Totally random question but I know bugger all about Tvs.

Ive got a Sony TV (KV21LT1U Trinitron thingy) and a mate with a Japanese PS3. Ive been told the Jap PS3 is NTSC mode only.

A quick peek on Google has resulted in me finding the manual which says the TV works in NTSC 3.58 and 4.43 or something as well as PAL mode. Ive looked through the setup but theres nothing mentioned about changing modes from PAL to NTSC.

If I plug the Jap PS3 in will it work straight away or will I have issues?

Asking as hes selling it cheap and I dont want to have to buy a new TV. I know it wont play UK DVDs or BluRays but Im not arsed as its for games only.

It should auto sense the format & reconfigure itself

NTSC = Never Twice the Same Colour

The TV isnt HD and doesnt have a HDMI port only SCART input, will that make a difference?

It shouldn’t do as long as it’s a fully populated Scart cable
You may need to adjust the RGB centring

By fully populated you mean the 3 component leads (red white yellow)?

That’s just composite video+audio
Not sure that’ll do – try looking for a RGB cable

Ok great, thanks for the info.

Its not the kind of thing I can just bring home and try as he lives at the other end of the country.

PAL and NTSC are both formats of analogue video. In essence, PAL is 625 vertical lines at an aspect ration of 4:3 (as it is analogue, there is no fixed horizontal resolution, but rather this depends on the TV) while NTSC is lower, typically 525 line.
However, these names also refer to the signal standard for composite (single cable) signal transmission, as you would effectively get from a terrestrial analogue transmitter.
In addition to your TV needing to cope with these signal types, it may also need to cope with a variety of means of receiving the signal, such as direct antenna feed (via a demodulator, or tuner), composite video cable (your red, white and yellow – the video signal is on the yellow, with the stereo audio channels on the red and white), component video (or Y/C which separates the monochrome brightness from the colour as in the original PAL format) and RGB. The SCART connector supports all three of these, and they are not always wired in.
In essence, the more wires the signal is carried over, the higher the horizontal resolution (limited to the native PAL resolution of 625 lines per picture height). Therefore, RGB is best and you need to make sure you have an RGB wired SCART cable.
You also need to make sure you have an RGB wired SCART socket on the TV. Typically, older Sony TVs only wired SCART 1 for RGB, and there is a setting on the menu to use this.
As an aside, almost all modern (from mid-90s ish onwards) TVs can handle either PAL or NTSC (it makes for lower manufacturing costs).

You asked, so it was worth answering, even if you fall asleep before you get to this point.

Oh, and NTSC stands for National Television Standards Commission, and PAL stands for Phase alternate line.

Oh, and PAL signals are typified by “colour bleed” where colour from large, intense areas bleeds into neighbouring areas. A feature of the very short colour burst component to the PAL signal.