Does anyone know if my US flat screen TV will work in Switzerland? I am moving in October and am trying to determine if I should bring them or sell them to buy new one's when I arrive. Thoughts?
hi There-
No. USA uses NTSC. Switzerland PAL. Those are video encoding standards that are not compatible with each other. Your US TV will not work here.
Hi Karl,
That is what I assumed. thank you very much for your response.
Unless of course it's dual system - some are.
But it would also need to be dual voltage, if you didn't want a Fourth of July firework display in your living room.
Although still higher than US prices, white goods and electricals here are relatively inexpensive compared to other goods and services.
or something like this
NTSC is 525 lines, PAL is 625 lines, most T V's today are 720P or 1080 HD, which if fed with an hdmi cable should except most sources.
If you were watching using an arial & an old TV you would have a point. Check the power supply will accept 230v, most things these days accept 110-240v
Actually, only the analog tuner will not work, running SCART or HDMI in will be no problem (unless itàˆs some ancient CRT based thing, and even then it might still be ok)
Tom
I brought my US tv with me here and despite the manual stating it only receives NTSC signals it works perfectly fine with PAL via an HDMI hook-up to the cable box. I do, however, need to use a transformer as it is not, unfortunately, dual-voltage.
If in doubt on the signal capabilities, you can buy NTSC-PAL converters on Amazon.
Go to the specs at the back of the manual and look up the resolutions supported. If they list 720p50, 1080i50 or 1080p50 then it's fine.
You won't have the ability to receive TV directly on your set, but most people rely on outboard set-top boxes anyway.
indeed the old problems are *gone*. The only problem you have is the power - if it switches from 110v to 220v automatically then it should be fine.
In the end, it's more just a panel and takes a HDMI input.
Tom - US TVs are very unlikely to have a (EURO) Scart connection
The HDMI has nothing to do with PAL.
PAL and NTSC are analog standards only and nothing to do with digital at all. Analog (PAL) is now beginning to be phased out in Switzerland (my cable provider will drop it in the next 3 months) and I would guess the terristrial analog can't survive more than another couple of years.
For your TV to work over here it either needs to have DVD-T and/or DVB-C tuner built-in (depending on if you would use cable or not) plus (mostly) a CI slot or you would need an external tuner to connect to the HDMI.
Personally I prefer to avoid the external tuner - one less remote, one less box and simpler operation.
Giving the make and model number might help a bit.
I'll throw in my experience with doing this, as I recently moved here from the USA.
My setup:
58" Panasonic 3D TV (NTSC only)
XBOX ONE
Xbox 360
Playstation 3
As I have a large and expensive TV, I decided to bring it to CH to see if I could get the setup to work.
1. I purchased a 1000W step-down transformer (around CHF 155) http://www.tubeampdoctor.com/en/shop...ure_1000VA_146
2. I had to pay about CHF 34 once it arrived via Post
3. I used this to plug in my TV (450W max) and 1 game system at a time (350W max).
4. With this setup, I was able to watch DVDs, Blue Rays, and play games without a problem.
5. Because the transformer hums when powered on (and can get quite warm), I do turn it on/off as needed.
6. Once I installed Swisscom using their standard router and cable box, plugging in the cable box to any HDMI input on my TV did not work and just displayed a black screen.
7. Because the XBONE has a TV application on it, I decided to give that a try. I connected the cable output HDMI to the XBONE input HMDI and then turned on the TV app. Voila! Swisscom TV in PAL format is displaying on my NTSC TV.
As the intent of the XBONE is to be the all-in-one media center for the home, this is OK for me, as I can live with always turning on the XBONE when I want to watch TV - the normal Swisscom remote still controls the cable box as usual.
* If I did not have an expensive 3D TV and XBONE, I would have simply sold what I had in the US and purchased a TV here.
** Even though I read in the forums here that most people suggest selling non 220V appliances before moving to CH, I thought I could just buy several transformers and use my US appliances. Because of the weight and buzzing noise produced by the transformers, I am now buying many 220V appliances and have US duplicates that I need to get rid of (toaster, blender, hair dryers, etc.). So, carefully consider what you bring to CH that only runs on 110V!
-Jeff
Perhaps it is best to be guided by the Post Reports of US Embassies.
http://www.ediplomat.com/np/post_rep...st_reports.htm
By and large, one should NEVER use a heating appliance (toaster, iron etc.) via a transformer. These appliances are usually cheap (never mind that an iron can cost 100 CHF in Switzerland...)
A transformer should NOT hum. There may be an alternative solution for your TV (viz: to replace its internal power supply). If it's that expensive, check it out.
In the postmodern era, the distinction between NTSC, PAL, SECAM etc. seems to have faded away. I have moved TVs between Switzerland and Britain (OK, not the USA) several times without any issue.
Fantastic flat panel TVs can be bought now for very little money.
Why would even want to hassle with this issue?
Just get rid of your US TV and pick up a flat panel here.
The rest is not worth the effort or hassle.
we brought 2 tv's with us from the US, and purchased an additional tv in Switzerland. the price of a good flat screen tv in Switzerland will be astronomically higher than what you can buy in the US, especially once you consider the exchange rate, and as has already been posted the transformer is inexpensive and easy to use. our 2 tv's worked flawlessly for 2 years in Switzerland, and continue to work just as flawlessly in Luxembourg.
our experience - learned the hard way - is that you should discount heavily any guidance you get about how hard it is to bring things with you from the US. this is true for tv's, guitar amps, cars, and Lord knows how many other items.