Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!nycmny1-snh1.gtei.net!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.gtei.net!npeer.kpnqwest.net!newssrv.ita.tip.net!news.albacom.net!newsread1.albacom.net!not-for-mail From: gg_l_oops@hotmail.com (Gianluigi Sartori) Newsgroups: soc.culture.italian Subject: s.c.italian FAQ (CUSTOMS AND STANDARDS) [7/8] Date: Sun, 16 Apr 2000 14:10:17 GMT Lines: 206 Message-ID: <38f9c9a3.1193238@news.kataweb.it> NNTP-Posting-Host: h213-20-133.mi2.albacom.net X-Trace: serv1.albacom.net 955894042 18165 213.213.20.133 (16 Apr 2000 14:07:22 GMT) X-Complaints-To: abuse@albacom.net NNTP-Posting-Date: 16 Apr 2000 14:07:22 GMT X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 1.11/32.235 Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu soc.culture.italian:252972 Expires: 1 Jun 2000 07:00:00 GMT Followup-To: soc.culture.italian Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.Edu Organization: Stanford University Computer Systems Laboratory Summary: This posting contains a list of Frequently Asked Questions (and their answers) about Italy and soc.culture.italian. Archive-name: cultures/italian/customs-standards Posting-Frequency: Monthly Version: 1.10 If you want to add or change any information in this FAQ, there are separate editors for the 8 parts. Here is a list with the names. Sending your contribution to the right person will speed up the process. Introduction Gianluigi Sartori Italy and Internet Gianluigi Sartori Italians in a foreign land Gianluigi Sartori Italian radio and TV Gianluigi Sartori Academics Gianluigi Sartori Arts and Tourism Gianluigi Sartori Customs and Standards Gianluigi Sartori Misc Gianluigi Sartori =====S7. CUSTOMS AND STANDARDS ==Q7.1= Can I use my Italian electonic appliances in ======= USA/UK and vice versa? Last modified: Wed May 22 21:05:17 MET 1996 Per Radio/HiFi non c'e' problema. Per gli USA puo' essere necessario (se il dispositivo non e' munito di cambiatensioni) utilizzare un trasformatore (per piccole potenze in USA lo si trova da Radio Shack per 16 dollari). Piccoli/grossi elettrodomestici: per gli USA se contengono motori e' poco probabile che funzionino in quanto la frequenza di rete e' diversa (USA 60 Hz, ITA 50 Hz). E' comunque poco conveniente. TV/VCR: In USA viene impiegato il sistema televisivo NTSC mentre in Italia e gran parte d'Europa il PAL B/G. In UK e Irlanda viene utilizzato il PAL I. In Francia e` usato il sistema SECAM (incompatibile col PAL e con l'NTSC). Il SECAM e` anche usato in quasi tutta l'area d'influenza francese (leggi paesi francofoni d'Africa) e anche in altre regioni del mondo (ex. URSS, almeno in parte) NTSC e PAL non sono compatibili tra di loro. Esistono in commercio TV e VCR che possono visualizzare sia NTSC che PAL, in USA si trovano nelle grosse citta' generalmente in negozi gestiti da Indiani (dell'India, non American Indians) i quali offrono anche servizi per la conversione di tapes. In USA un TV multi-system costa circa il doppio di un TV normale, e convertire un tape puo' costare circa $20-$30 per tape. Tapes non registrati acquistati in USA possono essere utilizzati su apparecchi europei, mentre cassette o videodischi preregistrati non possono essere impiegati su VCR/laserdisc europei. PAL I (UK) e PAL B/G (Ita/Eur) sono parzialmente compatibili. Sono diversi nella fase di trasmissione/ricezione nella sezione audio. Un TV italiano visualizzera' i programmi in UK/Eire ma non si sentira' nulla (e viceversa). Pero' un VCR italiano collegato via presa SCART o comunque in banda base (cioe' non tramite la presa d'antenna) ad un TV inglese (e viceversa) funziona perfettamente. Nastri acquistati in UK possono essere utilizzati e visti in apparecchi europei. Esistono anche convertitori tra i diversi formati (PAL-SECAM-NTSC) e i diversi apparecchi(VCRs, TVs, camcoders). Una interessante www page sul soggetto puo' essere recuperata al seguente indirizzo: http://www.best.com/~jdulaney/pal.html References: International Telecommunications Union "Television systems used around the world", Switzerland, ISBN 92-61-02971-X Usenet: rec.video Also for pecific questions: bellutta@ohsu.edu ==Q7.2= Will electronic devices (phone etc) bought abroad work ======= properly in Italy? Last modified: August 13 1993 Luigi Semenzato writes: POWER SUPPLIES Most electrical appliances will need a transformer. Italy's AC is 220V, 50Hz. U.S. is 110V, 60Hz. A transformer can bring 220V, 50Hz to 110V, 50Hz. The difference between the 50 and 60 Hz is well tolerated by most appliances (but see below). Some modern equipment, among which certain models of camcorders and computers, have a `universal power supply' that will work properly when plugged anywhere in the world. Check the voltage and frequency requirements on the appliance itself. Some items will not work properly even with a transformer. The ones I know of are clock radios that count the AC cycles to keep the time. They will