Getting a PAL VCR to work in the United States (1 Viewer)

[Ryan_M_M]

Hi Guys

I am wondering can anyone help me (or rather a friend) with a dilema?

He wishes to send a friend of his a PAL VCR from Europe to the United States, so as she doesn't have to convert PAL VHS tapes to NTSC as this is very costly. He has acquired the following information on how to do this.

He has already bought a power-converter. He has considered the amount of Watts (resistance) used in most vcr's. It has an American wire & plug and it has an opening for a European/Dutch plug. It can convert American 110 Volts into Dutch 220 Volts (which is needed for a Dutch PAL-vcr). The electronic expert in the store where he bought the voltage-converter helped him, being kind enough to set the voltage-converter. There is also an extra long Scart-cable and just a normal a/v-wire.

I am wondering isn't some kind of PAL-NTSC converter needed also in order to allow PAL images to be displayed on NTSC TV sets? I would be most grateful for any further information and if anything has been missed.

Regards

Ryan

 

[Ken Seeber]

Your friend is either going to need a PAL-to-NTSC converter or a multi-standard TV. There aren't that many multi-standard TVs available in the U.S., but they do exist. Converters tend to cost about $600 and up.

 

[Ryan_M_M]

Ken

I often saw members that have bought multi-region DVD players in the United States, and said they need some sort of NTSC-PAL converter to display the 25 frame PAL images on NTSC TVs. What is the difference? In Europe, there is no problem buying NTSC Videos or DVDs for most DVD players and VCRs. I on my own VCR can display SECAM images in colour if I set my TV correctly and it's a cheap TV. Surely it won't cost you $600 to display PAL images on an NTSC TV if you have already fitted you're PAL VCR to the power system used in the United States?

 

[Ryan_M_M]

Also, are such converters available on ebay?

 

[Jay Blair]

For a converter, check out this link, they also have a package deal for the converter and a PAL S-VHS JVC player, for $499.99. The converter alone is $349.99, which includes shipping.
www.world-import.com/cmd850.htm
Note that the JVC unit is a pretty old model and not going to be up to the standards of the newest JVC models, but for the price, sounds like the deal to beat. I have not tried the converter, but if I were in the market for one, would try this converter before any other I've seen, given the reasonable price and money back guarantee, including return shipping.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Samsung has a model with a pretty good built in converter, runs around $800, but would be much cheaper than a converter and VCR