NTSC vs PAL in VHS.

[drhugh]

A friend in Europe sent me a VHS tape and when I tried to play it, it would not. So next time I talked to him I asked him why, he said he'd heard that there are different formats for Europe and US. Is this true and if so how can I watch this video? Thanks

[liam858]

That is true, i'm not exactly sure with VHS tapes, i know how with a DVD, never tried a VHS from abroad, but with DVD Europe's region is 2, and US is 1...probably the same....I'll move the thread to Multimedia where it should get more attention than the lounge.:)


Liam

[Platypus]

Europe can be expected to have one of a few variants of PAL or SECAM, you could search out a multi-standard VCR, or a recording professional could probably dub the tape across to an NTSC copy if there is no copyright issue.

[Ridgerunr]

The European vhs format is 'PAL'. The US,Canada(and a few others) is 'NTSC'.
PAL(vhs) can be converted to NTSC(vhs),but you either have to have it done professionally,which is quite expensive at around usd$50.00 per 2 hour tape. Or you can do it with software on your PC and,of course,a VCR connected to it and capture software and/or PCI card. Some examples of what you'd need are here (http://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=228505) ...

[Nix]

Here in australia most TVs and VCRs support NTSC playback on PAL equipment (albeit somewhat poorer quality), it is often touted as a selling point.

Is that not the case in US ?

Maybe it's too hard to convert PAL to NTSC