Brand new. Can one play a miniDV recorded in ntsc in PAL camera

[manwithacamera]

Let me start off by saying thanks in advance for any help you can give. Long story short: had a Sharp MiniDV camera in the early 2000s that I used exclusively in the USA. Have about 8 tapes of memories on there. Now it's 2025 I live in the UK, just received a Sharp Viewcam Z from an eBay seller. VL-Z5 to be specific. Inserted miniDV cassette for playback through viewfinder and I'm getting scrambled blocky images. Is it the problem with the switch from NTSC to PAL or could it be something else? It did not come with a charger, but I'm taking care of that. Any ideas? To make things easier/trickier I own 2 older Macs both with FireWire. If I can use the camera plus power to rip them into this I absolutely will. Thanks for any help you can think of.

[DB83]

AFAIK the short answer is No.

Since DV is a digital format it does not work like when you have NTSC video tape that can play back in a PAL vcr or likewise with a dvd.


I have read that some high-end Sony PAL DV camcorders can transcode NTSC to PAL on-the-fly but one would have to read the spec/manual of the camcorder to be sure.


TBF your best recourse is to find a company that can do the transfer for you. Ultimately cheaper than even attempting to source a camcorder yourself.

[manwithacamera]

I appreciate you responding! The other factors that are complicating all of this is that I've not used them in 20 years, they were on a boat over here when I moved back - so many variables. Well I ended up getting a charger and cable to connect it to my older macs and see what happens. I realised as I popped a cassette into my tape deck that has a minidisc player sitting on top of it that I'm probably insane, ha. I'll check back in to let you know what happens. But good - knowing that digital should always be digital is a start! Perhaps the viewfinder is acting strangely for a very obvious reason. What an interesting camera btw £31 shipped. Paid at least 650 USD for my OG.

[dellsam34]

As far as I know PAL DV camcorders can stream NTSC over firewire, So I would connect it to computer via firewire and go from there.