How to capture ntsc movies in Europe?

[Rico]

Hi,

I've been looking for a solution to capture some NTSC VHS movies. My problem is that I don't have access to a NTSC-playback VCRs, only VCRs that can play back NTSC movies as "quasi" PAL (a.k.a PAL60), which have not worked on the cards I have tried so far (Haupage and Belkin VideobusII).
I managed to borrow a VCR that supposedly play back NTSC tapes as NTSC, but I only get black'n'white capture (verrrry grainy), no matter what kind of NTSC input I select on the capture cards settings... (Could it be that the VCR doesn't support the same NTSC standrad as the tapes are recorded in?)

Suggestions?

BR,
Rico

[bunyip]

You need to set the NTSC type from the VCR.

PAL VCR's that support proper NTSC playback should also have an NTSC Select button (may be hidden on the back or under a panel), there should be settings like 'PB', '4.43', '3.58'.

In am also from a PAL-standard part of the world and am converting NTSC tapes, I find some tapes need to be set at '4.43' and some at '3.58', if the setting is wrong then I get the same B&W result you are getting.

Check for the settings on the VCR.

[Rico]

Thanks for the advice! Problem is that the VCR I have borrowed only have a setting for PAL or NTSC 4.43 (and I have looked all over the VCR for another switch or whatever). VCRs with real NTSC playback are rare over here (most VCRs play NTSC tapes as PAL60 though). So I would prefer a capture device that supports PAL60, but it seems there are none???

Cheers,
Rico

[miamicanes]

I've never personally tried it, but I'm 94% certain that ATI All in Wonder cards from the 128pro onwards can do it. I believe the setting is "PAL-J". If my memory serves me correctly, PAL-J is 60Hz PAL and the official TV standard used in Brazil and Argentina.

As far as I can tell, the Rage Theatre chip regards resolution, frame/field rate, and color encoding as independently variable setup parameters, and doesn't particularly care whether any arbitrary combo is actually a valid broadcast standard somewhere in the world (though ATI MMC, the capture app, lists only mainstream standards listed in the dropdown, and tweaking weird arbitrary combos would probably require hacking the registry. But the hardware itself can theoretically handle just about anything you can throw at it... EXACTLY the way it SHOULD be ).