Can an Australian bought DVD recorder pick up UK digital frequencies?

[crossylad]

Hi, been searching everwhere for an answer to this question. Found no answers other than changing the region of the DVD.
I've come home after a few years in Oz. Brought my Samsung DVD-SH855 recorder back with me hoping it would work. I'd read the Aussies broadcast on two frequncies bands and the UK on one, so an Aussie digital TV/DVD would find the one UK frequency band and pick up all channels but the other way round, the UK kit would only find half the Aussie channels.
Anyway, the DVD and TV (LG42PC1D) will not find any digital channels and only a couple of the UK's analogue channels (and very poor quality).
Can anyone help or do I need to buy a new DVD recorder? Or possibly, buy a freeview box and try and hook it up to record off that????
Kind regards and thanks in advance.

[lordsmurf]

I don't think so, no.
Read through all this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PAL

[PICKY737]

Cheap freeview box is the way as analogue is being switched off .

[crossylad]

Ok, thanks for that. I did read and try to understand all that info. From what I could figure both UK and Aus are PAL and use UHF. Not to worry I guess a cheap free view box for now will have to do. Now I just have to figure out if I'll be able to record onto the DVD through the TV from the freeview box. Asking abit too much I think!!!!

[LightWeightProducer]

Forget PAL. In a digital world 'PAL' simply does not come into it. Your issue is more than likely a case of incorrect centre frequencies in your Australian kit. If you are able, delve deep into the menus on your equipment to see if you can manually enter the centre frequencies and channel width. If so, take a look at the transmitter list at www.digitalspy.co.uk and plug in the details for your locality. Your Australian equipment should then be able to receive most UK digital transmissions.

Most? More than likely your gear will only decode MPEG-2, which is what the UK's freeview uses for SD programs. Freeview's HD programs are MPEG-4 AVC which may not be handled by your Australian equipment. Also the SDT and NIT in UK's freeview are fairly large and span multiple segments. You may find that the firmware in the Australian equipment can not handle the large table sizes so some services may be missing, even if you can specify the right centre frequencies.

You will not be able to make use of any MHEG applets that may be transmitted as part of UK's freeview with the Australian firmware.

It may be possible to install UK firmware onto your equipment if you can't manually specify the channel centre frequencies and if so, this would also enable MHEG support. Check with the product manufacturer before attempting this as you may end up with expensive bricks if it goes horribly wrong ...

[crossylad]

Thanks for taking the time to reply.
Got nothing still. Not sure if the country setting of 'Australia' which is greyed out in the tuning menu is causing a problem. Anyway, correct frequency and bandwidth and it still won't find the channels.
Giving up now.
Thanks again for the input. Now i just have a black box full of episodes of Desperate bloody housewives!!