In the past I and others discussed the practicalities of shipping flat screen LCD's abroad. I have not seen a thread on it recently, and as I have in fact done so several times over the last couple of years, I thought I would impart this knowledge on the community.

Firstly since this subject was first brought up several years ago, the weights of these things have gone down remarkably. While a few years ago a 37 inch LCD could weigh 80 lbs without the box, today they can weigh as little as 25 lbs. Which of course takes the weight problem out of the equation.

Secondly, no airline is going to let you carry on a LCD larger than 22 or 24 inches, so that is not an option.

This leaves checking ones flat screen in and doing so without the boxes or much of the original packaging as otherwise no airline would accept most LCD boxes for TV's above 28 inches or so as the boxes are simply too big.

Before I continue with this, I should add that for those of you who do not live in countries where these things are still quite expensive, 3-8 times the price of the US, then this thread s not for you, so maybe we can avoid the commentary about "wouldn't it just be easier/better" to buy them at home? Quite frankly shipping a no name 32 inch LCD in this way that cost me little over $300 in the US, is far preferable to paying $1200 or so at home for essentially the same model and worth the risk.

Furthermore as the prices of these have come down in the US so far, it has even done away with the duty problem that one would once face when personally importing such items (i.e. they fit under the 400-500 Dollar or Euro limits for many countries.

Firstly when buying the TV, one has to deal with voltage and system problems. These days both are easily overcome, there are many models out there that have multi-voltage, and quite a good number of these multi-voltage machines can accept PAL signals they may not have a PAL tuner but can accept signals through a sat or cable box (or an external PAL tuner) perfectly well. Like with DVD players, generally the cheaper and more generic, the better for this purpose. Many models by Vizio, Insignia, Coby, etc. But surprisingly some models by Sharp and even the occasional SONY, but these take much more research.

Generally most LCD's without stands up to 37 or 40, or even 42 inches when packaged properly can fit within most airlines guidelines for checkin in luggage. The key is to protect the components properly which involves, a lot of packing tape, a lot of bubble wrap, some styrofoam, and at least 4 rigid and strong boards. Obviously the screen is the most delicate and needs to be protected, lots of bubble wrap, covered by a board that should be greater than the screen but smaller than the frame and well secured by tape. Then more bubble wrap alla round, then boards on both sides, then more bubble wrap, etc. Strong heavy duty padded corners and several styrofoam impact points secured to everything, then the whole thing covered by black plastic bags. If you do it right you will have a package which is near indestructible and protected even from the worst of baggage handlers.

I and several people I know have all done this multiple times and we have yet to have any damage whatsoever.