Xbox from England to America?

techwanabe

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May 24, 2000
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My fiancee is from England and her son has two Xbox360's and a boat load of games. I expect that the xbox won't work with American TV's due to PAL type display signal. No way to convert that?

Console aside, if I bought an Xbox in America, would British sold 360 games work on the American xbox?
 

RyanPaulShaffer

Diamond Member
Jul 13, 2005
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Originally posted by: techwanabe
My fiancee is from England and her son has two Xbox360's and a boat load of games. I expect that the xbox won't work with American TV's due to PAL type display signal. No way to convert that?

Console aside, if I bought an Xbox in America, would British sold 360 games work on the American xbox?

I doubt you could even get the UK XBOX 360 to turn on. Europe has different electricity standards than the US.

As far as the game go, no. Games and movies are region-locked. Some consoles and games are region-free, but most are not.
 

SunnyD

Belgian Waffler
Jan 2, 2001
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www.neftastic.com
Originally posted by: RyanPaulShaffer
Originally posted by: techwanabe
My fiancee is from England and her son has two Xbox360's and a boat load of games. I expect that the xbox won't work with American TV's due to PAL type display signal. No way to convert that?

Console aside, if I bought an Xbox in America, would British sold 360 games work on the American xbox?

I doubt you could even get the UK XBOX 360 to turn on. Europe has different electricity standards than the US.

As far as the game go, no. Games and movies are region-locked. Some consoles and games are region-free, but most are not.

Err, it's not that difficult to get an adapter for electrical systems.
 

Queasy

Moderator<br>Console Gaming
Aug 24, 2001
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Play-Asia has a handy guide showing you which 360 games are region-free.

Regional compatibility is on a game-by-game basis determined by the publisher and developer.

I'm not sure about the 360 itself. I don't know if simply switching out the cables would be enough.
 

RyanPaulShaffer

Diamond Member
Jul 13, 2005
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Originally posted by: SunnyD
Originally posted by: RyanPaulShaffer
Originally posted by: techwanabe
My fiancee is from England and her son has two Xbox360's and a boat load of games. I expect that the xbox won't work with American TV's due to PAL type display signal. No way to convert that?

Console aside, if I bought an Xbox in America, would British sold 360 games work on the American xbox?

I doubt you could even get the UK XBOX 360 to turn on. Europe has different electricity standards than the US.

As far as the game go, no. Games and movies are region-locked. Some consoles and games are region-free, but most are not.

Err, it's not that difficult to get an adapter for electrical systems.

Okay, since it's so easy, it would only take you a second to provide links for an item/items that:

1. Convert the US 60 Hz power to 50 Hz power so his PAL XBOX 360 can use US electricity.
2. Convert the 50 Hz video signal that the PAL XBOX 360 is outputting to the NTSC compatible 60 Hz.

You'd think since it is "not that difficult", that there would be tons of stores online that sell this stuff, they'd be all over Amazon, etc. That doesn't seem to be the case...at least for ones that actually work as advertised.

Perhaps I am mistaken, but it seems to be more difficult than "buy this $5 doodad from Wal Mart and plug it in", which is how easy you're trying to make it sound.

In fact, all of my (limited) Google searches on the matter have only talked about converting video files (software) from PAL to NTSC, or in reference to PAL games on NTSC systems or vice versa. I've seen nothing addressing converting the video signal the PAL XBOX 360 outputs or about getting the PAL XBOX 360 to work on US electricity.
 

Fox5

Diamond Member
Jan 31, 2005
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HD is HD isn't it? I didn't think there were separate PAL and NTSC HD signals?

Could always use VGA...
and 60Hz PAL might be accepted by US TVs anyway.
 

RyanPaulShaffer

Diamond Member
Jul 13, 2005
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Originally posted by: BenSkywalker
Okay, since it's so easy, it would only take you a second to provide links for an item/items that:

Hardware signal converter.

Power converter.

Done.

Interesting...like I said in my post, I have only been able to do limited searching.

I would imagine that stepping down from 60 Hz to 50 Hz would be possible and relatively painless, but I wonder about converting the signal. Aren't PAL games hard-coded to be 50 FPS because of the 50 Hz? Won't using a converter create some unintended side effects?
 

BenSkywalker

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
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Aren't PAL games hard-coded to be 50 FPS because of the 50 Hz?

They used to be in the SD days, now they are coded for HD which all matches up anyway. 120Hz, 60Hz, 30Hz, 24Hz- as long as your TV supports the highest output that the signal uses you are all set. AFAIK almost nothing uses 120Hz(not the gimmick you see on newer HDTVs using frame interpolation, actual 120Hz) outside of some tech demos so 60Hz is pretty much the upper limit and every HDTV I've seen in the US does at least that.

If they are worried about using the 360 in HD, they have nothing to worry about. If they want to output PAL SD to a NTSC, they can get that converter I linked or something comparable(that works for everything, DVDs, VHS, whatever).
 

techwanabe

Diamond Member
May 24, 2000
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So wait a minute, assuming power conversion is possible, a PAL system from the UK could display on my Samsung HDTV if I chose to use an HD output?

It sounds like from what people are saying the standard definition out put is PAL on a UK Xbox360 but the high definition output is more universal?
 

gtd2000

Platinum Member
Oct 22, 1999
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The original Xbox with NTSC output works on pretty much any TV in the UK manufactured in the last 15 years or so.

I have a Hot Deal sourced Xbox from the US which was used in the UK for a period of time before returning to the US as a dedicated Mame box

The only thing I required was a voltage converter.

I'm a bit out of touch with the Xbox scene these days but the original Xbox actually changed the output to suit the TV from what I remember - does the 360 not also do this?
 

trmiv

Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
14,670
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Couldn't you just buy a US XBOX 360 power supply off ebay or something to handle the power issue?