Can Secam Varieties Be Played Interchangeably?

[moviebuff2]

Hi everyone:

According to Wikipedia, Secam has 5 varieties: L, D/K, B/G, H & K. Are these varieties compatible with one another? In other words, can a Secam tape be played on any machines that has Secam feature. Or, a Secam-L tape must be played only by a Secam-L equipped machine?

Please don't confuse yourself with Mesecam which is incompatible with Secam.

Thanks

[jman98]

I'm a little curious to find out the answer, but may I ask why you care? Asking about SECAM at all means you are asking about what is now antiquated technology and there may be some incorrect assumptions behind it. For example, there's a lot of bad, out of date information on the internet about TV standards and you might be surprised to find out that some of the countries that used to use SECAM have now abandoned it and moved to PAL. If you think you are going to send a SECAM-L tape to some friend who lives in SECAM land, you would be better off to send a DVD or find out if this friend really lives in a place where they still use SECAM. Most of Eastern Europe has dumped it, with only Andorra, Luxemburg and some of the former states in the USSR (but not all) still sticking to it.

You'll probably need to find someone from France to answer this question. If nobody here has any idea what the answer is, you might try asking on the forums at http://www.doom9.net as some French guys do participate on the forums there and might be able to help you.

[moviebuff2]

Hi jman98:

I have a few French Secam tapes which have never been released on DVD or VCD. These are tapes I bought while I was in France (legal copies) +15 years ago. I was hoping to get a multisystem (MS) VCR to play them on my NTSC TV without a converter; but these VCRs were so expensive at that time. An MS Panasonic would cost close to US$3,000.00 and an MS Samsung would cost +US$1,000.

Recently, I saw a JVC, model HR-D337MS, on sale for US$160.00. The machine says SECAM but the owner does not have the manual for it and does not have a French SECAM tape to test it. I contacted JVC helps but got no answer from them.

That's why I want to know if the SECAM varieties can be played interchangeably.

I will try the forum you suggested. Thanks.

[edDV]

Most of those SECAM variations only apply to the tuner for over the air reception. I don't know for sure but SECAM on VHS tape should look just like PAL in Y/C* but I'm also sure the French found a way to celebrate difference. At a minimum you should get monochrome.

*This of course would differ for a Thomson vs Philips VCR.

[moviebuff2]

but I'm also sure the French found a way to celebrate difference.

Is that what the French mean by "Vive la différence"?

Is that why SECAM stands for: "Something Essentially Contrary to the American Method" ?

BTW, our dear Parisians have been found so rude to foreign tourists that their Mayor, B. Delanoe, has to start a campaign to "ask" them to be nicer.

O la la...la courtoisie francaise est morte!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap_travel/20070710/ap_tr_ge/travel_brief_polite_paris;_ylt=AlS...HIT3OAx2LMWM0F