PAL-to-NTSC

My brother brought me a bunch of video cameras back from an overseas vacation. He got some really nice wires and wireless cameras. The problem is that, without knowing any better, he got PAL format instead of NTSC. Is there a cheap/easy way to convert the baseband signal? With the wireless cameras - is the signal that is transmitted PAL or is it only encoded in the receiver (meaning an NTSC receiver would work)? Thanks in advance (and I know this is a stupid question, but I gotta ask).

Does "cheap" to you mean something on the order of $100 each?

Everything about them is PAL. Only receivable on PAL receivers.

I was surprised to find this, but multisystem TVs are rare and expensive here in the US. They really want to enforce NTSC only :)

Even 50Hz field rate with NTSC color encoding doesn't work on most TV sets here. Culture shock, since at the time I left Australia practically all TV sets bigger than about 14" were multisystem.

Nah. For better or for worse, NTSC is the "Rev. 0" of compatible color schemes, and PAL came along and learned from our mistakes.

Add that to the fact that the US is a bigtime net EXporter of movies and TV and it makes it much less economically viable to produce multi-standard TVs, VCRs, etc.

Kinda. They don't support true NTSC, do they? Just PAL60?

Sell the cameras to someone in the UK or wherever else they use PAL and buy NTSC ones. He bought them in China, right?

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

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UnPALatable information!

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In article , snipped-for-privacy@this.address opined thusly:

No it's not possible on that small scale. The conversion equipment would cost way more than the cameras. The wireless link is irrelevant, the problem is that both the scan rate and the colour subcarrier are different and both are very very difficult to change. Most modern TV's will display either however. At least, most pAL tv's will display NTSC okay, but I'm not sure about the reverse as I live in a PAL country.

"Tam/WB2TT" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com:

Yes, cameras. Lttle things about an inch square and half-inch thick. Need conversion in real time.

dave wrote in news:jq0Pe.9236$ snipped-for-privacy@news-server.bigpond.net.au:

Thanks. Didn't think it would be worthwhile. The simplest solution it seems, is to use a computer video capture card. These are capable of using either a PAL or NTSC baseband video.

"Dan Major" schreef in bericht news:Xns96BBE29B7280soonerboomergbronlin@68.12.19.6...

problem

Is

(and

Your best chance is to sell them on Ebay. List them on Ebay in Germany

as one lot, starting at

1 euro, so you will be sure that you have a buyer.

If you intend to use them with a PC, most video grabbers support both NTSC and PAL.

--
Thanks, Frank.
(remove \'q\' and \'.invalid\' when replying by email)

The signals are entirely different. There is a small possibility that the chips in the camera are capable of producing both formats (PAL and NTSC) and you just need to set a jumper or something.

It's pretty easy... huge on-line retailers such as Buy.Com and Amazon.Com sell those "off-brand" DVD players that usually just need a "magic code" sequence entered through the remote to enable all region playback. I bought one two Thanksgivings ago to give to a friend here in the U.S. with a Taiwanese wife -- they wanted to be able to playback DVDs they obtained in Taiwan for their daughter.

Pretty much all modern video equipment in Europa supports PAL and NTSC. I am using DV tapes recorded in NTSC on my PAL DV Cam and vice versa, play NTSC DVD's frm my DVD player and pllay my daughters U.S. "Elmo" tapes (shudder) through my PAL VHS onto my PAL TV every day.

The problem is much less that there is not enough PAL content that the U.S. would want to watch. It is a lot easier for TV manufacturers to use the same chip in all TV's world wide. The issue is regulations in the US that want to "protetct" you from watchinga foreign tape that was not sanctioned by Hollywood or any other of the Big Media.

Ever heard of Country Codes on DVDs? The prohibit that you can play a SOuth American DVD on a North America DVD player, even if both are NTSC. Country Code are an invention by the movie industry to make perfectly fine viedo systems incompatible.

In Europe, no one gives a damn about Country Codes, and you can buy Country Code free DVD players legaly everywhere, but try that in the U.S. . If you happen to find that copy of "Run Lola Run" on your vacation to Germany, you will not be able to watch it when you come home, not because your player couldn;t, but simply because one tiny byte on the DVD says: you spent your money in the wrong country.

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Different take on this, Graham. I don't have any reason to play out of country tapes and don't wish to pay a higher price for a TV that supports something I'm very unlikely to need. The company that offered a simpler (cheaper) TV that only displayed NTSC would quickly become dominant (which is exactly how it is). Nobody PROHIBITS you from having multistandard equipment, its just that few need it.

CDs all use the same sample rate. Imposing region code on them WOULD be restraint of trade. Video is a different animal. Different subcarrier encoding schemes, line rates and frame rates. Knowing I can't play a disc or tape from UK, I wouldn't buy it unless I was willing to pay for a standards conversion.

GG

It's utterly ridiculous that the public is forced to go to those lengths to be able to play what they legally bought in another country though.

Imagine the uproar if music CDs were coded that way so you could only play it in the region you bought it. Region coding is a form of trade restraint by another a name.

It's bitten Hollywood back anyway. Bit Torrent etc.

Graham

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Realistically, the same chipsets are used in TVs worldwide.

I doubt that there's much economy to be had in making an NTSC only set. I imagine any 'savings' are illusory.

You're just thinking of USA vs ROTW. Region coding disallows the playback of

*entirely* compatible media based purely on geographic location. NTSC is virtually exclusive to America, maybe even just the North and most of the rotw is PAL ( or SECAM if you're French / French influenced ).

Graham