NTSC / PAL Conversion

[Rustlers Revenge]

Perhaps not quite the exact place to post but here goes. Does anyone have information regarding a GOOD converter for NTSC / PAL conversion systems for TV. I want to take a US made Smart TV to the Philippines rather than purchase one there. I am looking for a converter that actually works. I know the Philippines does not use PAL but \I also have a ton of PAL DVD's and a PAL DVD player. So two conversions are required. PAL to US NTSC and Philippine NTSC to US NTSC.

I have looked at 220 Electronics, World Import and Sam Store. Some of the equipment is extremely outdated, having also spoken to Atlona.

Anyone with experience?

[LigH.de]

Are modern TV sets not able to adapt to a wide range of frame rates?

Better do not try to convert them (this has probably been one of the most discussed issues in the last decades), instead use playback equipment which can display videos just as they are. Converting between PAL and NTSC is like slicing an already sliced pie anew with a different number of slices: You can't glue pieces together as if they hadn't been sliced before.

[DB83]

Must also ask how you have played all those PAL dvds before. On that US tv ?

I doubt if anyone would have experience with the use of a US tv in the Phillipines. I read that they are adopting a Japanese system for Digital transmission but most standards converters work in the analogue realm AFAIK

[turk690]

Are modern TV sets not able to adapt to a wide range of frame rates?

Paradoxically, quixotically, infuriatingly, NOT the TVs sold in North America, no. They will only accept 29.97i/p, 59.94i/p, 23.976p, fed through an HDMI port. They do accept 25 or 50i/p fed through a VGA port (if there is one), but what good is that? The curious thing is this: North American TVs have that limitation, but front projectors sold here DO NOT: they will display 25/50/i/p through the HDMI inputs.

[LigH.de]

Ah, so that's why "free trade" contracts like TTIP are so important for the USA: To protect their citizen from the European kind of freedom!

OK, nonsensical kidding, sorry.

[Chopmeister]

It's a bit odd that the US is like that. Certainly, pretty much all the major brand TVs you can buy here and in Australia can cope with both NTSC and PAL frame rates etc. I think that in many cases the basic hardware specifications of the models sold in the US may be the same as the one they sell in other countries, but with different limitations in firmware.

Have you looked at whether it is possible to flash another regions firmware (for a TV that is in substance the same model) onto your TV to enable what you want?

[DB83]

^^ Well I suspect if that was possible a lot of people would do it if only for dvd playback

But, yes, for our PAL countries we are fortunate that our sets, even from the analogue times, can handle NTSC. Forget the circumstances how this came about (must be documented somewhere) but it does originate in Japan.