NTSC compatability query??

samo

Its probably asomething very obvious I'm overlooking but am looking into a JVC 100HZ 28"/32" widescreen TV, the guy in the store is not sure if this will be able to process a NTSC signal or not??

Is there anyway of telling - have googled it and cannot find a suitable answer - is there normally a feature that would indicate if this is something that it has?

Also looking at the equivalent Sony as well....

Any thoughts on what would be the best way to go...JVC or Sony ??

thanks - appreciate any advice

A Dub in Glasgo

The actual specification will tell you. Ask the guy in the shop to look in the manual.

If the TV cannot handle NTSC, your equipment may be able to convert the NTSC to PAL. Are your NTSC stuff DVDs or games?

samo

DVD's - my current DVD (Philips) can handle NTSC with the existing TV (which I do not know is NTSC as well)

Will get him to check the manual alright - was just wondering if there was any surefire way of knowing. Did a further look and found a link for www.comet.co.uk that seems to suggest neither models have NTSC compatibility ...hopefully it shouldnt be an issue if stick with my existing DVD player then!

Thanks for the info

ZENER

Could you tell us the model number of the TV you want to buy?

I guess that the current TV is a standard non-100Hz model that can cope with the 60Hz field frequency of the "NTSC" DVD's you have. Although this is not strictly NTSC compatability if you feed the signal into a SCART RGB socket. 100HZ TV's use a scan doubler or flicker fixer setup which constructs the complete frame from the 2 alternate interlaced fields and displays them twice as often as conventional sets. I'm not sure how these sets would deal with a 60Hz signal or whether they are capable of processing such a signal to provide what would essentially be a 120Hz picture display. If the set has some way of turning off this facility to provide you with a conventional 50Hz interlaced display then it's possible that the set may be capable of accepting and correctly displaying the 60Hz DVD signals you intend to feed it. If you provide us with the exact model number I may be able to help more.

ZEN

samo

Thanks, appreciate the help although to be honest alot of your last post went straight over my head! (not to tech minded i'm afraid!)

The current TV is a philips 28PW6006 28" widescreen. The models I'm looking at to replace is are:-

Sony 32" KV32FQ86
Panasonic 32" TX28PM11LCAB
JVC 32" AV32X4S

Also looking at the possiblity of an LCD screen but going by model numbers on power city website:-

Thompson 27" LCD 27LCDB03BBK
Mitsibushi 27" LCD MD27LCD

One last thing the price range for the TVs - range from €720 -approx €900 and thre LCDS are €1070/€1460 (Thompson)

I want something that will last a good while and is good for money spent and wondering is it worth it going for LCD, will be 50/50 for DVD's/Television watching....

Any thoughts on what would be best way to go? The DVD it will be used with is Samsung DVD/VCR that has NTSC playback (hacked to make it multi region though)

Appreciate any info you have!

Thanks

I think they are

ZENER

Sorry for the technobabble there . . I get carried away sometimes . .

I've downloaded the manual for the JVC and it says and I quote:

Colour Systems: PAL, SECAM.
Te EXT terminals also support the NTSC 3.58/4.43 MHz system.

This basically means that the SCART and Phono Composite Video Inputs are capable of accepting a PAL or NTSC signal but not the antenna (RF) input. The only thing I can't figure out from this manual is whether or not it will provide the 100/120Hz picture from this input. In other words will the picture displayed from an "NTSC" signal be as rock steady as the PAL picture. Tell me, is there a particular reason for the 100Hz requirement? Are you susceptible to the flicker fro the screen of a standard TV ?

This set also has an Audio Out socket which is nice to see.

ZEN

samo

yep, other half has terrible trouble watching television (and refuses to get glasses!) so seems to be less affected by flickering on sets that are 100HZ,

Havent actually got that many dvd's that are R1/R3 but dont want to rule out future buys basically.

Last question for you, given we're that looking for something that is easier on the eyes, any opinion on what would be better between say a 100hz regular widescreen or an LCD?

ZENER

samo wrote:

yep, other half has terrible trouble watching television (and refuses to get glasses!) so seems to be less affected by flickering on sets that are 100HZ,

It affects people in different ways, some get screaming headaches after looking at a TV for even a short period of time, others get physically sick in their stomach, doesn't have any effect on me personally. In the early days of CRTs the "persistance" of the screen was a factor in their design. This is a measure of how long the screen maintains a ghost image on the phosphors of the tube after the image has been removed. Old tubes had a long persistance value which reduced the flicker effect. Modern TV's emply low persistance CRTs which are great for clear pictures and fast movement movies and sports but the down side is that the 50Hz refreshing (50 fields or pictures appear on the screen every secong in quick succession) now becomes noticable. This effect is also evident in LCD and Plasma screens with values of as low as 12mS. As you're allergic to technospeak I won't go into it but suffice to say cheaper LCD TV's are using older class LCD panels with values in excess of 25mS. This means the panel wil retain an image for 25mS after it has been removed, The effect of this is a ghost image of decreasing brightness would be evident on say football or sports games or fast paced action movies. The 12mS panel should eliminate this effect but as these panels get faster the 50Hz refresh problem will rear it's ugly head again so I think all LCD's employ 100Hz fixers at this stage to prevent it.

Hope this helps !!

Last question for you, given we're that looking for something that is easier on the eyes, any opinion on what would be better between say a 100hz regular widescreen or an LCD?

LCD TV's are great, excellent geometry (picture shape and focus) and nice colours if somewhat cold in my opinion. I tend to be over critical of TV sets because I'm aware of the shortcomings of out PAL system so I spot deficiencies quicker than most !! My biggest problem with this breed of set is that off the air PAL pictures tend to look terrible, next time you see one look for areas of red an blue beside each other and look at the effect LCD's show this more than CRTs. However with RGB SCART or Component inputs the picture is perfect for the most part. Problem now is you will be looking for this effect . . .

ZEN

samo

thanks for all the info Zener,at the end of it all went for Sony 32" Wega 100HZ, fantasctic picture - clear as a bell, no flickering and NTSC compatible so all in all very happy!
I got the Sony KV32FQ86 out of pwer city - pretty good price so am very happy!

thanks for all the info again - much appreciate the help!

Delboy5

Just out of interest, how much did you pay for the Sony in Powercity, am thinking of buying the same model myself !?

samo

Delboy5 wrote:

Just out of interest, how much did you pay for the Sony in Powercity, am thinking of buying the same model myself !?

It was €1079 inc stand and free Sony DVP NS355 player - checked out the Sony shop and DID among others and haggled like mad with Power city but wouldnt budge on the price (Or even throw in a free dvd!) Also tried to upgrade the dvd player to next one up or get discount if didnt take it but that was the bottom line!

Was the cheapest I could find it in a store though - DID were selling it at that price without free the dvd player .

Very happy with it - and it's £949.00 sterling on the comet website in the UK!

Was paying by credit card though :eek: so maybe might have got more off for cash (Dont have the cash!)