Common Frequently Asked Questions


The Questions


The Answers

Q1a: I have some camcorder recordings I want to send to relatives in another country - I live in a country with NTSC, they live in a country with PAL/SECAM

This may well be easier than you think. The ability to replay NTSC VHS tapes is quite common amongst PAL VCRs - not all can do it, but there are a lot that can. At the very least, they should be able to buy a new VCR that can play NTSC tapes for the equivalent of around US$300; this is a lot cheaper than any of the conversion alternatives. Do be aware hovever that not all TVs will work with these VCRs, but most built in the last ten years should be able to.

Q1b: I have some camcorder recordings I want to send to relatives in another country - I live in a country with PAL/SECAM, they live in a country with NTSC

This is much harder. You are basically going to need to have the recordings standards converted from PAL/SECAM into NTSC as almost no NTSC VCRs are capable of playing PAL/SECAM tapes. This is a service that can be offered by some photographic shops and by most professional video dealers. Expect to be asked to confirm that there is no copyrighted material within the source tape you supply to them for conversion - most companies will not handle conversion of commercially available movies, videos, etc. Rates can be anything up to US$25 per hour.

The alternatives, particularly if there is likely to be a continuing flow of such tapes, are to either equip the recipient of your tapes to play PAL/SECAM or to purchase a standards converting VCR yourself and do your own conversions. Standards converting VCRs are available at around US$700 upwards from manufacturers such as Samsung and Panasonic, and from specialist dealers such as Lektropacks . To equip your recipient with playback equipment, the cheapest option is often to export a simple combined 14" TV/VCR unit after having checked that it will work on 110 volts AC as well as 220/240 volts. Alternatively a low cost PAL/SECAM VCR can be sent out, and either a video projector (most are multistandard, even in the US (but do check first)) or a professional video monitor sourced locally. In the USA, 14" professional video monitors start from around US$400 and are about the only TV like units available in the US that can handle a PAL playback signal. They are only available through specialist professional dealers.

Q2: I've been looking for High Band (Hi-8/SVHS/DV) multi-standard equipment and I can't seem find any

There are now a couple of models of SVHS deck available which are multi-standard, from at least JVC and Philips. I know of no Hi-8 equipment that is multi-standard. For DV, there are three of the Sony Professional DVCAM decks that can playback and record at SP speed on DV and miniDV tapes in both PAL and NTSC. These units are the DSR-11, DSR-25 and DSR-45. The DSR-11 starts at around US$2,000.


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Bevis King <B.King@ee.surrey.ac.uk>
9th October 2002