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General discussion

HDTV - NTSC vs PAL?

by oltorik Dec 17, 2005 8:42PM PST

I am thinking about buying an HDTV - probably a DLP (but I am still shopping around). My question is:

Are the HDTV televisions sold in the U.S. designed specifically for the NTSC system (which we have in the U.S.), vs. the PAL system which operates in much of the rest of the world.

Or does the NTSC vs. PAL issue not apply to HDTV?

I am asking because I may be moving to Europe in a couple of years, and I don't want to spend a lot of money on an HDTV set which I can't use in Europe due to incompatibility with local broadcast standards.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Discussion is locked

2 Posts

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check the specs.

by sirroundsound Dec 18, 2005 9:20AM PST

With the many LCD and plasma sets available most will handle the variety of formats used around the world, make sure you check out the specs. If the set you are looking at has a built in tuner, it may not. If it's a moniter style it will likely have a long spec list and say somewhere that it handles pal, ntsc etc.
Your safest bet would be one of the commercial models that accept input cards, allowing you to add to the type of inputs the set has. (Scart??)

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plasma sets available

by jcrobso Dec 20, 2005 1:26AM PST

Pannasoinic industrial plasma monitors are multiformat.
PAL,NTSC,SECAM. John

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