run 20% slow in Italy (50 minutes in 1 hour). Transformers change the voltage, not the frequency. [Not completely true: there are AC-DC-AC devices that also change the frequency, but they are not exactly consumer items, so don't look for them at Radio Shack]. Items with large electric motors of the asynchronous type (electric fans, for instance) will run 20% slower in Italy. (The small motors in devices like printers or compact disk players run on internally converted DC, so those are no problem). For those items that can use a transformer, two types are available: iron-core transformers, and solid-state transformers. The iron-core type is generally safe with any appliance, but it is much heavier than the solid-state type. If the power of the appliance exceeds about 200W, a iron-core transformer gets rather heavy and it is usually better to buy it in Italy. Solid-state transformers are cheaper and much lighter and they are easily available for power up to 1500W. They should be used for resistive loads only: clothes irons, soldering irons, hair driers (the motor has a slight inductive load, but it's sufficiently small compared with the heating resistor), light bulbs (without a dimmer!). A large inductive load (like a food processor) is likely to fry the solid-state transformer. Solid-state transformers often have a dirty voltage output and may destroy the power supplies of computers and other electronic equipment. TELEPHONE, FAX, MODEM Most telephone equipment purchased in the U.S. works properly in Italy. If the equipment needs to be plugged into an electrical outlet, a 110/220 transformer is needed (see the POWER SUPPLIES section above). The following precautions must be taken: ---for telephone sets and fax machines, make sure that the set has a tone dial/pulse dial switch (most do). Most Italian phone lines are still on the pulse system. Some are on the tone system: and, surprisingly, the U.S. tones work for them, even though many (among which a professor of telecommunications at a famous university) believe that the European standard is based on different tones. ---answering machines work generally fine, but retrieving messages from another phone is not always possible, because it doesn't generate the tones (public phones, for instance, don't). Battery-operated pocket tone generators with a dial pad and a speaker are available in the U.S. and cost between $10 and $20. ---the fax and modem protocol are almost completely standardized and everything works. In the standard situation, however, a U.S. modem will wait for the U.S. ready-to-dial tone before dialing, and will never do it. For Hayes-compatible modems (the vast majority) the dialing command must be changed from ATDT to ATXDP,,,. The DP means DIAL PULSE (use Dial Tone when possible); the X means don't wait for the dial tone; and the commas introduce a delay, to allow for the phone to get ready after unhooking. Also, the modem will not recognize the RING and BUSY signals. ---cordless phones work but may be illegal (because of frequency bands allotments). Nobody seems to care. The new 900 MHz systems (they cost more, at least $300, and claim a wider range) are almost certainly illegal. The digital broadband systems (still rare even in the U.S.) were illegal in 1991, as Italian regulation did not allow any kind of broadband communication. Cellular phone sets are useless, since the local telephone company (SIP) appears to have a monopoly on cellular communication. STEREO, RADIO, TV, VCR, CAMCORDERS, All stereo equipment works fine with a transformer, with one small exception: the FM radio band in Italy starts at a slightly lower frequency than the U.S. lower bound of 88 MHz, and a few stations are unreachable. The U.S. TV standard (NTSC) and the Italian one (PAL) are not compatible. Among various differences, NTSC transmits 30 frames/second, PAL 25 frames/second. Many electronic stores, especially those in large cities and the mail-order stores, carry PAL and multi-system equipment (both PAL and NTSC in various flavors, and often SECAM too). Pre-recorded video tapes bought in the U.S. cannot be played on Italian VCRs (blank tapes are OK), unless both VCR and TV set are of the multi-system type. There is also a still rare and relatively expensive type of VCR that is capable of reading a NTSC tape and outputting a PAL signal (the conversion is hard, because of the different number of frames). Do not confuse this with a cheaper type that performs a `fake' NTSC-PAL conversion: it outputs a PAL signal at 30 frames/second. Some PAL TV sets can handle that, usually with a certain amount of picture distortion (shorter and wider); other can't. There are also converters for the different standards (PAL-SECAM-NTSC) and devices (VCRs, TVs, camcoders). An useful www page about this topic is in : http://www.best.com/~jdulaney/pal.html VIDEO GAMES A video-game unit bought in the U.S. outputs a NTSC signal and will work only with a NTSC