electrical stuff???
 

What exactly is the situation about taking UK electricals to the US??
I'm v.confused.

I get that they have different dvds- and voltage. But people keep telling me that stuff won't work even with an adaptor.
And should we therefore not buy new all region dvd player till we get there?

:confused:

Re: electrical stuff???
 

Hi!

There have been LOTS of posts on here about UK to US electricals in the past.. worth doing a serach using the toolbar above.

In short, dont go buying any more electricals in the UK to bring over to the US unless you are certain they will work with the US voltage system. You can purchase step up / down adaptors if you want to try that on uk electricals in the US, but in short it doesnt always work (eg my white lights built into my UK Xmas tree and now orange through the step up / down adaptor - and I dont think large electricals like TV's vaccum cleaners etc work very well this way either.)

Most people end up dumping / selling all UK electricals before they leave, and re-purchase when they get here to the states... just like I did!

As for mutli region DVD players, you cant buy them in the shops here (I have been led to belive they are illegal, but I could be wrong), but you can get them off the internet.

Re: electrical stuff???
 

The region on the DVD is only part of the story. It is the connection from the DVD player to the TV. PAL vs NTSC or whatever. I don't think SCART is used over here so physical connectivity is an issue too.
We got rid of our electricals and bought new. (TV, DVD player etc)
With regard to your DVD collection I got a DVD player here and got a code from the Internet and was then able to play my UK DVDs without a problem.

Prices are way down at the moment too so you can use it as a chance to upgrade to HD if you haven't already.

Only thing we kept was the laptop. Because that has a dual voltage power supply anyway we just needed a new 'kettle' lead.

Re: electrical stuff???
 

Re: electrical stuff???
 

Not really true. Many DVD players can be region free off the shelf, for example Phillips models. Find one you like then check http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks before you buy to see if it can go region free.

As for electrics, some small appliances have a 110/240 switch, often concealed under a sticker/panel, on the rear near the cable connection.

As others have said, easier to buy here.

Re: electrical stuff???
 

My last three DVD players have all been region free out of the box. One from Walmart, the other two from Amazon.

Re: electrical stuff???
 

If you have something that is of high $$ value or sentimental, you can get step down converters - http://www.voltageconverters.com/

Re: electrical stuff???
 

I stand corrected! Did you do research to check which models are region free and then find them in shops or ask a salesperson in the stores. Maybe i spoke to a couple of numbptys but i was informed that it was not possible to buy region free off The shelves. Although maybe the manufacturers just dont advertise that region free feature to sales staff? Its certainly not ont the box of the one we got, even tough it is region free!

Re: electrical stuff???
 

Researched online. The kids selling this stuff in Walmart aren't exactly experts!

Re: electrical stuff???
 

If, on the other hand, you have something that is of high ££ value you will be looking for a step up transformer ...

Re: electrical stuff???
 

I added some stuff to the Wiki. In my arsenal of personal gadgets there are more that work in both countries than that don't.

Re: electrical stuff???
 

I'm pretty sure it's against the rules to advertise a player as a multiregion player on the box and sell it as a multiregion player in a store. That's why if you go to a store you wont find any mention of multiregion in the store or on the box, plus for the majority of people they just don't care and most don't know that DVDs have region coding. That doesn't mean that it won't be multiregion out of the box or have the ability to make it multiregion with a remote code though.

Re: electrical stuff???
 

Hi:

US is nominally 110/120 v and 60 Hz while UK is 220/240 v and 50 Hz. The cost of audio/video stuff is actually plummeting at the present time. Also, the US in the process of converting from analog to all digital broadcasting [the drop-dead date on analog was recently extended to June 17, 2009 -- but some cities have already taken the option of dropping analog -- San Diego for example].

Unless you are so totally attached to the equipment in question, it strikes me that you would be better off selling your stuff in the UK and replacing in the US. [BTW, e-bay might be the way to go].

Re: electrical stuff???
 

I'm one of those who agrees with the above, but there is considerable debate about it, esp. in the Canada forums. Transformers are available, but good ones are expensive, so it seems silly to me to have a houseful of expensive transformers powering items that would be cheap to replace in the US.

Re: electrical stuff???
 

thanks for the help all !!:)

Re: electrical stuff???
 

I bought a cheap DVD player in Walmart, went to http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks and hey presto, my player is now multi region.

It's really not worth bringing your electrical stuff here (apart from maybe a laptop), just to echo what everyone else has said.

Re: electrical stuff???
 

The best current cheapo player available right now in my humble opinion is the Philips DVP-3962, available at WalMart for under $40, plays everything including Divx/Xvids, MPEG-ISO DVDs, MP3, JPG, etc. It has no problem whatsoever with all the PAL disks you brought with you from Blighty. It also has upscaling and HDMI output for linking digitally to your flat screen TV.

It's also region free-able in about 30 seconds with a simple keypress procedure using the supplied remote, instructions on the website linked in the post above mine.