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[demi]

PAL VHS tapes don't work on american VHS players right? Sorta how PAL DVDs don't work on American DVD players, etc.

The reason I ask is because someone in britain recently shipped me a tape with various television shows that I've been interested in.

So basically, what would I need to watch these on my television? Any specific VHS player, a converter...what?

 

[Nerevar]

PAL VHS tapes don't work on american VHS players right? Sorta how PAL DVDs don't work on American DVD players, etc.

The reason I ask is because someone in britain recently shipped me a tape with various television shows that I've been interested in.

So basically, what would I need to watch these on my television? Any specific VHS player, a converter...what?

analog technology is a whole different ballgame. Unlike DVDs, which are just encoded with a region code that a DVD player is "supposed" to look at before playing a tape, VHS tapes are actually encoded in an entirely different format. You need a special tape player to play them, and I'm not sure how legal they are outside of use for academic institutions.

Edit - or you can just try and get a foreign tape player that outputs information in NTSC format, although I don't know if that exists.

 

[megateto]

Ther are PAL vcrs that can play NTSC tapes. If it's of any help...

 

[demi]

Any idea how I would convert it at least? If that's possible.

 

[COCKLES]

Nearly all PAL machines play NTSC stuff. Because of consoles, most TV examples in the UK use NTSC compatability as a selling point.

 

[bjork]

I ran into this same problem with the Bjork 3-cd single boxsets that were released for Homogenic. The videotapes were all PAL, so you'd get sound and no picture, just flicker... back then, people said "you have to buy a player from overseas."

 

[ShyGuy]

All you North Americans sound like you don't know what you're talking about.

Basically, all you need to watch PAL vhs tapes on NTSC systems are:

1) A TV that is able to accept a PAL signal (i.e. a Multisystem one)
2) A VCR that is able to play back a PAL signal.

if all else fails, get yourself a tv tuner card or analogue video capture card for PC, set up the software to accept a PAL signal, and your computer would then be able to play back PAL-formatted video tapes.

Conversion between PAL and NTSC (and SECAM) is possible using specialised equipment, there are plenty of conversion places out there. It's not that hard to be able to watch PAL-formatted tapes in NTSC territories.

And Neverar, DVD's also use PAL and NTSC in addition to the region codes. If you have a "world-zone" DVD player that is able to play back DVD's encoded in any region, and then proceed to play back a PAL-formatted Region 2 DVD in your player, you probably still wouldn't be able to see the picture if your TV cannot handle a PAL signal.

 

[demi]

if all else fails, get yourself a tv tuner card or analogue video capture card for PC, set up the software to accept a PAL signal, and your computer would then be able to play back PAL-formatted video tapes.

Will any TV card work?

I use this:

http://www.hauppauge.com/Pages/products/data_go.html