HDMI in US and in EU

On my recent move to Europe I also shipped an older Samsung LCD monitor that I've been using as an external display with my laptop, using HDMI connection. I also used it as a TV display via another HDMI connection to a set top box. It was a very convenient setup, needing only a switch of the video source.

I figured I could use that monitor in Europe, as HDMI standards should be the same. To my disappointment though, the monitor would not display the TV program from the set top box. Instead I get an error message that says something about an unsupported mode. What mode is that? I know that the TV standards are different, but I thought HDMI display makes it a non-issue. Am I wrong?

Reply to
Cameo
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Cameo wrote in news:qn81e8$s6n$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:

European HD came out of the PAL days of the CRT era. So you will get no set top box action with a US TV (sans some converter that may or may not exist).

You should still be able to do laptop hookups though.

So, you need to instead of CONNECTING your TV with HDMI from the set top box, make your device a hot spot, and log your TV onto it via wifi or bluetooth. No wifi TV? Ohhh... back to the wire.

If the content you select (from a PC) then still wont play, then you maybe need a different streaming player (VLC) because that should be region independent

Your TV got no wifi? Amazon dot calm.

Reply to
DecadentLinuxUserNumeroUno

This display monitor originally had a built in TV tuner that became obsolete when Comcast started encrypting its channels. From that point on I had to get the TV feed from their set top box via HDMI. Since it is a fairly old set, it is not a smart TV but I like its display quality and I still can use it as a 23" external monitor for my laptop.

Reply to
Cameo

Apparently EU is PAL HDMI

Try this...

Cheers

Reply to
Martin Riddle

Thanks for the tip. I though there might be some converters to do that but the cost of hem is sometimes more than buying a similar new PAL TV would cost.

Reply to
Cameo

Cameo wrote in news:qn9rib$5e0$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:

Or the non pal tv that is smart and then you stream to the TV by way of the TVs internet connection instead of paying for cable or the set top box thing.

I would just get a nice 27" 4K computer display, but none of those are smart. They sure are nice on resolution though.

But my cheap 55" last years model Samsung was only $350, and it is sweet on video and rocks on connectivity.

Reply to
DecadentLinuxUserNumeroUno

Yes, those 55"-ers nice. I bought a 4K 49" QLED smart TV from Samsung a couple weeks ago and that also uses IP connection. I am still trying to figure out all its features and how to use them.

Reply to
Cameo

Here is what I don't get about HDMI. If I can't use an NTSC TV set with HDMI connection in Europe due to the PAL TV standard, would I still be able to use my laptop's HDMI output to display on a PAL TV set through its HDMI input source? My purpose is to have a TV set with dual purpose: to display PAL TV programming, and to act as an external monitor for my laptop via HDMI cable. My current 23" NTSC TV set worked great in such dual role in the US. Unfortunately now I can only use it as an external display. I don't want to buy a new PAL TV set here and then find out that it would not display the screen of my laptop that was made for the US market.

Tv set in

Reply to
Cameo

You may have to try it out in a store to be certain.

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Some may well be OK about what they accept. Many DVD players sold in UK supermarkets can be chipped to play US zoned content and there wouldn't be much point if TVs couldn't play them. Some freeview tuners have a PAL or NTSC output setting hidden in the nest of menus somewhere.

Tottenham Court road used to be the place to go for properly chipped multi-standard kit in the UK. NASA went to them to get region free chipped DVD players for the ISS.

On a laptop you may well be able to tweek things to work by setting a

50Hz frame rate even if the UK TV cannot accommodate US 60Hz inputs.

I can't really comment on which are and which are not since my TV is multi-standard - I have lived overseas in NTSC(Japan).

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Regards, 
Martin Brown
Reply to
Martin Brown

Cameo wrote in news:qnd0s9$kqp$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:

Usually the windows driver settings should have something for your video card that allows you to chose the output mode.

Reply to
DecadentLinuxUserNumeroUno

I have been reading this thread and I have to say i don't understand what anyone is talking about with PAL HDMI and NTSC HDMI. What exactly is the difference???

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  Rick C. 

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Reply to
Rick C

Rick C wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@googlegroups.com:

Ask Terrell.

I cannot believe that you do not know the difference between PAL and NTSC.

There were even tuners out there that could do both in the end of the standard resolution days. That was decades ago. Where the f*ck have you been all the while claiming to be an electronics dude?

Reply to
DecadentLinuxUserNumeroUno

The issue with HD material is likely to be that two frame rates are used, 25Hz in Europe and about 30Hz in the USA. Some displays will only operate on one of those display rates.

