ccalgreen

My problem is that there are a number of old videos I've got here which aren't available (either on VHS or DVD) in the U.S. (or at least in NTSC format), so the only way my future wife can watch them is if I ship my VCR AND my PAL TV, which seems like a bit of overkill.

I know you can get PAL-to-NTSC VCRs, but these are several hundred dollars (a friend of mine told me it's to do with the refresh rate being higher in PAL than NTSC, so it's almost standard for a new VCR in the U.K. to play American videos, but not the otherway round). However, someone else told me that people regularly get standalone PAL-to-NTSC converters for Playstation users in the States who want to play European games, and that these cost no more than about £20. I've tried Game Exchange, Electronics Boutique and even Maplins, and none of them have heard of this. Does anyone know if it's possible?

idiotnonsavant

I was talking to a guy who makes the innards for DVD players the other day, there are actually differences in the digital content which are specific to PAL and NTSC. A gentlemans agreement prevented PAL/NTSC transverters being built in until recently, that has fallen by the wayside. My JVC is a few months old and came from dvdshippers in Florida for $329, I wanted something that had all the bells and whistles of my old player or I could have got it fr less.

I believe Australia made it illegal to sell region specific players, they worked out the purpose of the region coding was to stiff them and they didn't like it.

Maximum current here is 15A, so max power is nominally 1650W. No converter is going to get a UK 3kw kettle all excited from those supplies. I have to admit the kettle is the one electrical thing I miss.

Electric wiring and connectors here are pre-war standard (WWII not Gulf or Falklands).

Cathy

Having just moved here and I had to think careful before I had stuff moved here. My laptop and computer + monitor all can do 110v and 240v so no biggy there. I have a worldwide region vcr player so that also worked. Had to change the plugs.

Left every thing else electrical behind as it was not worth shipping them as I can get the equal here. Only thing hard to find was an electric kettle, for some weird reason they don't use them much here. But they can be found.

Moving company I used Simpsons based in Kent but they do cover all of UK website is http://www.simpsons-uk.com/ very nice people and very fast. Had my stuff shipped over recently when I changed my plans to stay. Took all of 4 wks to get here by ship clear customs and unload into my new home

Englishmum

You can buy electric jug kettles in lots of places.

I bought ours in "Bed Bath & Beyond" (a Krups Aquafilter. Boils very quickly).

I've also seen them in "Linens and Things" and "Target".

Patrick

Another word of warning about DVD's. Some DVD studios have now put RCE (Region Code Enhancement) on their DVD's which can stop you playing certain DVD's on your multiregion player

Patrick

idiotnonsavant

RCE works by saying the disk is from another region, if that plays then the rest of the disk doesn't. The error handling takes you to the real content.

So what you want is multi-region rather than region-free. My player can be set to any region except 0, but once set it behaves as a player from that region.

Capn

I moved to Texas from the UK, leaving most of my appliances behind, but there are a few I needed so I bought a couple of step up transformers for $20 on the net - A quick search on UK/US power conversion will turn up a few sites.

I had a vast collection of PAL VHS tapes which I brought with me. The same site does VHS (and DVD) players which will play both formats and have in-built PAL to NTSC output decoders from around $350. A mate brough me a nice little Daewoo VHS from home, cost less than 90 quid, which plays several formats, I had the adapter for power BUT had to buy a converter for PAL to NTSC (multi-format TVs are expensive), another $200 on e-bay plus had to import a scart to AV converter from the UK, cost 6 quid.

So, it can be done, but its a hassle and only worth it if you want to keep your appliances or have a big video collection. As far as DVDs go, I got my brother to record my region 2 DVDs on his DVD recorder, thereby making them region free - much cheaper than buying a multi-region DVD here.

Hope that helps.

Cap'n