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TV with built in freeview tuner works


Guest rainbow

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Guest rainbow

woohoo! our boxes arrived 2 days ago and our philips TV with built in freeview tuner works. we get the sound without any problem, and the analogue channels, but not the digital channels.

 

hope this info is useful to others.

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I'm glad that your TV works but thought I should jump in and post a warning that you're probably the lucky exception. A good many UK televisions won't work properly in Australia.

 

To be technical for a second, the UK transmits TV on a system known as PAL-I. Australia uses one called PAL-B. (Lest you think Australia is just being awkward, PAL-B is far more common around the world...PAL-I is pretty much exclusively the UK).

 

Now, a number of manufacturers don't bother making different models for different countries and simply make it a software adjustment to change the system (maybe even automatic). However, lots of others DO make system-specific TV sets and these won't receive off-air signals properly down here. You could probably use them for cable or satellite with a component or RGB cable, but not just hooked to an antenna.

 

Add to this the fact that some areas still transmit on a mixture of VHF and UHF....British tellies haven't used VHF for a decade or two. Again, some "international" brands can cope with both, but this is by no means guaranteed.

 

Finally, be aware that digital is up and coming down here, as is terrestrial High Definition. If that doesn't work (and, confusingly some decoders will and others won't) you may soon miss it.

 

The moral of the story is check and double check before shipping a TV down this way.

 

Bobbsy

(Who worked most of his life as an engineer for a TV news company)

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  • 3 weeks later...
Guest rainbow

Thanks Bobbsy and Ali :oD

 

An update, we can now get the digital channels too- after hubby changed the country code to "australia". No, we can't get HD -not surprising as it is not a HD ready TV

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I guess it's worth saying that this is a worthwhile thing to check before shipping. If you have a set that has "country codes" that a user can set...and one of the options is Australia...then you should be okay. However, you'll find a good many sets out there that don't have a country code menu...and some others that have such a thing but don't include Australia.

 

In these cases, if the set is new maybe the set top box option is for you...or maybe just buy new down here.

 

Bob

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Hi,

We shipped out an analogue TV and weren't surprised that it didn't work as we'd read it on here. (Pictures no sound)

 

However we bought a cheap digital set top box for $50 and it works fine through that - so we now use this as a spare TV.

 

Not sure if this would work for all TV's as not a technical whizz, but just wanted to share!

Kat x

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Guest snow white
cool, what is your tv serial number etc? then we could look on the net for the specs and see what may work there?

yes we found a few problems with our tvs some do work some dont have australia in the set up menu and one has picture but sound is terrible,

would have been better off not bringing the portable tvs and just buying here

lesley x

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If its a good TV you may as well bring it. Once you arrive if you cant get it working via a VHS or set top box , you can always let the kids use it for the playstation, x-box etc, after all most of the houses over here normally have a seperate rumpus room for the kids!

Cal x

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If its a good TV you may as well bring it. Once you arrive if you cant get it working via a VHS or set top box , you can always let the kids use it for the playstation, x-box etc, after all most of the houses over here normally have a seperate rumpus room for the kids!

Cal x

 

 

That's what a lot of people are doing and, with the move to digital down here, the set top box route can be a good one. If somebody from the UK bought an "HD Ready" set there, they might be pleasantly surprised to actually be able to use that feature here!

 

The one caution, as always, is to be very careful with shipping plasma screens in particular. They have to be kept vertical and more than a few minutes on their side (much less weeks in a container) can damage them.

 

Bob

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