Any way to capture PAL VHS with capture card?

[maestro]

I was sent a VHS tape from Spain, it is PAL, I live in the US. I was wondering if there was any possible way to see the video using my capture card, or if the VHS Player will only send out an NTSC signal. Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

-Brandon

[Capmaster]

Yoyu will need a multiformat VCR to play that back. Either that or you'll need to send it to a job shop to get it converted to NTSC, or better yet - transfer the PAL tape onto DVD for you. That should run about $10/tape.

[FulciLives]

Many computer capture cards and devices can capture both NTSC and PAL

However the problem is this ... your USA model VHS VCR can only play back NTSC VHS tapes. When you play back a PAL VHS tape it will not output the PAL signal properly. You will either get a "rolling" B/W image or something like a scrambled cable TV channel as your output.

You will need a VHS VCR that can play back NTSC and PAL such as this TOSHIBA model here:

http://www.world-import.com/v-e60.htm

This model is what we call a multi-system VHS VCR. It can play and record NTSC as well as PAL and has a multiple voltage auto-switching power supply so it can be used just about anywhere in the world.

Just remember a model like this does no conversion on it's own. Play back a NTSC VHS and you get a NTSC signal. Play back a PAL VHS and you get a PAL signal. You can't play back PAL and get NTSC or vice versa.

There are models that will do conversion but they are MUCH more expensive and oftentimes the conversion isn't all that great.

It is better to capture a PAL VHS as PAL on your computer then convert to NTSC on the computer if you need that type of conversion.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman