Importing a TV to NZ experiences

[Driftit 2078]

Has anyone imported a large TV into NZ before? Not accompanied by other goods.

I want to send my old man a TV from the US as they are a fraction of the price. It's a new model but second hand from me. 

It's in its box but being fragile I would think it's quite risky. 

[Gabe79 410]

The only thing to worry about nowadays is voltage requirements, but a lot of things are dual voltage anyway. Or is your question more logistics based?

If it's in original packaging, that's basically how they're shipped around the world... 

I'll grant our stuff mostly came in a container from Singapore, not piecemeal though...

[Young Thrash Driver 1020]

Risky call... insure it so the freighter will replace it when it is inevitably dropkicked from the top cargo hold to the runway from a 787?

[NZ BMW 368]

I don’t have anything constructive to add but I’d be interested to hear how this works out if you do send it.

I travel to the US frequently and I know how cheap they can be but I’d wonder by the time you pay for shipping and any GST they might sting you for if it would add up at all. 

Your best (lowest cost) bet I think would be to get a freight forwarder who you can ship it to domestically in the US and they can throw it in the container. That’s what I did when I brought tyres in from the states. 

[lord_jagganath 421]

Do not think terrestrial signals are a problem anymore, with most shifting to satellite based digital systems. Have HDMI will travel. Also, a lot of TVs have a separate switching power brick these days(as per your laptop power brick), so it shouldn't be an issue 

As with anything shipped, packaging is very important. you would find that the best way to ship is in a hard wooden case filled with foam (but your cost savings will evaporate). if you have access to a freight forwarder with a dedicated bin/console direct to NZ, that would be for the best so that the bin is sealed in the US only to be opened in NZ. 

another option is to ship via newegg, letting them take the risk of shipping. :shrugs: 

[Olaf 3317]

On 6/5/2018 at 8:03 AM, 3pedals said:

There are two TV standards in the world

NTSC ( never twice the same colour)  the US standards used in  the US  parts of central and south america and a couple of other places

PAL - throughout the civilised world.

 If the set is not dual standard or  fully PAL enabled then there is no point sending it because it won't work on terrestrial / satellite broadcast

It may  still work off DVD blue ray etc.

Has SECAM been retired, William?  There were always THREE standards in the world, previously.  PAL, NTSC (never twice the same colour), and SECAM.  Not like you to miss your research.

[jom 98]

SECAM = Sees every colour as Magenta ?

[Olaf 3317]

Dan, I think you're entering a world of pain.  

I used to buy Full Multi System TV kit from the US (or, perhaps the Peter Justesen Catalogue still exists in some form, for folks in your type of employ? www.pj.dk ) - and successfully brought back my full multi-system Sony Trinitron and a very good Panasonic HiFi VHS also with full multi system, back in the day... though as you'd appreciate, back then things were more cut-and-dried (simple), and this kit has long since been recycled!  These niche sellers (they were in the US - usually around NYC or Texas, and sometimes CA) may still exist, and you might be able to score a TV that is *fully* compatible with NZ operation, and even a full muli-zone BluRay player to go with it. 

Considerations in the modern world for TV from another region:

- Voltage.  Will it run on 230VAC?

- tuning and TV system (eg you'll need to be able to tune Freeview in NZ! so it'll be PAL and with our particular setup for digital TV)

- App Store (coz we're doing more and more on-demand and app-based viewing these days)... so can your (for example) American-market Samsung be directed to pick up local apps from the NZ Samsung store such as NEON, TVNZ, ThreeNow etc?

- Cost of freight

- unavailability of spares if it needs service.

These things become white-elephants, can't sell em, can't give em away, towards the end of their useful life.

If you then take into account how your Dad wants to use his TV (eg the hassle of getting a foreign market set to integrate in NZ), perhaps springing a grand to 1200 kiwi for a very good end-of-run 55" Samsung (or similar) down here, with warranty etc, might be the best overall solution.  Either way, you'll be a hero.

Hope that helps.

[Matth5 471]

On 6/5/2018 at 6:14 PM, 3pedals said:

All Television broadcast in NZ has been digital since 2013 , the terrestrial (digital)  is superior to the  satelite based (digital) broadcast because bandwidth is cheaper  so channel allocations are broader,  but in reality both are crap because the highest rate allocated in any one ( terrestrial)  channel now is  only 6Mb/S  which is just over 10% of what is available from Blu Ray. Satellite (SKY)  is typically  2Mb/S but may have multiple channels multiplexed into it meaning the individual video stream is sod all bits per second. 

And if you want to put that in context:  native 1080 / 1920 PAL  digital at 8 bit colour depth is 1.2Gbits/ S and the so called 4 k  is 12Gbits/S at 50 frames/ S - we played with12 bit colour depth signals in the 90's now they were nice but would require 18Gb/S for 4 k. 

And as an aside the colur depth in analogue PAL was the equivalent of 12 Bit digital 

DTV started out as a means to provide higher data rate capacity to deliver higher quality content (HD) but has been "commercialised" and sliced up to cram more sh*t into a single channel and maximise revenue. 

HDMI  is just a data transfer protocol  with lots of embeded transfer conditions (Copyright / use rights, zones etc.) not a Video standard it is incapable of any signal conversion. It is yet another failed attempt for a certain country to  orchestrate royalty revenue streams and control international media distribution rights. 

 

And that is why it's easier to just pirate everything. You get the best quality with no BS or ads... 

All I want is a service where I can buy movies and TV shows online with no subscription, and get the best quality. But right now the easiest and best option is the free and illegal one 

[NZ BMW 368]

6 hours ago, Matth5 said:

All I want is a service where I can buy movies and TV shows online with no subscription, and get the best quality.

Apple TV, come on, don’t be a cheapass. 

[_ethrty-Andy_ 2132]

33 minutes ago, NZ BMW said:

Apple TV, come on, don’t be a cheapass. 

yep i have that. $1 to rent a movie. People feel odd doing that and say thats expencive, but quite happy to pay $15 or whatever it is for netflix....

if you are watching more than 15 movies in a month, you really need to evaluate your life decisions.

[Matth5 471]

2 hours ago, NZ BMW said:

Apple TV, come on, don’t be a cheapass. 

You got me there... there's also Youtube and Google Play for movies, which doesn't require me to buy special hardware. So yeah movies are mostly covered and I can't really whine about that. I did end up pirating Wonder Woman when I couldn't find a legal online option for 4k at the time, only 1080p...

But you still can't get most TV shows without signing up for monthly subscriptions from Amazon ect? I watch so few TV shows it's hard to justify a subscription. I'd much rather buy them by the season...

I do subscribe to Google Play Music. I use it to stream music in my car so that's worthwhile.