Did I make a HUGE MISTAKE by buying a European tv with RGB SCART inputs in USA?

[giantgonzolez]

I bought a 25" Sony Trinitron Television with RGB Scart Inputs that a family brought over from Europe. The guy who sold it claimed it was a multisystem tv, but when I look at the back it says 50hz, not something like 50-60hz.
I need to buy a 110 to 220 volt transformer, scart rgb cables for my consoles, and a scart switchbox, but that's not the problem.
The thing that really has me scared now, is that will my games run 20% faster than they should? Do US consoles run at normal speed, or do they run 20% faster on a SCART tv?
I don't want Sonic to be Super Sonic, just Sonic.

[albino_vulpix]

If the TV is 50Hz, PAL games will run normally, NTSC will run 17% slower. If it's a fairly new TV it probably does have 60Hz support.

[NFG]

Better to have all the facts before you start worrying:

1. The TV can't force your system to operate at a different speed.  If you've got an NTSC Playstation using a SCART cable it won't suddenly run at 50Hz.

2. TVs don't list their frequency support on the case.  The 50Hz you see almost certainly refers to POWER, not VIDEO.

3. Are you sure you need a 120->240V adaptor?  They've been using it here for a while, did they have one?  If not, why would you need one?  If they did, can't you buy theirs?  step-UP adaptors are not cheap or easy to find, compared to step-downs...

[giantgonzolez]

Well, I don't think they had the step up adaptor. These guys were filthy rich and had a 4 car garage a house that was like the size of 4 of my parent's house and I'm sure they'd have given it to me if they had it.  Here's the problem I'm having, the tv doesn't say what the power consumption is so I don't know how many watts the step up voltage transformer needs to be. Do you think I'd be safe with a 200 watt rating(I know 100 would be risking it), or do I have to go all the way to a 500 watt or 1000 watt step up voltage transformer?

[viletim]

giantgonzolez,
From what I've read, most houses in the USA are wired up with 240v centre tapped AC (120-0-120). The 240v being available for high power devices like washing machine, dryer, etc. Maybe the original owner hooked it up to one of these power points?

Anyway, 25" TVs typically draw about 150W.

[giantgonzolez]

Well, I hope you're right because I ordered a 500 watt voltage transformer since my brother's 27" Trinitron CRT has 165 watts power consumption. I also read that tvs require 3x their power consumption during startup perhaps for the degausing process. So 495 watts would be the minimum requirement for my brother's 27" tv so I'm hoping that my 25" RGB monitor will be similar or less power consumption in wattage even though it's a PAL tv.

[Christuserloeser]

This TV will work in 60Hz via its RGB-SCART in. Most European TVs since the early 80s do.

[viletim]

Well, I hope you're right because I ordered a 500 watt voltage transformer since my brother's 27" Trinitron CRT has 165 watts power consumption. I also read that tvs require 3x their power consumption during startup perhaps for the degausing process. So 495 watts would be the minimum requirement for my brother's 27" tv so I'm hoping that my 25" RGB monitor will be similar or less power consumption in wattage even though it's a PAL tv.

While it's true that the TV will draw a lot more current the moment its power on, it's only for a few tens of miliseconds and will not harm a lower power step up up transformer. The wattage (actually VA, not watts) rating is for continuous use at a safe temperature. The transformer won't heat up much for a short duration, higher burst of current.

But anyway, a bigger transformer won't hurt anything.