[leslie]

does anyone know if uk playstation will work in new zealand? we just bought the stupid thing afew months back...

[Moorf]

Hi

Had to ask hubby (the techie!) about this one...

He said that you won't be able to buy games here and use them on the playstation because games bought here will be locked to a NZ playstation. Plus, the sound might not work on the TV as different sound system here than in UK.....

You can have it "chipped" but Sony are trying to shut down co.'s that do this.... chipping it will allow you to play games from other regions, mostly pirated. Not good....

Moorf

[Diny]

Glad you told us that. My two are bringing their PS2 - never even gave it a thought.

Diny

[gratto]

either chip it or you would have to buy all your games and have them shipped from the UK. that and you might also need a power converter for it.

[veronica]

Don't think you would need a power converter for a UK one as all our electrical appliances inc. computor etc work fine. Not so easy to chip a PS2 though but I am sure someone will know how to do it.

[Tara Sage]

My son has a PS coming and hubby has a PS2, from talking to other people they work fine with the English games etc but not sure about the NZ ones. They should arrive next week :nice1 so will keep you posted.

[leslie]

if its just a matter of buying british games its okay. we've also been using ps2 as our dvd player - i take it that wont work?

very keen to hear... many thanks

[Haydee Stroud]

Hi there - this is my first post (so bear with me). I'll make sure and introduce Barry & I later

As far as I am aware, yes a UK Playstation will work in NZ. This is because they both work on PAL. We brought over a Playstation (original) with us (purchased in NZ and not chipped/modded in any way) when we came back to the UK and it works fine. Games purchased in NZ work on it, as do games purchased in the UK. The only thing we had to change was the plug.

However, just in case you need more confirmation, it may be worth posting a question on one of the PS2 forums out there on the internet. Sorry, don't have any linked, but a search in Google for 'playstation' should give you some useful sites.

Good luck,

Haydee

[Woz]

While the UK and NZ both use PAL they use a different version of the standard so it will depend on your TV and the standards it can cope with. I think one is PAL-I and the other is PAL-B but cant be sure.

The difference between the two standards relates to sound only and not the picture so if your TV cant cope you will just get a white noise type sound. One solution is to feed the sound through your hi-fi and this should solve the issue.

The problem you will not solve is that fact the PS2 have region encoding The PS1 should have region encoding as well, is your unit the new smaller style PS1. It might be that Sony dropped the region coding in this model to save costs as the PS1 has been replaced with the PS2.

This type of country control also applies to DVD players and also DVD players in laptops and PC's. For example my laptop DVD player is hardware locked for films. I can change the region 5 times and then it will lock to the last one set.

The reason that ALL console manufacturers use this system is so they can control the price of games in different countries along with release dates etc. Some contries cant support the price commanded in others so the games are sold cheaper.

If they did not have this in place people would just order games from whichever country had the cheapest games when exchange rates are taken into account. Now we have the internet and access to shops in other countries you can see what would happen.
Here is one of many links on the subject http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/2623.cfm

There are hardware/software products that will get around this but Sony is going through the courts to close down the companies.

[Haydee Stroud]

Woz's reply got me thinking (as we're bringing a UK XBOX over when we come), so I spent my lunch hour looking for help on the internet.

Found this thread in another expat forum, that confirms a UK PS2 will work and play games bought in Oz (same Region as NZ). Apparently, the games are not region coded in the same way that DVDs are, they are purely split by way of being either PAL or NTSC (i.e US/Japan).
http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=217219&highlight=xbox

Further, here is an 'official' posting that I found (don't ask me how official!) with Sony's reply to the same question

"Both Australia and the UK share the same TV format, PAL and the same voltage, 220 - 240 Volts. Therefore PAL format PlayStation software purchased in Australia will be compatible with your UK PlayStation. Australia operate on Region 4 for DVD's as opposed to Region 2 in the UK. Therefore only UK, Region 2, PAL DVD's will work with the UK PlayStation, unfortunately Region 4 DVD's are not compatible."

Totally agree with Woz's comments re: DVD region encoding - don't use our XBOX for that, so was focusing entirely on game play. Hey, when I'm not busy researching our move, I can be found playing Halo on the darn thing :smile

Oh, by the way, the PS1 we bought over was the old original style and yes that definately does play both UK & NZ games and, as we use audio cables, there is no problem with the sound quality.

Don't want to tread on anyone's toes here (as I'm new to this forum), so I'll stop posting on this thread now. You might want to email Sony direct to get the info 'from the horse's mouth' as it were.

TTFN

Haydee

[Woz]

Thanks for the info. This does sound like it could be the case with the PAL games. I guess it does save on production costs although will lose them some control of release etc.

For those bringing there PS2 etc I would say do some research. It does look like it might work OK but if not you will have a hard time selling.

I off loaded the PS2 before I left as I had stopped playing it anyway. Have a nice Athlon 64 laptop that puts consoles to shame :)

[Tara Sage]

HELP WOZ

Just set up our UK playstation2 (arrived yesterday) and having bought a new NZ TV we have no sound is there anything we can do????

We have loads of UK games are we just going to have to play with no sound?

Tara and very sad hubby Dan :(

Son's playstation 1 works cause he has his UK TV/Video combi so he can play his video's too. we knew that his TV wouldn't work, but it never did in England.

Hope our DVD's work and what about UK video's on VCR will have to test it all. :?

[Woz]

Tara, One thing you could try is to connect your PS2 using a scart lead or using Video/rgb and audio leads. This will feed the signal in a different way to your TV and might resolve the sound issue.

You should be able to get the leads from an electical shop. It will need the PS2 connector at one end and then scart on the other if your tv supports it. Otherwise it wll need 3 connectors, one yellow, one white and the other red.

This should then feed the sound and video in a standard format that should bypass the issues with the different PAL standards.

If not you will need to feed your PS2 sound into your hi-fi and have the sound come from that.

[StevieD]

Reference this, the easiest way is to take a portable tv with you. No problems then with playback of DVD or games on your system!

I intend to do this (all being well in the acceptance stakes :yes )

The system in use is PAL B whereas in UK system I is in use. This is to do with the sub carrier frequency of the sound. Can't remember all this now (bit hazy after 16+ years, but hope this helps you.

Steve - Liverpool

[Tara Sage]

Thanks Woz we thought that it might work through the video, will get some connectors tomorrow

:cheers

Tara

[Tara Sage]

Yippee :P

It is working, the playstation is now working fine which means we can still watch all our UK DVD's :P :P

[Moorf]

:clap :clap :clap

We haven't forgotten our dinner invite ;) is the dining table unpacked yet? :laugh

[Tara Sage]

Oh yes all unpacked thought you had decided against my cooking :?

Anytime but not this weekend off to the west coast for a bit of an explore seen as it is labour weekend.

[Moorf]

Noo, not at all, just been busy looking for work and houses.

You want to fix a date? PM me ....