Do HDTVs support PAL and NTSC as a general rule?

[admin_exported]

One of my friends asked me if HDTVs support both PAL and NTSC formats as we tend to move around a lot and he is concerned that if he moves back to Europe he won't be able to use it. I bought a samsung 40" HDTV a while back and figured I'd sell it if I moved, so never really thought about it.

My HDTV will support my XBOX 360 which is european (PAL) so I'm guessing my T.V. supports both settings but I really wouldn't know 100% whether it would work in Europe. Does anyone know anything about the supported formats? Would the T.V. specs sheet show if the t.v. supports both PAL and NTSC? Does the digital signal work regardless of the PAL and NTSC formats? Any info is greatly recieved.

 

[Andrew Everard]

Euro-model displays do, yes, so I'd suspect that all would. But when it comes to models made for the NTSC-specific markets, I'm not at all sure. And yes, they support discs from anywhere when run in through HDMI.

The problem is more likely to occur when you want to use the TV as a TV, as most models have region-specific tuners. So some mainland European models (ah, we provincial Brits!) don't support UK Freeview DTT, and I'm sets made for other regions won't have a PAL tuner if they're built for an NTSC market.

It might be worth contacting the distributor of whichever TV you're considering and asking if they do one with multistandard tuners, if watching local TV is important to you.