Can I use my foreign TV set in the UK?

 “I have a TV set purchased outside of the UK. Can I bring this to the UK and use it to watch the UK Freeview TV channels?”

 

This is a fairly common question, and it doesn’t have a quick and easy answer, as all makes and models of TV set are different, and different regions of the world support different TV formats , encoding types and power requirements.

To see if your TV will work in the UK, it may be a case of checking the TV’s manual, or checking with the TV’s manufacturer direct.

The alternative is to check your TV’s specification to see if it meets the technical requirements for the UK Freeview Digital TV system. Here is a summary of what you need to check for:

 

Freeview LogoFreeview Requirements

Frequencies

UK Freeview channels are broadcast between UHF channel 21 (474MHz) and UHF channel 62 (802MHz) inclusive. Your TV will need to be able to tune to these channels

Technical

Here is a summary of the technical requirements for Freeview. Your receiving equipment will need to support these as a minimum:

  • Freeview uses DVB-T/MPEG-2 for its standard definition TV service.
  • The UK Freeview system uses a mix of 16 QAM and 64 QAM modulation types.

Note that PAL, the analogue TV format, is being phased out as part of the UK Digital Switchover, and will not be in use from the end of 2012

Freeview HD

Freeview offers a number of high-definition TV channels. Freeview HD uses the DVB-T2 standard, and your TV receiver will need to support this standard to be able to let you watch Freeview HD

 

Mains Power

The UK mains voltage is 230 Volts AC at 50Hz. The plug type is a 3-pin plug (live, neutral and earth)

 

Still not sure?

If your TV set does not meet these requirements, or you can’t verify whether your TV will be able to cope with Freeview, all is not necessarily lost.

If your TV set has a SCART socket, then you may be able to use this to connect to a Freeview set-top box. SCART is pretty common in Europe, but less so in other parts of the world.

In the UK, these boxes typically cost around £25, and plug into the TV aerial and then to a TV set using a SCART lead. Even if your TV is not able to decode Freeview, then you may simply be able to connect it to a Freeview box, and let the box do the decoding for you.

A SCART socket

A SCART socket

You may be able to use other types of connectors too, such as HDMI, S-Video, Composite and Component input. Again, check the TV’s manual to see what is supported.

This entry was posted in Digital TV, Freeview.

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