Does a 12 volt TV work in foreign countires?

Unless it's a multisystem TV then no, it won't work with PAL or SECAM, it needs an NTSC signal. Powering it is not the issue, the video formats are different.

You didn't answer his other question and yes, if he purchases a power adapter then locally then yes, it will power on the t.v.

Since you're using Google Groups you should get familiar with their web search engine as well. This is for techs asking other techs about repair that the are currently performing. Your question WAS NOT a repair question it was a general electronics question.

Do it again and I will send a complant to snipped-for-privacy@google.com like I have done with several other posters today.

I got it. Older TV will not work unless it is an uncommon multisystem.

There are other issues too. PAL and SECAM are color encoding systems, tranmissions systems vary also. For example, here in Israel we use PAL G, which is the UHF version of PAL B. Germany also uses PAL B and G. England, South Africa and Oz, use PAL-I (if they have analog television at all), which uses different channel frequencies and different audio carrier frequencies within the channel.

France's SECAM system is unqiue in that they used different channel spacings and their audio carrier is AM instead of FM (the rest of the world uses FM). Many countires use SECAM with PAL B/G transmission standards, such as the Soviet Union (which means that Russia and the other former Soviet states still do), and the PRC.

Tiawan I think uses NTSC. This form of SECAM was informally called MESECAM (Middle East SECAM) and was on available on 2 and 3 system multisysem VCR's and TV sets from the 1980's.

Note that some countries have a TV tax, and that bringing a TV set into the country may be restricted.

Geoff.

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Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel gsm@mendelson.com  N3OWJ/4X1GM
IL Voice: (07)-7424-1667 U.S. Voice: 1-215-821-1838 
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They are uncommon in the U.S. In the rest of the world they are very common. I don't know about Canada and Mexico, but my guess is that since France is SECAM, the French part of Canada has some in stores, and that since Spain is PAL, Mexico is the same way.

When I lived in the U.S. I was able find them in stores that catered to saliors and other travelers (taxes are higher in many parts of the world) and Indian groceries.

Last year when we bought our children a new TV set, we got them a Hitachi

21" (glasss tube) set that was multivoltage and multisystem. It was about the same price here as you could mail order it in the U.S. with U.S. shipping costs. It has a "universal" tuner, but I'm not sure that it will work in the U.K. or France.

Since it has composite, S-video and YBCR inputs, it will connect to just about any vcr, DVD, cable or satellite box.

Most people don't know this, but DVD's are encoded in either PAL (24 or 25 FPS) or NTSC (24/1001 or or 30/10001 FPS), but not SECAM. This has nothing to do with zones. U.S. DVD players always convert the frame rate to NTSC (30/1001), ones made for sale elsewhere have an option for multisystem, NTSC or PAL. An early one of mine had a mutisystem/PAL switch on the back, new ones have it as a setup option.

I assume DVD players sold in FRANCE have SECAM as an output option, possibly replacing PAL. If your TV has NTSC only playback, you can get a cheap DVD player with the multisystem option and watch DVDs. If it has a SECAM baseband input, then you can use a cable/sat box or VCR to drive it.

Note that terrestrial analog TV is a dying thing. It will be gone in a year from the U.S. and in some places never went far. Here in Israel, we have the government channel 1 (with 2 other channels on satellite and cable) and a second commercial channel. Besides imported programing, there is a second commercial channel and a local Russian language channel, both cable/sat only.

We used to have Middle East TV from Lebanon, which was relgious Christian TV on Sunday, and old U.S. programs but they moved to Cyprus and went satellite only. We also had Jordan channel two, which was mixed English and French, but it was dropped when Abdulah took over. Both were VHF, the Israeli channels are UHF.

If you are buying the TV because you plan to move there, even for a short time, you would IMHO be better off renting/buying one when you get there. If you are touring around, and just want to see what's on, you may be disapointed. Since I assume by your name you are in Alaska, I'll speculate that you really asked because you want to be able to watch satellite TV from other places than the U.S. Forgive me if I'm wrong. :-)

If that's the case, feel free to email privately and I'll point you in the right direction.

Geoff.

--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel gsm@mendelson.com  N3OWJ/4X1GM
IL Voice: (07)-7424-1667 U.S. Voice: 1-215-821-1838 
Visit my 'blog at http://geoffstechno.livejournal.com/

Sadly not the case. Mexico is NTSC; Argentina urguay and praguay however use Pal-N - that is 50hz frame rate and 3.58 mhz colour subcarrier (like NTSC).

Here is Spain, as in most of mainland europe bar France and UK, it is PAL BG - 50hz frame rate 4.43 colour subcarrier.

that is good advice. Tvs these days are easy to find and relatively inexpensive especially used ones.

-B

PAL B is VHF, PAL G is UHF. Does anyone in Spain still use PAL B?

Geoff.

--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel gsm@mendelson.com  N3OWJ/4X1GM
IL Voice: (07)-7424-1667 U.S. Voice: 1-215-821-1838 
Visit my 'blog at http://geoffstechno.livejournal.com/

Hi Geoff

Pal B (VHF 2-4 and 5-12) is used here for some local stations (canal sur Andalucia amongst others) and sometimes in internal communal antenna distribution systems in blocks of flats. But not for anything national. it is not widely used probably as it's more prone to interference than UHF,.

B