An american NTSC Camcorder, i think i was caught.

netwhizkid

Hi all,

I was on holidays in the U.S.A a few months back and i bought a samsung SCL 700 HI 8 camcorder which is supposed to be dual format i.e, NTSC and PAL i done a few recordings in the u.s and i would like to put them on a PAL VHS, now the camcorder can play back in whats called PAL60 format i hooked it up to my video recorder and tried to copy it on to a VHS, but it comes out very poor and the sound and picture quality is bad. When i hook it up direct to the tv, and play it back direct from the camcorder theres no problems, but i cant copy it onto the PAL VHS, my VCR is not at fault because it records of terrestrail tv and sky fine.
When i bought it i was assured it would work here and it does every thing except the copying onto PAL VHS. It takes 220v and all. I called samsung in the UK (they don't have a call base here) and they said they couldn't help me as it was an american make. My VCR is a panasonic PAL bought in Ireland,

Could anyone give me any suggestions on what to do ?
Or what would be my consumer rights be because of it being bought in America ?

I bought it for US$467 including a camcorder bag and a few blank HI 8 tapes i found the same thing for $148.88 on Amazon.com so i'm afraid i was a victim of catch the gulible tourist.

I know i can the tapes converted onto PAL VHS by a photo store, but it costs €25.00 and that dosen't make home videos very home made does it.

Thanking you in advance,

netwhizkid

Thumper Long

you could try using a ntsc to pal conversion box, they are available from maplin electronics in either jervis st, or blanchardstown and probably available from peats etc. in maplin the come in at 82.49 euro (catalog num: NZ77j).


just found 1 on ebay www.ebay.co.uk £29.99 same as the one from maplin


anpther one even cheaper ebay eile

netwhizkid

Thanks Thumper Long for that piece of info,

The conversion box itself will work fine.
But according to whats on this i should be able to get one of these to work

Originally posted by thesteve
it doesn't have to record in NTSC, just read an NTSC signal which most recorders these days can... when it records, it will record in PAL, hence being able to be read in all VCR's (here anyway)

would anybody know where to buy or maybe even rent a VCR that can read NTSC signals and then record the signal onto PAL format ?

Regards netwhizkid

ZENER

I recommend you read that thread in its entirety, There are several differant PAL formats and not all EU VCRs acan read let alone record them.

ZENER

/EDIT/

According to the manual the sales man was technically speaking telling the truth - the device offers PAL60 out from its NTSC tapes for display on European/PAL TV's

http://www.techtronics.com/uk/shop/87-00-video-standards-ntsc-pal.html

This should clarify your options.

ZEN

Zaphod

Be careful with convertors! In general, analogue convertors will allow you to play an NTSC source on a PAL TV, but you will still be unable to record onto a PAL VCR.

Digital convertors, which are more expensive (double or treble price), will allow you to record onto a PAL VCR.

Further info here:
http://www.keene.co.uk/pages/cat/13con/131-1-1.html

Alt. you could try using a PCI capture card (set to NTSC) and then using the TV-Out on a graphics card (set to PAL) to send the signal to your VCR. I haven't tried this setup myself, but I do know that an NTSC source from a satellite card can be converted in such a manner.

zilog_jones

It's not the PAL and NTSC colour systems that are the problem at all, especially if the camcorder can output PAL60. The problem lies in the "60" - normally PAL TV has a vertical frequency of 50Hz and NTSC has 60Hz. Many VCRs here can play back video tapes recorded at either 50Hz (PAL) or 60Hz (usually NTSC) - the only problem is that they usually can't record at 60Hz. I've tried it with our Panasonic VCR before, too, and it ends up a mess.

You could convert the signal from 60 to 50Hz, but without very modern expensive equipment (like they use in the broadcasting industry), it'll look like blurry crap - much like how old American TV shows recorded with video cameras like Married With Children, Diff'rent Strokes and The Cosby Show when they showed them over here. Eww. That's why most American TV shows are filmed...

There's no easy way really, and I don't think that PC capture card thing will work too well - it'll just make it very jerky, if it actually will work at all.

And why do you want to put them onto crappy old VHS anyway? Hi-8 is much better quality - even if you could copy it, it won't look half as good.