fishjp

Am currently moving my family out to Houston. I have two young girls of ages 6 and 3 and about 50 Barbie, Teletubbies and other kiddy videos. We are not taking any electrical goods out to the US as per the advice given by people on this site. However, I am wondering if there is any merit taking out our video recorder and the videos simply for the girls. Subject to us getting a power adapter will a UK video player playing UK videos work through a US TV? We don't want to use the video to record TV programs or play US tapes as we already know that this doesn't work.

PS Roll on globalisation (oops, sorry, globalization)

DaveC

You could easily find a voltage convertor to get your UK VCR to work but you'll also need a PAL to NTSC convertor in order to watch your tapes on a US TV.

Most UK TVs seem to be able to read the American NTSC signal but it's difficult to find US TVs which read PAL.

If you're only going to use the video to watch the kids' tapes, perhaps you could consider bringing a UK TV and buying 2 voltage convertors?

Try doing a search on this forum for answers, this topic comes up every now and again. For example here:
http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...ighlight=video

or here:
http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...ighlight=video

Good luck with the move.

fishjp

Thanks for the help

HunterGreen

I'm planning on bringing over one of those small TV's with attached VCR's for this purpose. Get a converter et voila.

Have a good move!

Elaine

HelenWebber

Why not buy one of the cheap TV/Video combi units? We got a 15inch TV with Video at Tesco for under £100. You only have to convery one lot of electric then!

Rockgurl

While we're on the subject, I need to get a converter to recharge my portable minidisc player. Where on earth do I find one and how do I know which one to get?

Also, my friend is coming over from the UK on holiday and is bringing her new camcorder. She'll need to recharge it while she's here. Any idea what we need to get as regards a converter, and can I get one for her to use that I can also use for my minidisc?

dunroving

Many small electrical toys (cameras, laptops, shavers) can convert a range of elctrical currents these days. Check the little black box on the charger unit - if it says 110V-240V, 50-60 Hz, you should be OK between US and UK. I was pleasantly surprised by this as I'm going home this summer with my laptop, camera, and shaver/trimmer (to maintain my bald bonce). All I need is a US/UK plug adaptor, which I obtained from here: http://www.walkabouttravelgear.com/

Re: your minidisc, if its charger won't automatically convert in this way, I'd contact the maker (Sony?) and see if you can just buy a charger unit (i.e., the plug, lead, and little black box - as all of these use the same DC) for the US current - might be cheaper, and certainly more convenient, than a whopping transformer (not sure if this was what you were suggesting when you said converter). However, if this may be a recurring problem (UK visitors brining electrical stuff) it might be worthwhile to purchase a "converter" - the same Web site sells these I think, though they're not heavy-duty (don't think you could run a power drill, for example).

Good luck!

DaveC

Hey Rockgurl, has your friend checked her camcorder's power adaptor? We have a Canon and its adaptor accepts both UK and US AC voltage inputs before converting the AC power into DC for the camcorder. If it has a note on it saying "Input: 110-240V, 50-60hz" then she can bring it with her and all you'd need is a plug convertor to plug it into the US wall socket. If she's flying BA then she could get one on the flight for a tenner. I got a pretty funky worldwide plug convertor a couple of weeks ago, flying BA to Gatwick.

Edit: Dunroving beat me to it!

For our camcorder's power adaptor we actually have two "figure of eight" leads, one with an US plug and one with a UK plug on. Whichever country we're in determines which lead we use to connect the adaptor to the wall socket.

Rockgurl

Thanks very much for your help guys. Yes Dunroving, I did mean a transformer. That website is very useful.

HelenWebber

When I was in the US I used my Hubby to be's comcorder charger on mine. We both have sony's and so it worked well. They seem to be dual voltage fairly like PC's are. Ask your friend to check hers, it might make life easier!

Helen

Duncs

A bit of tangent but roughly the same discussion.

Has anyone ever seen a hifi with Minidisc over here?

I had 2 mini hifi systems in the UK they both had a CD shelf, radio tuner and a minidisc. It was dead easy to copy my cd's onto disks and create a tape of favs to play on my little portable minidisc when i was out jogging(god the heat here is killing me right now when i run 90F!). I have looked but cant find this kind of set up anywhere. I wish i had kept one of my UK ones now but se la vie.

Ok one for the techies, wireless networking? Hows this work? I see the labels on the wireless routers cards etc and its says 2.4ghz but that the broadcast frequency, right? What speed does information actually travel from computer A to computer B? If i am logged onto the net through my desktop with a DSL connection i get approx 600mps. If my laptop then links in with a wireless card does it drop down to the speed of the connection ie 54mbps? So is it worth having a wireless connection if it slows dwon your DSL connection? Any info would be helpful as i am musing about whether to set one up or not bother.

mac the knight

Don't worry, you're confusing megabits with megabytes - your DSL connection is around 0.6 mega bytes/sec but the wireless is up to 54 mega bytes/sec (actual throughput depends on environmental factors like signal strength, quality of link signal, errors etc) but in essence, your wireless network is not going to have a noticeable drop in your DSL speed for browsing etc...and the convenience of wireless sure as hell outweighs any speed loss if there were any...

Maggs

HI

We run three PC on a wireless network and there is no noticable difference when we use them. We have a lap top, a desk top and then the desk top it all runs through. Sorry I'm not very technical, have no idea how it works, but it seems to work well! It's great for the lap top as it can just go wherever hubby is working around the house.

Maggie

Maggs

Hi Rockgurl

I brought a step up tranformers for my sons TV/Video/Playstation. It works very well although the picture on the UK TV is not quite as clear as in UK but not a hindrance to watching/playing. It only has one plug on it so you need a UK multi plug adapter too. The website we used was called Euronetwork and they are based in Bletchley.

http://www.computercablesuk.com/acat...nsformers.html

I ordered online but they are available to talk to by phone and were very helpful. Can't order from the US though but they deliver anywhere in the UK. They are quite heavy to carry but my son put it in his checked baggage and had no problems. They have a link to info telling you which size to get for the electrical equipment you have. Hope it helps.

Maggie

Duncs

Thank you very much thats really useful to know.