With standard definition material there are also differences in horizontal and vertical resolution. Many televisions and monitors will support all the widely used standards but some are only able to work with material from their region.

PAL got its name from the reversal of the phase of the colour subcarrier between adjacent lines in analogue broadcasts and video recordings. This was done to avoid the hue errors common in NTSC which were caused by phase errors in the colour subcarrier. The human visual system averaged the hue errors when adjacent lines had opposite errors in PAL due to the phase reversals. The frequency of the colour subcarrier was carefully chosen so that it sits between spectral peaks in static images (but less so for fast moving images). This allowed colour to be added on top of monochrome broadcasts without breaking the existing monochrome receivers or requiring more bandwdth and therefore changes in transmitter frequencies.

Nowadays none of this is generally relevant because the colour components are separately encoded rather than using a colour subcarrier kludged on top of a monochrome signal. However, the historical frame rates have persisted. Note that at standard definition a frame is sent in two parts, with each field carrying every other line, giving a field rate of 50 or almost 60Hz, while the frame rate is 25 or almost 30Hz. This reduces flicker on CRT dispalys.

John

Reply to
jrwalliker

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Frame rate is the most obvious difference between US NTSC and UK PAL is

60Hz vs 50Hz mains leading to 30Hz or 25Hz when interlaced.

In the past the most obvious difference was that US newscasters would have creepy chameleon skin drifting between pale purple and green whereas PAL is self compensating for drift. I thought this was an intrinsic failing of NTSC (jokingly called Never Twice the Same Colour) until I saw the Japanese implementation of it which actually works.

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Regards, 
Martin Brown
Reply to
Martin Brown

I know the difference between PAL and NTSC, I don't what either of them have to do with HDMI.

I was wondering why the response was so vitriolic. Then I saw who it was from. Duh!

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Reply to
Rick C

at anyone is talking about with PAL HDMI and NTSC HDMI. What exactly is th e difference???

That the frame rate would be a problem blows me away. It has got to be a t rivial thing to make the HDMI TV work at both rates. In fact it seems it w ould be more hassle to build a TV that WON'T work at both rates and to have to design TVs for different markets than to just build a single TV set the y can sell world wide. Rather like the manuals that come with many product s written in so many different languages.

Same sort of amazement. It's not like it is a big deal to support multiple resolutions. Once you have the basic technology and it is designed into a chip, I would think the difference would be so minor that it's more practi cal to include the same chip in fewer different TVs. Sort of like the old days when VCRs had several capabilities but the cheaper models had them tur ned off with a jumper. Same with oscilloscopes. The hardware supports the full bandwidth, the software limits it for the lower models.

Thanks for the info.

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  Rick C. 

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Reply to
Rick C

Check the set top box on another TV you may be able to configure it to work with an NTSC set somewhere in the deeper menus.

No guarantees that it will do what you want but this one is a fair bit cheaper. You have to remember that most people doing this sort of thing in the UK are doing it to play Region 1 coded DVDs on a UK PAL TV.

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Plus a suitable cable for sound & video eg.

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SCART is a relatively old European standard that has analogue video and sound as a part of the pinout. I have a feeling that US sets do not have anything like SCART because it makes copying material just too easy.

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You can also get it to interface with component video on a good day.

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Regards, 
Martin Brown
Reply to
Martin Brown

Rick C wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@googlegroups.com:

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Reply to
DecadentLinuxUserNumeroUno

xog

Our first color TV was bought new in the mid '60s. It was a first productio n run of the Motorola Quasar. A modular solid state NTSC set. The color did n't drift on it. That was about 53 years ago. The only sets that I saw drif t were in need of repair or alignment. Some stations were so poorly maintai ned that their sync generators drifted. A station in Dayton Ohio broadcast a live show tit one camera that was improperly converged. (The original Phi l Donahue show.)

Nationwide network feeds did have problems, due to the multiple hop microwa ve relays, and buried coaxial distribution. The staff could trim the chroma phase and level at each station in the path, until VITS and VIR were added to the system to automate the task and remove individual humans from the p rocess.

Reply to
Michael Terrell

Michael Terrell wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@googlegroups.com:

Upright video games suffered from effects caused by the Earth's magnetic field, and would color shift depending on which way they were oriented in the game room. Another element of the huge notable shift was the fact that the CRT screens were tipped back on an angle from the vertical, which I think amplifies the unwanted effect.

We had to tell some game room operators that a certain game needed to face a different direction or be placed at a different location in the room. Some were not happy as a PacMan could take in $300 a week back in the day when $300 was a lot of money. Placement was important.

Reply to
DecadentLinuxUserNumeroUno

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