I am planning on going to the US next week and with the current exchange rate want to pick up a JVC Everio GZ-MG505EK. Anyone know if there should be any problems using this in the UK? Do I need a step down convertor once i get it back here? Any other advice / help - all appreciated....

[senu]

You may not need a converter as the power supppies tend to be universal

The issues you may have have recently been discussed
here:
Buying from USA
HTH
The differences in resolution between PAL/NTSC dont matter if your DVD player and TV can take an NTSC signal for PAL playback but are a compromise as you may notice a difference.
If you are making the DVD for friends and family you cannot assume they have a DVD player or TV capable of playing NTSC to PAL . Transcoding for them from NTSC to PAL will degrade the PQ

The issues of NTSC not being universally playable on UK Displays. , warrantee, editing NTSC for PAL playback in the UK and possibly needing to pay VAT may negate any cost advantages. These issues are real but YMMV

[tomandjo2]

Even if the mains adaptor supplied is a different voltage it's not really an issue as you could by a new battery and charger, which you'll probably do anyway.

I've seen these on the web in the states for as little as £350, which is a steal and almost half UK price.

I would expect if PAL NTSC was an issue surely only the AV output of the 505 would be NTSC NOT the video file stored on the drive as the 3CCD's etc would be the same but I'm just geussing.

Tom

[redsox_mark]

The adaptor won't be a problem.

Originally Posted by tomandjo2

I've seen these on the web in the states for as little as £350, which is a steal and almost half UK price.

Be very careful when looking at US web prices. "Scam" dealers, mostly based in Brooklyn, NY, are prevalent. I've posted on this before... you can find lots on information on the web about it. They show prices much lower than any of the reputable US dealers. The scam usually is that unless you agree to pay extra for items which are usually included, and/or buy expensive warrentys etc, they will string you along and not sell to you. Basically you can't actually buy it at the price advertised.

You need to compare against reputable US web dealers. A good benchmark is B&H in New York. They may not be the absolute cheapest, but are competitive and are honest and provide great service. There may be other reputable dealers offering the item a bit cheaper... but if you see someone offering it at half the B&H price then you can be pretty sure it is a scam.

B&H has the NTSC version of the MG505 for $1200 - that's £634 pounds. And that's before VAT (which to be legal you would need to pay to bring it into the UK). Add VAT and it is £745. You can buy it from Dixons or Amazon in the UK for £641.

Note B&H also has the PAL version for sale at $1250.

One such scam vendor which has the MG505 for $699 is Wisetronics
http://www.wisetronics.com/product-p/jvcgzmg505.htm

Take a look at their rating here - 0.61 out of 10!
http://www.resellerratings.com/seller10721.html
There are a few positive comments (probably entered by employees of Wisetronics).. but most of them are horror stories. (For comparison, B&H gets 9.66 out of 10).

This is just one such supplier; you'll find a whole bunch of them. Here is a good article about the practices... it's a few years old but the practice is even worse now.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,10...1/article.html

Note this article is from the US magazine PC World, which is a reputable mag... not a shop (like the UK firm of the same name).

Sorry for going on so long about this, but in summary - if you want to compare against a US price make sure it is a price from a reputable supplier. And when you do that, you'll find the price differences are often not that much.

Originally Posted by tomandjo2

I would expect if PAL NTSC was an issue surely only the AV output of the 505 would be NTSC NOT the video file stored on the drive as the 3CCD's etc would be the same but I'm just geussing.

Sorry but you guessed wrong. Sure the CCDs are physically the same. But the NTSC version records video in the NTSC format. So when you edit those files on a PC they will be NTSC 720x480, not PAL 720x576.

[tomandjo2]

Once again Mark a top marks post, you know your stuff.

Tom

[senu]

Just to be pedantic,

In addition to different Pixel size, the frame rate of NTSC is 29.9 fps ,unlike PAL 25fps

So, in trascoding from NTSC to PAL, the pixel size,( and related pixel aspect ratio) as well as frame rate would need to be changed:

This comes at the expense of some PQ

PS: Ive just read a ( related) thread about incompatibility between NTSC camcorders and Settop DVD recorders ( PAL). Not a problem if you use the Pc and the DVD will be made PAL by transcoded NTSC DV AVI to PAL mpeg but a bit of a pain as you cannot take advantage of the quick camcorder to DVD advantage that settops offer

[sean2068]

I have seen alot of PAL videocameras for sale in the US. Have a good hunt around and you should be able to find some.

When i made a trip to the US last year i was on the lookout for bargains and ended up saving 300quid off a 700quid projector

Would love to save 70quid off an iPod but i dont know anyone that's out there