HDTV Question -- Is HDTV an International Standard?

[Nelson Atwell]

As some of you know, I am moving to Poland in 90 days. I have a HDTV set which I am wanting to take to Europe. I found there are HDTV brooadcasts in the city I will be living, but I don't know if HDTV is broadcast the same everywhere. Normal US TV is in NTSC format, whereas normal Polish TV is PAL D/K. Do these same formats apply with HDTV?

 

[Richard L]

When I was in Europe you could see the PAL broadcast on an NTSC television but you could not hear the sound. Later they made TV's with a PAL/NTSC switch on the back (some TV's may offer feature on their setup menu's) As for HDTV, I don't know.



...Rich

 

[Jim Luttrell]

ATSC is the format for hd programming, I believe. I can't remember what it stands for. If you're worried about reception, I think you'll be fine, but I'm not 100% sure. I haven't heard of PAL D/K. It won't matter at all if your hdtv is a monitor only, but I expect you know that already. I'm also not sure about Poland, but I think some of Europe is a different voltage than the US. You may have problems with power. Sorry I'm not more help. My only experence with HDTV is in the US.

jim

 

[Chops]

I believe most of EU operates at 50 hertz-100v or some variation thereof.

 

[A1cntrler]

I think you are out of luck on that one. different standards in Europe. Here is a great HDTV site that answered a lot of my questions when I got my HDTV a couple of years back.

 

[Nelson Atwell]

I have a 14-inch traditional (analog) TV which is multi-system (NTSC/PAL/SECAM). When I press the program button, it will scan all known frequencies and formats. It takes a while, but will tune in any available channel from anywhere in the world. I can use that in a pinch, and it will work on 110/220V and even on 12V DC.



My HDTV has a built-in tuner. I have transformers from my days in Portugal, so the power difference isn't an issue. The 50/60Hz difference doesn't seem to affect TVs. It only messes up clocks.

 

[Mark Grumpy]

Nelson,

not 100% sure about all this but I think you will find that you'll have to get an AFRTS satellite and decoder if you want anything in English, except maybe Eurosport. And they, as of now, do not broadcast any HD. Your NTSC will work with AFRTS as they broadcast in that system but will not work with any Euro systems. Also, if you have DVDs, take a look on the back of a package and you'll see a region stated (usually in the boxes toward the bottom of back cover). You should see region 1, which is North America. Local rentals over there will not work on your NTSC TV either. Many DVD players are multi-region but it has to match the TV.



http://www.afrts.osd.mil/ may provide more info. It'll also give you a look at the programming on AFN.



Hope all that makes sense.



grump

 

[Nelson Atwell]

I forgot about the AFRTS satellite dishes. They cam out after I left Portugal, but I had heard about them before. That is cool. Hopefully I can buy one in Germany and take it to Poland.



No worries with the DVDs. I have a Daewoo DVD player I bought in Korea. It took 20 seconds to hack it so it is now Region "0", which allows it to play DVDs from any region. I routinely play Korean and US DVDs, and of course all foreign DVDs have the original English soundtrack as an option.



Looks like one of my issues is solved. Thanks guys!