Can region-free DVD player use to play PAL tape through VCR? (1 Viewer)

[DustinLC]

I got a couple of PAL VHS from the UK that I'm dying to watch but don't want to buy a VCR that supports it (cost like $500) or a converter or pay $30 to convert the PAL tape to NTSC.

Can I import the signal from the US vrc to a DVD player that can play PAL DVDs and somehow be able to watch it?

 

[Lew Crippen]

Good question Dustin. I’ve never considered this, but sadly, I don’t think so.

For this to work, you need for the VCR to not care if the format is PAL or NTSC (I’m not sure if they care or not), a DVD player that has a video input (mine does not, although DVD recorders would have to) and will convert (not all region-free players will convert) the passed PAL format to NTSC in some sort of pass-through fashion. Or, if such a DVD player exists, you might be able to record the VCR onto a DVD and then play the DVD.

This is a lot of ‘ifs’. But I suppose that it is barely possible.

Good luck. I’d really be interested in the results if anyone is in a position to experiment.

 

[DustinLC]

a DVD player that has a video input (mine does not

Oh yeah. I forgot about this part.

However, I do have a dvd recorder so I'll try your idea of importing the movie. I don't think it'll work though because even if the fed-in signal is unmodified, the encoding on the DVDR must do something to it. It's worth a try though. Thanks.

 

[Martin Fontaine]

I tried this once with a PAL tape from someone at work (She's german). She just had the tape converted to NTSC so that her daughter could watch it (Was a kids movie) I borrowed it to try and see if I could do somethng with it.

My Video Capture card in my computer can be configured to accept a PAL signal. But the problem seems to be that while the video on the tape is PAL, the VCR still thinks it's NTSC so it wouldn't just pass a PAL signal for a PAL-Compatible Display Device to see. It would pass a totally screwed up signal to the TV (Or in my case, capture card) that is unrecognizable no matter what mode you use. Not to mention that the Auto-Tracking indicator was constantly on!

Not only that, but the tape was playing at a slower speed since for some reason, it thought it was recorded in EP when it was in fact recorded in SP.