PAL or multi-format TV in japan

[mrmachine]

i brought my ps2 and xbox to japan from australia, thinking that japan is high tech and any modern TV should support multi-format (as almost all do in australia). but when i connected it, our tv was ntsc only. i went to the shops and checked all the major brand web sites for a small-ish lcd screen that supports PAL or multi-format, and NOBODY makes one in japan.

has anyone got a PAL or multi-format TV in japan? or know where i can buy one without paying a ludicrous amount of money? i'm in osaka, i've checked yodabashi camera but not denden town. i heard there might be some PAL TV's there but that they are very expensive. i don't actually want to watch tv on it, i just need a monitor for the xbox and PS2. alternatively, can i get an adapter to output a vga signal to a PC monitor from xbox and ps2?

[Charles]

Did it ever occur to you that it might be cheaper to just buy a new PS2?

[Big Booger]

http://search.ebay.com/PAL-to-NTSC_W0QQfkrZ1QQfromZR8

Use a converter.. hooks up to your PAL device and allows display on an NTSC TV...

[mrmachine]

i dont wnt to buy new xbox and ps2 and move 250gb hdd from aus xbox to new xbox and have aus consoles lying around unused. i also heard that the converters reduce the quality a bit so multi-format tv would be best, but if i cant find one for a decent price i may get a converter or a pc monitor and a converter for that instead.

[FG Lurker]

i dont wnt to buy new xbox and ps2 and move 250gb hdd from aus xbox to new xbox and have aus consoles lying around unused. i also heard that the converters reduce the quality a bit so multi-format tv would be best, but if i cant find one for a decent price i may get a converter or a pc monitor and a converter for that instead.

If you're worried a lot about quality then you won't want a TFT for your games. TFTs in general do not display analgue signals well and this is especially true for television. (TFTs are digital, standard TV is analogue. Worse yet is that analogue TV pixels are not square or round but oval. This is why TV on TFT generally does not look good, especially up close.)

Beyond all of this, multi-format CRT-based TVs are quite likely a single format TV with a converter built in...

[Grumblebum]

I've bought stuff at this place before:

http://www.noguchi-nagoya.co.jp/eindex.htm

and they weren't too bad.

They have a reasonable range of multi-system TVs at not entirely outrageous prices, assuming you aren't after a 42inch plasma display or something.

I wouldn't recommend a system converter - I tried going down that route and wasn't very satisfied with the quality. A multi-system TV is a far better solution.

[mrmachine]

thanks for the link. i saw that on another forum and am thinking about one of the 21" sony screens for 59800. i also suspect that the converters will produce an inferior image (which other people have commented on in reviews of such converters). i was looking forward to a nice 17" widescreen lcd tv though. and from the displays i have seen, lcd tvs look much better than plasma. some of them look bloody awesome. maybe they were using a digital tuner.

[Ptyx]

You can find the Hori upscan converter in Yodobashi. It allows you to plug your ps2 or xbox on a VGA monitor.
I don't know about the quality of the converter itself but i know that a vga monitor is a lot better than a regular tv. So even if the converter screw the image a little the fact that you can play on a higher resolution with a higher refresh rate should make up for this. It's approx 6000 yens here.
The only thing is, if you computer is a laptop, it wont help.

[FG Lurker]

thanks for the link. i saw that on another forum and am thinking about one of the 21" sony screens for 59800. i also suspect that the converters will produce an inferior image (which other people have commented on in reviews of such converters). i was looking forward to a nice 17" widescreen lcd tv though. and from the displays i have seen, lcd tvs look much better than plasma. some of them look bloody awesome. maybe they were using a digital tuner.

Yep, if you saw a LCD with amazing TV image quality then it was HDTV.

The new Samsungs + HDTV should make a very compelling purchase... Alas a few years away.

[Caustic Saint]

Just get a projector!

It'll play damned near any signal you can throw at it.

Compatibility:
Data Signals Native: WXGA-H 1280x720 pixels Resize Support: VGA - S-XGA. MAC
Video Signals PAL / SECAM / NTSC / NTSC4.43 / PAL-M/N HDTV: 480i, 480p, 575i, 576p, 720p, 1035i, 1080i
Video Resolution 720 native lines
H Sync 15 ~ 80 kHz
V Sync 50 ~ 100 Hz