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  1. Member
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    Ok, so basically I have some NTSC VHS tapes I want recording onto a DVD.

    I have a DVD recorder (Samsung DVD-R122) and i'm playing the NTSC tapes with my PAL VHS player (Phillips VR840). Although my player is PAL, it can still play NTSC tapes.
    I'm having a problem when trying to the record the playing video, I basically get the sound, and the video which is pretty much all green, i've tryed everything I can think of to sort this out, it does seem like a pretty basic reason why I can't record but is there any way around this??
    When I try PAL VHS tapes... it works fine.

    I should note that I do have trouble playing some NTSC tapes with the player i'm using, although the ones I have trouble with play fine on my VHS player downstairs. I think i'll try installing the VHS player from downstairs on my DVD recorder, but I'd rather try to get it sorted with what I have, the tape i'm using now IS NTSC, but it's one which plays fine, with no trouble, apart from when I try to record onto a DVD, any help?

    Hopefully that's understandable, thanks.
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  2. Banned
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    Just a guess as I live in NTSC land. Some PAL electronics output NTSC as a pseudo-PAL signal for TV compatibility and it's been reported that this signal is troublesome for various things. It could be that your PAL VHS player is doing this and your DVD recorder is choking on it because it realizes that it's neither a true NTSC signal nor a true PAL signal. It could also be that your DVD recorder will not accept NTSC input, but I think it more likely a problem with a pseudo-PAL signal when playing NTSC tapes. The only fix would be to see if you can set the VHS player to output a true NTSC signal, but that may not be possible. You'll have to look at the player's set up menu to see if this is even an option.
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  3. Member
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    I've been on and off trying to figure it out over the last few days, but i'm not really any further.

    I understand what you mean, but i'm not exactly sure, if you get me. :S
    Thanks for the help though, here's an online manual for my VCR:
    http://www.p4c.philips.com/cgi-bin/dcbint/cpindex.pl?slg=ENG&sct=SU00311_SU&cat=DVD_HO...nk_UserManuals
    I dunno, if you wanna check it out i'd be grateful, I'm almost certain it's the VCR's fault, but I havn't been able to get rid of the green bar, which covers the middle of the video, that's pretty much the only problem, when I go in and out of the menu you can see it flickering with and without the green bar, if only it would stay off, hah.

    What I need to know now is that.. will I be able to unplug my VCR recorder from downstairs and install it onto my DVD recorder up here, without it losing anything, so I can just re-plug it back in dowstairs when i'm done? Also, will my DVD recorder forget about my VCR recorder which is already installed up here? :S Seems unlikely, but it would make things a little easier, as the one downstairs has no trouble playing any of the tapes.

    Thanks.
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  4. Member rhegedus's Avatar
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    The problem is that the VCR is outputting the signal as PAL60 whereas the DVD recorder is only used to receiving a PAL50 signal. Check the manual to see if the settings can be changed to make it accept PAL60 signal.

    If it can't then there isn't a lot that can be done about it except to get someone else to do it for you.
    Regards,

    Rob
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  5. Member ntscuser's Avatar
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    According to Samsung (UK) the DVD-R122 doesn't record NTSC of any kind.
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  6. Banned
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    Originally Posted by rhegedus
    The problem is that the VCR is outputting the signal as PAL60 whereas the DVD recorder is only used to receiving a PAL50 signal. Check the manual to see if the settings can be changed to make it accept PAL60 signal.
    Thanks. This was exactly the point I was trying to make. Not living in PAL land is why I didn't remember the exact terms. I try to help and get accused of not understanding what is happening (which may or may not be true), but if we're both right then the original poster is the one who really isn't paying attention here.
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  7. The best thing to do is get a panasonic dvd emr-45V which will play ntsc tapes as "real" ntsc and record them as ntsc as most uk dvd players will play back ntsc dvd's on a uk TV.

    I am very experienced with this subject, what are these tapes of, if commercially available as dvd's that would be the best way, send me a list by PM if you wish and I'll see what is available here in Canada, or mail them to me and I'll convert them for you.

    I'll do it free as I am a collector and your stuff may be of interest to me. Usually is.
    PAL/NTSC problem solver.
    USED TO BE A UK Equipment owner., NOW FINISHED WITH VHS CONVERSIONS-THANKS
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  8. Member ntscuser's Avatar
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    A Panasonic DMR won't record VHS tapes with MacroVision copy protection. It requires an external stabiliser device.
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  9. Most of my old ntsc vhs's do not have copy protection,but you do have apoint.
    PAL/NTSC problem solver.
    USED TO BE A UK Equipment owner., NOW FINISHED WITH VHS CONVERSIONS-THANKS
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  10. Member
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    I had a similar problem - an NTSC tape, a PAL recorder, and lots of green or black and white playback depending on what setting I had it set to. (It played back fine on the TV but of course try capturing that signal when it's in fake NTSC - ie PAL60 format!)

    So I hooked the VCR to the computer with composites and set it to playback in NTSC. My PC has only a very basic capture card on it and PAL 60 was not an option. So I downloaded (for free) a program called "dscaler" and it's one of a very rare few that gives PAL 60 as an output option. Run the NTSC tape through your VCR. Open dscaler, select PAL60, and your input source (in my case Composite), then find the Action button, select record, and away you go.

    Some things to note: After recording, I found the file size was artificially bloated, but when run through any other video editing program it immediately shrank back to what it should be. So my 90 mins of NTSC captured AVI file took a whopping 90Gb of HD space (even though I had selected a compression setting), but after running the captured AVI through a movie editing program it jumped down to around 4-5Gb, good for a blank dvd.

    End result: Playback on TV is not quite as good as playback on computer monitor which seems to adjust for tiny little distortions but it gets the job done and is definitely watchable. Even with a copyright tape this worked for me. NB If you have heaps of NTSC tapes or want top quality buy the US-made NTSC VCR. But if not, then this will work and save you some quid.
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  11. Member
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    Yes this is the issue : capturing PAL60 with a DVD recorder is not possible when you bought it in a country does not support PAL natively like in France. Recorder transcodes SECAM to PAL.

    Here VCRs that play NTSC make fake NTSC like rhegedus mentionned.
    I've got friends in USA who had sent me tapes in NTSC. And I was able to capture them with my ATI VIVO card because it supported PAL60 signal as input (fed by my VCR which is PAL but it can read NTSC, PAL-60 in fact) ! Then I saved my videos with the appropriated format : NTSC.

    It costs time and it's not easy. I think that you can "transcode" PAL-60 to PAL-50 with an extra hardware. With a PC software, DScaler can help with like aussiegal mentionned.
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