Hi all,

I plan on heading back to the UK after 20 years In florida early summer 2011, while i am selling pretty much everything but items of sentimental value and photo's . I really want to take my 52 inch Phillips flat screen T.V as they seem a lot pricier in the Uk and i do plan on already shipping some items. I have given up pretty much everything and dont mind replacing the rest over time.. i know you can plug a conversion socket in most things like my lap top and any other items i may take and i know they may not last as long, but will the T.V work? with the voltage and / or with SKY or the cable t.v provider...? Any info anyone has would be great... thank you all!

Can wait to get home.....

It's not so much the problem of voltage as the broadcasting system ...the US uses NTSC and the UK uses PAL. Depending on the age and model yours may work in the UK...if not there is no point taking it.

Do you have the TV manual? If so there should be a freephone number...call them and ask. If not go onto the manufacturer's website...you should find it there.

Your laptop should automatically change the voltage but many other electrical things won't...you will need more than a US to UK adaptor for these items.

won't work with anything over the air, satellite/cable should if the boxes have hdmi/composite cable out, won't have any scart sockets but don't know how popular they still are in the UK.

thank so much guys the T.V is HD and not even a year old I belive i have the book or will call phillips thats all i reallyplan on taking, thanks so much!

Talk Yankee (US expats in the UK) has a specific forum and a sticky about what electronics from the US will work and which ones you should leave behind. Might be worth a look.

http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?board=55.0

2 issues, voltage and the TV standard. Both of which are solvable. We brought a 46" LCD back from Canada

Voltage: Many TVs have auto switching power supplies between 100V and 240V. If not the you can get a transformer which from experience with my son's XBox is not as good a solution as you might expect. He has burnt out 2 tranformers that were rated at double the required power in less than 12 months. They tend to have an annoying hum and higher power transformers are big and ugly. My personal opinion is that if the TV is not auto switching, don't bring it back.

TV standard. No chance of the tuner working, but either a Sky or FreeView box will be fine. I have heard mention that HD boxes with HDMI connections can work without any issue otherwise tyou will have NTSC/PAL 50/60 issues. Regardless, you will be able to get it to work at a cost. Talk to Interneeds Direct (www.interneeds.com). They can supply a whole range of converters and the technical guy is very knowledgable. Could cost up to £100 or so, so may to be worthwhile unless you have a largish TV.

Yes it can work if you get a Step-down-transformer and of course its PAL compatible (which you should look into manual).

But electrically, a step-down-transformer simply "steps-down" the applied voltage of 220-240V in the UK to 110V (US) which is what your US flat screen or any other product you want to take with you works on. An important thing to ensure is to get high load Step-down-transformer otherwise you may not be able to use your US TV.

However, having said above...why not sell this TV and get a new one in the UK? Electronics is very cheap nowadays and its probably more cost-efficient to sell this here and buy a new one in the UK!

Yes it will work , we brought a flat screen over two years ago, it worked both with a HD cable and three av cables, through a virgin box, just need a step up/down transformer.

Just a warning do not get a Step-UP-transformer but get a Step-DOWN-transformer.

Step-up-transformer will literally fry your TV which I am sure you don't want

As the name suggets, "step-up" will step-up the supply voltage and step-down will reduce the voltage to match it with you voltage requirement for your TV, which is 110V for US appliances.

thanks so much everyone for you're input, this is such a great site!

Hi

I came to FL (Pinecrest) in July 2007 and brought my HD Flat screen with me which I was using in the UK with a SKY HD box

The HDMI output from Direct TV HD boxed also work with this TV.

I am also returning to UK with a new 55inch TV and I hope it works going the other way! (with the obvious change of voltage)