Determining Whether a VHS is NTSC or PAL

[innocenceisdeath]

Is there any way to determine whether a VHS is NTSC or PAL?

Thanks

[hech54]

Not by looking at the tape itself...no. If it came from outside of America chances are it is PAL.

[innocenceisdeath]

It came from an American living in the UK :/

What will happen if I attempt to play it in the wrong VCR? e.g. NTSC in a PAL VCR?

[edDV]

It came from an American living in the UK :/

What will happen if I attempt to play it in the wrong VCR? e.g. NTSC in a PAL VCR?

A PAL tape in an NTSC VCR will fail to lock.

If this is a single tape, take it to a dub house that does PAL conversions and ask for an NTSC digital file or DVD.

Or are you in a PAL region and can't play the tape? Many PAL VCRs made in the 90's or later will play NTSC VHS tapes as PAL 60 (525 lines/60 fields luma but with 4.43 MHz PAL chroma subcarrier). This requires a TV with PAL 60 support.

[hech54]

It came from an American living in the UK :/

What will happen if I attempt to play it in the wrong VCR? e.g. NTSC in a PAL VCR?

And you are in America?
If you are....you are pretty screwed. It won't kill your machine though.

[innocenceisdeath]

I am living in the UK. The VHS is most likely to be NTSC. I'm more concerned about damaging the VHS than any machine. VCRs are at least replaceable. I can't find any decent services to do transfers around here. So, I figured I'd do it myself. I guess I'll have to get a VCR that is both PAL and NTSC compatible.