Timestamp wrong time - php

Question

This is my problem
My default timezone is date_default_timezone_set('Europe/Madrid')
actual time 2012-12-06 17:00:38
start time 2012-12-10 16:30:00
unix timestamp actual time 1354809638
unix timestamp start time 1350052200
Start time is greater then actual time. But "unix timestamp actual time" is greater then "unix timestamp start time".
I wonder why?
RELEVANT CODE:
$to_unix_startTime = new DateTime($postField['startTime']);
$UnixStartTime = $to_unix_startTime->format('U');
$date = new DateTime();
$actualTime = $date->getTimestamp();
$start = new DateTime($postFields['startAuct']);
$start->format('Y-m-d H:i:s').PHP_EOL;
$start_tmstmp = date_timestamp_get($start);
$date = new DateTime();
$timestamp = $date->getTimestamp();
if ($timestamp > $start_tmstmp) {
echo $auctStatus = 1;
} elseif ($timestamp < $start) {
echo $auctStatus = 4;
}

Answer 1

$postField['startTime'] is in the wrong format. How do I know this? The timestamp you got from the start date, 1350052200, represents date 2012-10-12 (October 12th 2012) in stead of 2012-12-10 (December 10th 2012).
$postField['startTime'] is probably in the format 10/12/2012 (which will be parsed by DateTime as an American style date), when it should be formatted as 10-12-2012 (which will be parsed by DateTime as a European style date).
So, concluding, check the format of $postField['startTime'] and make sure it is a European style representation of a date.
[edit] Compare:
$european = new DateTime( '10-12-2012' );
$american = new DateTime( '10/12/2012' );
echo $european->format( 'Y-m-d' ) . ' (' . $european->getTimestamp() . ')' . PHP_EOL;
echo $american->format( 'Y-m-d' ) . ' (' . $american->getTimestamp() . ')' . PHP_EOL;

Answer 2

There is no need to format the datetime before getting the timestamp.
Check my code here: https://compilr.com/shadyyx/datetime/index.php
Should there be any problem with the link, here is the code without output:
<?php
date_default_timezone_set('Europe/Madrid');
$start = new DateTime('2012-12-10 16:30:00');
$actual = new DateTime('2012-12-06 17:00:38');
echo $start->format('d.m.Y H:i:s').PHP_EOL;
echo $actual->format('d.m.Y H:i:s').PHP_EOL;
echo PHP_EOL;
$start_tmstmp = $start->getTimestamp();
$act_tmstmp = $actual->getTimestamp();
echo $start_tmstmp.PHP_EOL;
echo $act_tmstmp.PHP_EOL;
echo PHP_EOL;
var_dump($start_tmstmp > $act_tmstmp);