HDMI enabled TV - buy in US or NZ?

[tebling]

We currently have an old 36" Sony CRT television, and there's little point in bringing it with us to NZ, especially as it weighs 250 lbs!

My wife and I mostly watch movies on DVD or Blu-Ray, but she has expressed some interest in getting satellite (e.g. SKY). By the way, does SKY have much in terms of NZ programming?

So we'd like to bypass the whole PAL/NTSC issue and go with digital only, e.g. HDMI. Apparently SKY will be offering an HDMI box in July, or at least that's what a few people on this forum are saying.

If that's the case, then there's no reason we couldn't buy a TV here in the US and bring it over. I'd like to get an LCD that will do 1080 native. So it seems like these are the main issues:

• Power conversion issues (120V -> 240V)
• Price
• Shipping (though it will just go in the liftvan with everything else)

I'd expect the prices to work out better buying here in the US, but I don't really have an idea where to get comparable numbers for electronics in NZ. Trademe gives an indication of used prices, but not new. Any ideas?

Any comments on this scheme in general?

Thanks!

[CJ22]

One other issue: warranty. If it goes bung the warranty is unlikely to extend to NZ.

[andrewp]

This may help... I've used it to get an idea of what I plan to bring. And as far as connecting a current Sky box to an HD LCD, most of the LCD's I've looked at still have at least 1 composite video input and the TV does a decent up-conversion. Good luck.

http://www.pricespy.co.nz/cat_5.html?g=204

[IanW99]

We currently have an old 36" Sony CRT television, and there's little point in bringing it with us to NZ, especially as it weighs 250 lbs!

My wife and I mostly watch movies on DVD or Blu-Ray, but she has expressed some interest in getting satellite (e.g. SKY). By the way, does SKY have much in terms of NZ programming?

So we'd like to bypass the whole PAL/NTSC issue and go with digital only, e.g. HDMI. Apparently SKY will be offering an HDMI box in July, or at least that's what a few people on this forum are saying.

If that's the case, then there's no reason we couldn't buy a TV here in the US and bring it over. I'd like to get an LCD that will do 1080 native. So it seems like these are the main issues:

• Power conversion issues (120V -> 240V)
• Price
• Shipping (though it will just go in the liftvan with everything else)

I'd expect the prices to work out better buying here in the US, but I don't really have an idea where to get comparable numbers for electronics in NZ. Trademe gives an indication of used prices, but not new. Any ideas?

Any comments on this scheme in general?

Thanks!

Another price comparison site is Ferrit

If you get a good price saving then it would be worth doing, as you say there will by MySky HDi released in July and there is also FreeviewHD that you can use the HDMI connector on.

Otherwise, I would probably wait, as getting it fixed in NZ may be difficult if there is a problem.

Ian

[jdbob]

I wonder about the vertical frequency. US stuff is 60Hz, PAL is 50Hz, but what about 1080p HDMI? Is it always the same as the host country's power line frequency?

I have a 42" Toshiba LCD with 1080p HDMI support but only if the vertical frequency is 60Hz (or 24Hz for film). Thinking maybe Toshiba just doesn't spec 50Hz, I tried sending it 50Hz but it didn't like that.

[tebling]

Thanks for the info and links everyone!

I was expecting cutting edge TV technology to be more expensive in NZ, but I was still surprised at the price gap. I did several comparisons between 1080P LCD TVs, and when equivalent models were available the NZ set was usually 2x or even 3x more expensive than the US model, even taking currency conversion into account! In many cases the electronics manufacturer (e.g. Samsung or Sony) didn't even offer its most "advanced" model in NZ yet.

Based on the huge price differences, I'm rather more inclined now to buy here and ship it over, especially given that most of our watching is movies off disc (usually played from the Xbox 360 or PS3).

By the way, after doing some more research I found that there are indeed differences between "PAL" and "NTSC" even in the digital signals carried over HDMI from broadcasters. This is because the signals try to maintain frame rate parity with the local region (e.g. in NZ and the UK digital broadcasts are still 50Hz). This means that even when using HDMI you are not guaranteed that a North American TV will be able to support that signal. I have no idea if this carries over to HD discs (implemented via Blu Ray regions?).

But of course, where there's a problem there's a solution. Check it out:

Atlona Pal HDMI to NTSC HDMI converter

It's a bit pricey, but taking the price difference between US and NZ LCDs it still may be well worth it in the end.

[tebling]

Just to close the loop on this... I've decided that the more difficult issue to solve is the problem with North American displays being locked to 60Hz frame rates rather than 50Hz (or both). This would be a deciding factor if we chose to use Freeview or SKY. There happens to be ONE manufacturer who does offer TVs in the US that will do 50Hz, and that is Philips. I'm planning on pick up one of these:

Philips 52" LCD HDTV

It just so happens that this exact TV is sold in NZ for $4200 excluding GST. I can get it here for less than half that

I'll have to get a step down transformer for the power supply, but the manual indicates it works on 50Hz and 60Hz mains, so that shouldn't be an issue either.

Thanks again for the help!

[jdbob]

Looks nice Tebling.

It's actually pretty silly that other LCDs won't work at 50Hz. After all if the input is 480 lines or 576 lines the computer still has to convert it 1080 lines for drive the panel, it's just a software tweak.

[tebling]

Looks nice Tebling.

It's actually pretty silly that other LCDs won't work at 50Hz. After all if the input is 480 lines or 576 lines the computer still has to convert it 1080 lines for drive the panel, it's just a software tweak.

You're right, and it's especially silly that this is true for North American TVs only. TVs in PAL regions generally accept both 50Hz and 60Hz.

[DanFromCali]

i'd buy one in the US. thats what i did. A 1080p 47" LCD is $1200 US. Was at a Bond and Bond in Albany the other day and saw a 1080i plasma that was double that. Most HDTVs will handle the power differences and if you are going HDMI, you shouldnt have any problems with the PAL/NTSC issue.