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  1. My SONY DCR-PC120 can play and output via firewire, NTSC and PAL tapes. Does this mean all SONY DCR-PC series can do the same? The manual doesn't mention this feature.

    Which other brands have this feature?

    Is there any Digital8/Hi8/8mm camcorder that can do the same?
    Last edited by digicube; 21st Jan 2017 at 21:44.
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  2. Dinosaur Supervisor KarMa's Avatar
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    Pretty sure my DCR-TRV460 can play analog tapes, and output it over firewire (DV). I don't use firewire so have never tried it.
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  3. I was specifically asking for NTSC and PAL playback feature though.
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  4. Dinosaur Supervisor KarMa's Avatar
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    Oh ok, did not really catch that the first time. Yeah I've heard of DV (or Digital8 for Sony) cameras being able to play both NTSC and PAL. I think my Digital8 camera (bought in the US) will record in Digital8 PAL via the menu options, if I wanted to. On a side note, Digital8 is really just a rebranded DV format.
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  5. Would be nice if there is a list of camcorders that can play NTSC and PAL tapes. I'm surprised I couldn't find one on the web. I read only SONY mini DV camcorders has this feature.
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    Here are some Sonys that tested positive for PAL transfer:

    DCR-TRV900
    DCR-PC100
    DCR-PC110
    DCR-TRV20
    DCR-PC5

    More information at http://www.bealecorner.com/trv900/dvfaq.html#PAL.
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  7. Member turk690's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by digicube View Post
    Would be nice if there is a list of camcorders that can play NTSC and PAL tapes. I'm surprised I couldn't find one on the web. I read only SONY mini DV camcorders has this feature.
    Some Sony DV/D8 camcorders can play both PAL and NTSC tapes. But this was never explicitly stated in the manual, and there are limitations as to capture usefulness.
    Case in point: I have the DCR-TRV350K (D8, NTSC) and its PAL counterpart, DCR-TRV350E. The K will also play PAL tapes ("PAL" appears in a corner on the viewfinder screen), and the E will also play NTSC tapes ("NTSC" appears). It's indeed convenient for playback if one has a large collection of NTSC and PAL-recorded tapes (only SP, as LP-recorded tapes are hit-and-miss, mostly miss, when playback is attempted in camcorders that weren't the one used to record). If used for capturing DV streams off the tape, K used with intended NTSC tapes will behave as expected with Adobe Premiere. However, PAL tapes will not transfer, as the capture app will declare it has sensed an NTSC camcorder and therefore PAL stream is a conflict. Capturing a PAL tape with the K is still possible by disabling tape control, and hitting record on capture app after manually pressing play on camcorder. It can still fail, so in the end, along with the K, I was forced to also get the E to capture.
    The TRK350 is D8, but I can also verify that the highly-regarded (in its day) 3CCD TRV900E could also play back NTSC tapes (with the same tricky limitations on their capture).
    People mostly have only one tape type (NTSC or PAL) collections, so this undocumented Sony camcorder capability wasn't much talked about then. I only came upon it myself accidentally, and in terms of capture found it to be of little value, so I suppose the list you are looking for will take more digging...
    For the nth time, with the possible exception of certain Intel processors, I don't have/ever owned anything whose name starts with "i".
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