[notacrime]

I just moved back to the UK from the US and took my Sharp Aquos LCD TV with me. I had assumed that NTSC/PAL issues were a distant memory with HDMI, DVI and component video. The DTV and HDTV specs appeared to be the same!

The I read on this forum about the 50/60Hz broadcast differences and how those have been carried over to the new standards.

I just hooked the TV up to a freeview box using a SCART to S-Video connector. I get a fixed picture, (ie not rolling) although the bottom of the frame is cut off. The picture looks like a bad quality broadcast, and the colours aren't rendering correctly - it's not black and white, there's a little colour, but it just doesn't appear to be all there.

Is what I describe an artifact of the 50/60Hz incompatibility? (The manual for the Aquos gives a list of 'PC' modes that it supports, and the lowest frequency is 53Hz.) Does that also explain the missing colours?

Any ideas what I can do? Should I try a freeview box with HDMI output? How about a cheap PC with a freeview tuner card? (The Aquos has DVI input that works nicely with my Macbook Pro.)

Any help appreciated.

[Nigel Goodwin]

Waste of time and effort bring a TV back from the States, whereas most sets work pretty well anywhere in the world, American sets are crippled so as to pretty well only work over there.

You might try an HDMI connection from a FreeView box (if you can find one?), but the colour problem is probably because the set is NTSC only - and won't decode PAL properly. However, with HDMI there's no colour involved, just as there isn't with RGB - but an American set probably doesn't have RGB?.

[notacrime]

It has a DVI input, which supports RGB, so it's definitely capable of it. The component input is YPbPr, not RGB, so I'll avoid trying to use that.

I think I'm going to give the capture card idea a shot, I have a Mac Mini that could be turned into a decent PVR.

[Nigel Goodwin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by notacrime

It has a DVI input, which supports RGB, so it's definitely capable of it. The component input is YPbPr, not RGB, so I'll avoid trying to use that.

The DVI version of RGB is for computer type signals, at higher scan rates and resolutions than domestic TV, so probably won't work for UK TV anyway?.

Like I said above, the USA really cripple their sets so you can't use them elsewhere. I've seen a LOT of sets that people have brought back over the years - and none of the American ones have been convertible.

Coincidently, we've still got a customers American Sharp LCD portable here - I seem to remember it works fine via composite video, but nothing at all via RF, and Component wouldn't work either.

[notacrime]

Interesting about the LCD portable working for composite. Mine is clearly not working on composite! Looks like I might have to invest in a converter box. The VisionDVI looks pretty good!