Capture NTSC from PC Playing PAL TV-Out Using DV Camcorder!?

[eugenegill]

I have old family VHS videos recorded in PAL which I would like to digitize for creating NTSC VCDs. Is there any reason why this scheme would not work, or not be a good idea:

Play the PAL tape (using PAL VCR) full-screen on the PC with a PAL-compatible TV card (Aver TV98). Record the TV-out signal (NTSC S-video) from the computer video card (ECS AG315T 64MB http://www.ecsusa.com/ecsusa/www.ecs.com.tw/products/ag315t.htm) on a NTSC VCR or, even better, digital camcorder?

It seems to me that this would be a good way of converting and digitizing at the same time. I could avoid doing the analog capture with all its problems, and the tedious process of converting formats.

[SLK001]

Won't work... you still have to contend with the different frame rates. The only way this will work, is to set up your camera and record the screen with the camera - but the resultant "quality" isn't worth the effort.

But, it is a lot easier to go from PAL to NTSC than NTSC to PAL. Once the PAL is "captured", crop it to 720x480 (from 720x576), slow it down from 25fps to 24fps, then TELECINE the result to 30fps, with a DROP FRAME flag set to give you a final 29.97fps video. You also have to slow down the audio about 4% so it will sync.

[eugenegill]

Surely the NTSC out from the PC graphics card is at the correct frame rate to work with a NTSC television?

Once the PAL is "captured", crop it to 720x480 (from 720x576), slow it down from 25fps to 24fps, then TELECINE the result to 30fps, with a DROP FRAME flag set to give you a final 29.97fps video. You also have to slow down the audio about 4% so it will sync.

This is what I want to avoid! I get a headache just reading it