PAL to NTSC vhs or dvd?

[tomasine17]

Hello friends! I need some help once again so I am coming to the brilliant people who hang out at this board in hopes of getting an answer. I wish to purchase a PAL vhs or dvd from a source in Europe, but once I get it I want to be able to convert it to NTSC. First off, which format should I purchase, vhs or dvd, and then does anyone have any idea how to convert it, or the best way? One thing I don't understand is if my dvd drive or vcr won't play PAL tapes, how in the world do you play it in order to convert it in the first place? Is it possible at all to get a video off of a PAL vhs tape on an American vcr? or will it be easier to purchase the dvd, and then convert from that? I need help!

[Kaktus]

In Europe we do it the opposite way!

My Sony dvd player plays both NTSC525 and PAL625 and both play well on a Sony multistandard tv-set so we don't need to convert the dvd's.

I think the best way for you, if you want to buy a large number of movies, is to buy a dvd player that's handles both NTSC and PAL. It should be a region-free player as well.

VCR's are handled in another way. Most new VCR's can handle both NTSC and PAL tapes. But the lines and frame rates are not converted, just the colour system. When I play an American NTSC tape in me JVC VCR I will get 525 lines, 30 pictures/sec. and the NTSC colour converted to PAL! This is commonly known as PAL60 here!

Most larger TV sets sold in Europe can handle NTSC, PAL and SECAM. I can watch American DVD's, laserdisc's and VHS tapes without any problems but the damn Closed Caption system!

[DJRumpy]

Assuming you don't want to invest in a new player, just purchase the DVD, rip it on your computer, and convert it to NTSC using DVD2AVI, and the encoder of your choice.

Your assured better quality that way, than a VHS to VHS copy.