(Video) Capture cards NTSC/PAL

[Mike_EH]

I can't find any posts regarding this subject since 2001, so I'm hoping someone might have some good news.
I have NTSC and PAL VHS videos that I want to convert to DVD before they deteriorate and become unplayable and obsolete. I have a Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-250, which I'm happy with, but it only captures PAL. I don't really want to install a second capture card on my PC for NTSC, so does anyone know of a capture card that is capable of capturing both formats?
Seems a bit strange that nearly all VCR's and TV's in the UK will now automatically play and view both NTSC and PAL formats, but capture cards are either one format or the other. Surely it can't be that difficult or expensive to produce one?
Mike

[marshalljames]

it's not.
My old AIW 7500,my old old AIW 16mb and my new aiw 2006 all support any signal you can think of(composite,s-video). pal b,d,h,i,m,n,60,secam b,d,g,h,k,k1,L,L1 and of course ntsc,ntsc-j
i personally have never had the need to use them,other than to see what happens to the ntsc signal i use.

[edDV]

I capture PAL with my Canopus ADVC but the normal capture cards have two issues: the tuner and raw video path. OTA tuners need to be highly localized because of the various transmission standards and channel frequency assignments. Also, the card makers don't like re-export potential out of the western hemisphere for example. So Americas models are often NTSC only or have limited support for PAL-M and PAL-N (different than Europe).

That said, some models may support baseline composite or S-Video NTSC/PAL if the decoding hardware supports both standards. That is the rub. It may take 3rd party software to fully utilize the hardware.

Most DV transcoders are dual standard but have no tuner. You need the use the TV or VCR tuner.

[Mike_EH]

I have received a patch from Hauppauge that, so I was informed, would enable my WinTV PSR-250 to "add sources other than PAL when adding new video sources to the unit." However, with the VCR in play mode all I now get is a totally black screen, (before I was getting horizontal lines), and when I stop the VCR, I get a "still" image from the NTSC video that lasts about 3 or 4 seconds, then back to a black screen again.
I've e-mailed Hauppage again....you never know, might suss this out yet...........

[FulciLives]

The Hauppauge WinTV PVR 250 should capture NTSC or PAL when using the "line in" inputs ... in other words do NOT use the RF TV Tuner input.

Also ... and I bet this is your problem ... just about all European VHS VCR units that are capable of NTSC VHS playback will only playback a NTSC VHS as a PAL 60 signal. This is a quasi PAL signal that can be viewed on most PAL televisions but very few capture cards can capture it.

You need a VHS VCR unit that can play a NTSC VHS and output as normal regular NTSC video ... not PAL 60.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

*** EDIT ***
Take a look at this website: http://www.shspvr.com/