northseaned

I know that the analog part of my new tv will work in Oz but will the digital and free view part work or am I better off seling it and buying a new one when I get to Oz. Answers on a post card please.

loz

Will only work if you purchase a set top box. You will find that without you will only get about 3 channels and the sound won't be in sync with the picture. Had to ask my brother-in-law this before we came out (he was a tv engineer) and he had encountered the same problem when he firts came over. Once the set top box was installed.............no problems

Loz x

(There are some excellent deals on tv's and set top boxes over here though if you do decide to sell)

Vash the Stampede

Check the technical specs. If it supports PAL B/G, you'll be fine.

This is our TV. PAL B/G compatibility was one of the selling points for me; we won't have to buy any additional kit when we go Down Under, just plug it in and start watching.

extrameant

Australia uses DVB-T standards for digital terrestrial broadcasts, same as UK. However, UK uses 2k carriers and here its 8k carriers. Later digital TVs will have both standards built in and will switch themselves automatically, older ones might not.
Another difference is that in UK they use 8MHz RF channel spacing, and in Australia they use 7MHz channel spacing. You would need to check the specifications on your tv to make sure it can switch to 7MHz Channels. As far as I know, they won't switch automatically, but its not impossible. The one's I have seen have a switch or have to be selected in a menu. There are a lot of digital TVs and set top boxes in UK that won't be able to switch to 7MHz channels.

The PAL specification only applies to the analogue transmissions.

galba

Does that mean we can bring our set top boxes too?

Galba

extrameant

As long as they switch to 7MHz rf channels, and have 8k carrier ability, yes.

annqldau

Correct about them not working and the digital set top box that's what we had to do and now all works fine. But, if you have a UK digital box bring it with you as the one I use I bought on EBAY and came from Germany so I think a UK one will do the trick.

galba

emmmmm......how do I find this out? No instruction manual! And not too technical either!

Galba

s-jmelbournewannabe

Try their website

extrameant

One way to find out is to bring it with you.

Or go through the menu and try manual set up. If you see an option for 2k or 8k then that answers that one. If you see an option for for either 7MHz or 8 MHz then thats another clue. Or have a look on the back and see if there is a switch between 7 or 8 MHz. Look it up on the internet is good advice too.

You can buy a new STB for about $30, or if you want a good one thats HD with all the connections available, maybe $200~400. They will work with your TV on one of its inputs.

galba

The HD, is that the one that can record stuff? We have an Astro Max box....connected to our UK TV in KL so we should just bring the whole lot with us.

Thanks for the info

Galba

sa2oz

We brought an analogue TV and bought a digital HDTV here. The manual says it is only released in Australia and I had a play to see if it could switch. NO GO. I will do some more in depth checking but I think not

extrameant

I meant to say High definition (HD). They do high definition TV here, but you need to buy a HD set top box, which is more expensive than Standard definition. There are more and more programs available in HD. I did see a PVR thingy for $299 (a box with two standard definition decoders, and a hard drive, so you can watch one program, while recording another, and you can even answer the door or whatever and then play back from where you were watching while it still records the program 'Live'.) You can't store the programs on anything other than the hard drive at that price though, no built in DVD or anything.

pogsy

We just bought a new dvd recorder and plugged it in to the TV and it all works fine.

sa2oz

There is no point in a HDTV box, unless the TV is HD ready as they call it.
Thats why I opted to get a TV with the digital HD reciever.
If only I could get less remotes.
There are also Digital radio stations on the HDTV channels