NTSC TV Tuner, can it easily be rectified?

Hen_Dawg

Hen_Dawg

Hen_Dawg

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Hi, I'm looking at buying a certain plasma TV. It came with this info:

"This item has a NTSC TV tuner (RF). This means a standard UK aerial will not work.All other connections will work fine I.E. DVI from a computer, S-Video from a Sky box, component from a DVD Player"

Is this going to be a problem? I would be using it for television and a stand-alone DVD player (probably S-video)

All the different inputs these days are beginning to confuse me :confused:
thanks
 
It means you wont be able to put an aerial directly into the TV and watch channels, you will need an external tuner (freeview box, sky, whatever) and then connect that via one of the inputs :)
 
don't see the point, just get a UK pal TV,
does it even have a UK plug, you will need to make sure it will run on our UK volts, seeing as its not meant for the UK market
 
I'm looking at it because the price it's going for at the moment it looks like a amazing deal. Think the plug will be ok. Tech info below:

CONNECTOR Video Input NTSC TV tuner (RF), S-video, composite signal (RCA jack), YCbCr or YPbPr signal (component 1 & 2),
RGB signal, DVI signal, tuner, RS-232C, RCA jack (x2), DVI audio interface, stereo mini jack (x2),
component video 1 & 2 (stereo RCA x2), sub woofer input (RCA jack x1), external speaker SW (mini phono plug for external speaker)
Video Output RGB signal
Audio Output Output RCA jack (x2), speaker (internal connection), L/R 5W + 5W
VIDEO INPUT Frequency Fh: 31~91kHz; Fv: 50~85Hz
COMPATIBILITY PC/Mac®** VGA (expanded), SVGA (native), XGA (expanded), wide XGA (expanded), SXGA (compressed)
Video NTSC, PAL, SECAM, NTSC 4.43
Scanning Format SDTV: 480i, EDTV: 480p, HDTV: 720p, 1080i
POWER Voltage AC 90–240 VAC +/- 10%
 
You wont be able to watch ANY tv on it - full stop.

So in that case, its not really a great deal unless you live in the states....
 
Is that true? My old man has a panasonic upscaling dvd-/+RW with built in freeview connected via component (can connect via HDMI too, but not got the correct lead yet). Surely this will work for him?

...and as has been said, if he has a Sky box which is able to output s-video, he can connect via that.
 
From how I understand it the technolgoy will not talk to a PAL device (sky, DVD, Video etc) which is one reason I can not bring in US built Hyundai product into the UK - It doesnt work....

Maybe a PC monitor - thats about as far as you'll get.
 
As per the posted spec above...

Video NTSC, PAL, SECAM, NTSC 4.43

As long as it has the inputs that you require, it should work fine. You wont be able to get terestrial tv though as mentioned above, unless you have another way of receiving it.

Richie.
 
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Contrast ratio seems a bit low at 1000:1, but perhaps they measure it differently. Panasonic 9th Generation plasma panels are quoted at 10000:1.

Its probably lacking any SCARTS as its us specced, they use componants instead, which limits you to S-Video for Sky, Scart RGB is noticably sharper, so you'll be losing out a bit there too.

It doesnt mention HDMI at all, so I would assume it doesnt have it, probably also lacking HDCP, which at the moment doesnt matter too much, but if the media industry want, they can force a 'standard def' down conversion on HDDVD, and BluRay if HDCD is not present. Luckily its looking like none of the movie houses are following this path! (Which is good news for everyone imho).

It does mention DVI, which is virtually the same, just doesnt include the sound, and it mentions sound inputs for dvi mode, just sounds like an old model there.

It supports PAL, so you can connect up Sky/DVD/Freeview etc, but the lack of scart RGB will affect picture quality on Sky/Freeview somewhat. DVD can use the componants, so no problem there, and SKY HD currently support componant too, although Sky have said at some point it may/will? become HDMI only.

It really would need to be very cheap to be worthwhile imho, as full 'euro' spec 720p 50inch plasma's have been dropping in price, and will likely plummet when Panasonics 10th generation 1080p plasma is released.
 
Thank you Corasik for the reply.

I caught my eye becuase it's currently at about £450 in an auction but it's on sale in the US for over $7000! So it's currently very cheap I think, although it will go up in the final few hours.

DVD would be the where i'd want the best pic quality so at least that sounds fine but I would use it for TV (freesat, SKY)

Hmmmmmm..... tempting but so is full 1080 HD which is probably worth the wait
anyway, thanks :)
 
Out of interest the plasma went for less than £600 (not to me). Still a reasonably good deal on a $7000 50 screen.

However I decided to wait
 
Hen_Dawg said:
Out of interest the plasma went for less than £600 (not to me). Still a reasonably good deal on a $7000 50 screen.

However I decided to wait
Click to expand...


What were shipping costs going to be to the UK from the US then? Don't forget plasmas need to be kept upright during transport.
 
It was on sale here in England. £45 delivery but located close to me so I could have picked up.

I didn't know they needed to be kept upright, why is that?
 
Hen_Dawg said:
Out of interest the plasma went for less than £600 (not to me). Still a reasonably good deal on a $7000 50 screen.

However I decided to wait
Click to expand...

not worth it for the ammount of compromises you'd have to make.
 
Hen_Dawg said:
It was on sale here in England. £45 delivery but located close to me so I could have picked up.

I didn't know they needed to be kept upright, why is that?
Click to expand...


Because of the way they work. Lay them down and a layer of 'gas' seperates I think. Something like that, I'm LCD so never paid that much attention.
 
Ol!ver said:
Because of the way they work. Lay them down and a layer of 'gas' seperates I think. Something like that, I'm LCD so never paid that much attention.
Click to expand...

Actually, I believe its simpler than that, its quite a heavy sheet of glass, and transported horizontally puts the glass at risk of being cracked. Its no different to windows, thats why you will normally see big sheets of window glass being carried vertically.

Its probably made worse by the fact its 'double glazing', so if the glass flexes at all, the two layers will flex by a different amount, and that puts a lot of stress on the glass. It will simply break.
 
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