zain khan

Hi

Has anyone taken their TV back with them to the UK? How did you do it and how much did it cost please?

Thanks,

Zain

Binoclard

That sounds crazy... Why would you ever think this is worth it considering the shipping, chance of damage and the fact that the same TV is available in UK

zain khan

That's not answered my question

scot47

The answer is - "It is not worth it."

Standanista

Taking TVs back to the UK is un-British.

nottmbantam

Never ever known of any Brits who have taken their TV back home.

weasel decentral

The flux capacitor in a foreign TV will be different - you won't be able to use it in the UK unless you reverse the polarity on the incoming signal amplitude regulator.

hnd

Millhouse

I took a TV back to the UK once. It went into the container with all the other stuff.

As weasel said, the amount of rework I had to do on the flux capacity was quite expensive and not really worth it - same for the XBOX, I also had to reverse the polarity on the BSUSB port.

Desert Shaikh

He might be ok if he can get Dr Emmett Brown to make a slight tweak on it.

Standanista

Why bother? You’ll soon get sick of watching Saudi programmes on it.

ariskar

I am moving to UAE (Abu Dhabi) soon (the opposite of this article) and I am wondering if it is worth to ship my 55" Sony smart TV. I guess Etisalat/DU come with receiver boxes anyway, so it should work, right?

Eeyore

We brought our TV back to the UK with us in 2015 - why replace it when it was working fine and was effectively "free" to ship in the container with all our other belongings?

It was properly packed in its own wooden crate by the shipping people and it's still our main TV to this day. Obviously there's no need to modify it at all, it uses the same mains voltage (and 3-pin plug) as the UK and your Sky/Freeview/cable box plugs straight in via HDMI.

Yes, any UK TV will just plug and play in the UAE, and of course vice-versa.

Miss Ann Thrope

Well I'm reviving this thread because I have just discovered that the usually reliable and incontrovertible Eeyore is incorrect on a few points above, particularly that last sentence. And I'm none too impressed with Samsung and feel like venting...

This is a characteristically long post from me but unlike most of the others involving bilious ranting, this is purely informational.

I purchased a large, expensive and flashy (well, for me) Samsung TV from Jackys in Dubai around 2011. It was not the biggest size (49") nor the fanciest spec but it was pretty high end, costing about Dhs 6.5k, which was a ridiculously large outlay then for somebody like me who HATES spending money. Anyway it looked and worked fine for the 7 years I used it in Dubai with a du set-top box.

As Eeyore and others have done, I included the TV in my company-paid goods shipment when I retired back to the UK last year. It's taken me a while to get around to setting it up as I planned to put it in the guest bedroom which is just now ready after a major house renovation. When I finally plugged it in and connected it the antenna yesterday, it seemed to be working fine except that it refused to tune into any channels when I activated the tuner. I suspected something fundamental was up as it seemed to be only scrolling through analogue frequencies.

I downloaded the manual from the very useful Samsung Gulf support site, which I found on google by typing in the TV model number. The manual didn't suggest any remedy and I hadn't been able to find anything scrolling through the menus on the TV. There was a live chat function on the Samsung Gulf site, which I didn't expect much from, but I started it up and within a minute I had a correspondent online. I gave them the model number and explained the issue. The response was fast and clear. That TV model does not have a digital tuner. I expressed reasonable astonishment that for that price and spec such a basic function was not included. They simply responded that it was a 2010 model TV. I did point out that, by that time, the UK, most of Europe and the US had already moved broadcast TV exclusively to digital channels after a decade of preparing consumers, so that was hardly an excuse. I asked if there was a plug-in solution and was told there was nothing available from Samsung. And, save some polite expressions of sympathy, that was that.

So, be careful what TV or any other electronic device that you have, if you do want to relocate it with you outside the Gulf. It might be missing something so fundamental that you wouldn't even think to ask if it was in the spec. The way devices are used in the Gulf region may be quite different to how they are used elsewhere, in non-obvious ways, and the device spec may be different accordingly. Make no assumptions.

I think it is pretty shoddy of Samsung to de-spec a high end model like this, presumably to save a few Ringgit (it was made in Malaysia). But the Gulf is exactly the kind of market where they can get away with something like that. I guess I can buy a set-top box to make the TV receive digital channels but that wasn't the point for a spare-room TV.... And, on principle, I won't be buying any more Samsung devices of any kind, despite their surprisingly efficient support site in the Gulf.

Tldr; give your TV away before you leave.

scrubbedexpat141

My mate shipped one back. It might have worked or might not have worked, he never got to find out because they smashed the screen in transit somewhere.

I know right, call me Mr Helpful.