Jim Breen wrote:
> Dustin Chava wrote:
>> Hi
>>
>> I would like to buy a nice new TV here in Japan and pending whether I would 
>> be able to use it in Australia when I finally return I might invest in 
>> something a little bigger/flashier/more expensive.
>>
>> Has anyone had any experience doing such a thing?
> 
> I've had a fair bit of experience of *not* taking Japanese TVs, radios,
> etc. back to Australia. Incompatible mains power (100V vs 240V),
> coding systems (NTSC vs PAL) and FM frequencies are the main reasons.
> 
> Look very, very carefully before you leap.

There are a number of shops in Aki which cater to the multi broadcast
format crowd.  The only one I can think of off the top of my head,
though is the basement of the Ishimaru Denki on Chuo-dori.  Walk along
Chuo-dori on the far side from Akihabara-eki between the overhead
railroad bridge (the one that continues past Radio Depaato) and
Manseibashi and you should find a number of video hardware shops that
cater to foreigners.

It _used_ to be that the hot setup was buying a gyakuyuunyu Panasonic /
National set from Dubai or the UAE as they were fully compatible with
all five of the major broadcast formats and could be manually configured
for any broadcast range as long as you could use one of those fiberglass
screwdrivers and could figure out which pot to tweak.  The sets had
built in transformers for any voltage from 100 to 220 and 50 or 60Hz.  I
have a lot of old British tapes and having an NTSC / PAL set was once
important.  Now. with LCD screens that program on the fly, region-free
DVDs, and region-free players that part isn't so important.  A player
that let's us play both my daughter's made-in-France and made-in-Japan
DVD's on our Japanese TV cost me less than Yen 10,000.  Also, there are
plug-in modules for most major manufacturer's products (Sharp uses a
separate box) which gives you the proper reception ranges for different
major markets, eliminating the need to be skillful with a potentiometer,
any more.

Frankly, I just decided that it made more sense to find the extra money
instead of taking the same set to different countries so I have lost
track of exactly what is available, but, if the OP is REALLY interested,
Aki's kaden section and kakau.com are the places to start.

CL