How do we play PAL vhs tapes in US?

[skchwojko]

Is there a special VCR in existence in the USA that plays both NTSC & PAL media?

Sherry

[LT Garrix]

My mom picked one up somewhere, not sure where, so I know they exist. You could probably search ebay or amazon for one.

[LiLOrion]

Yeah there are. Of course they are a lot more expensive. If you type in PAL/NTSC VCRs into Google you'll bring up some examples.

It might be cheaper to take the tape to a place that will convert it over to NTSC for you.

[skchwojko]

Yeah there are. Of course they are a lot more expensive. If you type in PAL/NTSC VCRs into Goggle you'll bring up some examples.

It might be cheaper to take the tape to a place that will convert it over to NTSC for you.

Thanks for the advice. I'm not very knowledgable about these things. What kind of place will convert it? What should I look up in the yellow pages?

Sherry

[LiLOrion]

I would look under tape/video dubbing. At the very least look under "video" and see if there are any that do home movie restoration or conversions from reels or tapes to CDs/DVDs, beta tapes, etc.

[sny]

Even if you get the combo VCR, I think (with most models) you also need a little convertor/adaptor cable between the VCR and the television. Most televisions (last I checked, which, admittedly, has been a while) don't play PAL in the US, so the signal needs to be converted from PAL to NTSC format between the VCR and the TV. The convertor is pretty cheap, but sometimes hard to locate.

Easiest solution, if you only have one or two tapes, is to get them converted as LilOrion suggested. Be advised that the tape will probably look a little "muddy" and perhaps slightly "off", though. PAL format carries more information and a better picture quality, and sometimes the picture suffers a bit when it's converted. But conversion is usually cheap. I think I got my Eddie Izzard tape converted back in the day for less than $5, not counting the shipping costs. I seem to recall the place was in Michigan. I found the place on the internet.

[BaseLine]

Even if you get the combo VCR, I think (with most models) you also need a little convertor/adaptor cable between the VCR and the television. Most televisions (last I checked, which, admittedly, has been a while) don't play PAL in the US, so the signal needs to be converted from PAL to NTSC format between the VCR and the TV. The convertor is pretty cheap, but sometimes hard to locate.

I thought a combo VCR already converts the PAL signal to NTSC so there is no need for a seperate convertor.

[LiLOrion]

Most of the ones that I was looking at have the converter. Granted they were DVD/VCR combos and cost over $200.

[sny]

Like I say, it's been a while since I checked. Back when I did, you still needed a cheap dangly thing to go between the VCR and the television to convert the signal for the television on all the models I found. Back then, combo VCRs simply could play and output either PAL or NTSC, whatever the tape was, and it didn't automatically come out as NTSC. Hence the dongle thingie to translate the signal for your television. But that was probably a minimum of four years ago, if not more.

[LiLOrion]

...cheap dangly thing...

:lol You describe things like I do.

[sny]

Well the term "convertor" is so dry...