Compare Atlona NTSC PAL converter with Com World converter
If you are bringing a TV from USA or other western countries to India, you will need a NTSC to PAL converter to use the TV in India. In this post, I will compare the Atlona and Com World converters.
Televisions made in different countries use different standards and may not be compatible with the video transmission in other countries. For examples, countries like USA and Japan use a standard called NTSC and countries like India use a different standard called PAL. If you bring an NTSC TV from USA to India, it will not work with the TV transmission in India without using a PAL to NTSC converter. Read my post on bringing TV from USA to India to learn my experience in bringing a TV to India when we returned from USA.
There are several video converters available in the market. If you are in India, read my post on where to buy PAL to NTSC converter in India.
When we moved from USA to India, we brought a converter from the reputed brand Atlona. Due to some issues, I had bought another one from Com World since I could not use the Atlona converter for a while.
In this post, I will compare the Atlona converter to the Com World converter, from my first hand experience with both.
PAL to NTSC converter: Compare Atlona with Com World
Atlona comes with very limited options. The model I bought has just 2 options - an HDMI input and an HDMI output. But this does the work perfectly. All it does is convert the PAL input to NTSC output which is exactly what we wanted.
The Com World converter I bought has several options including:
1. HDMI input
2. HDMI output
3. In built TV tuner
4. Coaxial cable input
5. Composite video input
6. Composite video output
7. Remote control
The design of the device is elegant. Number of options in the unit make it look more attractive to a potential buyer, which is one of the reasons I bought it.
However, consider this. Why do you need a PAL to NTSC converter? To make your NTSC TV work in a PAL supported country, right? So, many other extra features are not useful for you and rather they are confusing. If you have a modern TV, it would support HDMI input and that is all you need in a converter.
The number of options in Com World converter make it difficult to use. One of the big challenges I have with the Com World converter is, each time I turn on the TV, I need to take the remote control of the Com World converter and choose the 'Input' to make the TV start receiving signals from the unit. This extra step is frustrating.
Atlona device is simple and does the job. All you need is, connect the input from your cable operator or satellite TV connection and you will be watching your NTSC TV from the PAL cable!
My Atlona device has been helpful to connect my laptop to the TV. The HDMI output from my Windows 7 Sony Vaio laptop often fails to show any output in the TV. Now I am connecting it through the Atlona converter and it works each time without a problem.
One of the drawbacks of the Atlona PAL to NTSC converter is, it has only one input. I wish it had multiple HDMI inputs so that I can connect multiple devices like Cable DTH box, Laptop etc.
Another drawback I see with Atlona is, my 55 inch Sony Bravia TV shows some white shade on all 4 corners of it. I am doing further research on it and soon I will share what I found about the white shade.
Read Where to buy PAL to NTSC converter in India
Very good comparison of Altona NTSC Pal and Com World Converter devices. Is there any other similar converter device s available in the market. What is the price?