Hi all.

I'm getting a new system shortly and have been researching what to get with it. What I want to do are:
Record TV (NTSC) shows and burn to S/VCD or DVD
Convert PAL home movies (VHS) to S/VCD or DVD (NTSC format, if possible with good quality)

My first question regards the PAL conversion issue. Would I be correct to assume that a PAL tape will play fine in a US (i.e., NTSC) VCR and send the signal out fine, but it is at the TV where things will not work? In other words, could I use a US VCR to play back a PAL tape ONLY for capturing to a PC? I would think so, since I imagine the signal itself will be the same, but the information contained in the signal would be different.

My second question and search for advice involves the PVR/TV tuner card and the PAL-NTSC issue. I've been looking for an all-in-one solution, but most of the items I've found indicate that I will need to get two cards: a TV tuner and some sort of capture (like the Dazzle DVC) or conversion card (like the Canopus ADVC-50).

I would prefer to use a card that can capture in an S/VCD/DVD native resolution (like the Hauppage PVR) to make media creation easier as I'm not too experienced at it yet. All of the PVR/TV tuner cards I've looked at so far specify the signal source as NTSC or PAL, but not switchable between the two, which is what I'd really like.

Is there a card like that, or do I need to get two different items? Either way, does anyone have any specific recommendations for either (if two, I'm leaning right now toward the Canopus ADVC-50 and Hauppage Win TV PVR).

Thanks,
Emmet