NTSC if desired. I have a Lidl one that can also be set to 'PAL-M' used in Brazil (525/60 with PAL at 3.58 instead of 4.43MHz) - however both NTSC-capable TVs at home only display monochrome with PAL-M.

The Televes 7118 FTA satellite receiver (the one currently for sale in xtravision chain in Ireland) not only can be set to output NTSC , but has an RF modulator that can be set to 4.5MHz sound in the menu - so could be used to fed an Amercian TV at UHF if desired.

mossym

it can be done, i brought home a 48" HD rptv when i moved home from the states(work were paying for a container, so i just wheeled it in. ) used a pc as a PAL to NTC converter, svideo from a sky box into a hauppauge analog tv card, ir blaster to control the sky box, all worked perfectly. NOt an easy solution to implement, you need to know you're way around pc's but it can be done. irish xbox worked fine with it,

in the end i gave it away for nothing on adverts.ie for someone to use to play xbox on...

watty

And the quality is rubbish converting PAL (better colour space + 576 lines, more horizontal detail) to NTSC (poorer color space + 480 lines) also the shudder or smear of movement going from 25fps 50Hz interlace to 30fps 60Hz.

If source is film the results are terrible!
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=69150129&postcount=4

There is no "future" to standards conversion when European HD multistandard sets are the same price as a decent standards convertor.

mossym

not recommending it at all, we did it because we knew we'd be renting a house when we moved home for a year at least, and this allowed us to wait till we had our own house and let us choose tvs that suited it, rather than buying something and regretting it a year later,

as a realistic competitive choice, not to be recommended at all. can it be done if you had to? yes.