Guy from "Sopranos" country, USA, needs a favor.

Hope this is the right group...and I'm not intruding.

I have a VHS tape of a program that played on "Today with Des and Mel"
on Granada TV in January . The hosts of the show joked around with a
novelty product that we sell primarily in the States, though a handful
wind up in the UK and on the continent. www.smitten.com

It would cost about 100 dollars to run from PAL to NTSC and burn a CD
of the small section that applies to our product. I'd be happy to mail
the VHS tape to somebody who could burn an MPEG-2 of the reference to
our product, mail us the disk and toss out the tape. If interested,
I'll ship you the tape along with a check for $10, plus with a couple
of our Smitten mittens.

Cheers,
Gene in New Jersey

Paul D.Smith wrote:
Gene,

A US dollar cheque (this is a UK NG ;-) ) is as much use to us as a
chocolate tea pot. We use UK pounds sterling and the costs of banking a
dollar cheque would be way over the $10.00 face value.

Very true. PayPal would work nicely though.

I would suggest that you ask around friends and relatives who might know
someone with a dual standard video recorder. They're quite common over here

....but the reverse isn't common "over there"

(my very cheap model does this) and have dropped in price so much that
they're probably common over there now. This allows you to play your PAL
tape and get NTSC output.

You're thinking of the standard VHS machines over here which will "let
you watch NTSC tapes on a PAL TV". The reverse doesn't really exist in
the USA. Enen what _we_ have over here doesn't _convert_ 525-line NTSC
to 625-line PAL - the output is 525-line PAL/NTSC hybrid.

(Real standards converting VCRs are different altogether - they're
available on both sides of the atlantic - but not "standard" consumer
items).

Next you find someone with a TV-capture card, again these are cheap and
common over here. They will be able to then cut you a DVD.

Given the above, it's a non starter. Some capture cards sold in the USA
are bundled with software that handles NTSC only.

Alternatively, you might try e-mailing the program producers and asking for
a DVD of the show. They might be able to oblige, especially since it was
your product they were discussing.

Very unlikely.


Gene,

If no one offers to help, contact me off group (email
) and I'll do it for you. It will mean mailing
the tape back to the UK though. You'll get what you pay for - i.e. it
won't be a broadcast quality standards conversion, but perfectly
watchable. You will have to send the cost of postage to me somehow.

Cheers,
David.

To play back a PAL 625 tape in the USA then a standards converter is the
only way. It's PAL 625 50 to NTSC 525 60 which is an entirely different
matter! FAR better to get a DVD copy made of the prog as this will at least
play on a computer.

If I am misunderstanding the request and a TELEVISION replay is required
then it's a standards converter that's required.

Expecting a 50 quid video to actually convert the line and frame rate is not
on, it just converts the colour system.
Modern TVs will play both 50 and 60 frames per second only because they have
a special frame chip.

Before anyone comments PAL/SECAM conversion IS possible as they are both
625/50.

--
Robert

"Rob" wrote in message
...
To play back a PAL 625 tape in the USA then a standards converter is the
only way. It's PAL 625 50 to NTSC 525 60 which is an entirely different
matter! FAR better to get a DVD copy made of the prog as this will at
least play on a computer.

If I am misunderstanding the request and a TELEVISION replay is required
then it's a standards converter that's required.

Expecting a 50 quid video to actually convert the line and frame rate is
not on, it just converts the colour system.
Modern TVs will play both 50 and 60 frames per second only because they
have a special frame chip.

Before anyone comments PAL/SECAM conversion IS possible as they are both
625/50.


Is it not simpler to use a video capture card to turn it into an MPEG?
At least that way you could watch it on the computer.
Unless I am missing something that might not make that possible?

wrote in message
oups.com...

Gordon Hudson wrote:
"Rob" wrote in message
...
To play back a PAL 625 tape in the USA then a standards converter is
the
only way. It's PAL 625 50 to NTSC 525 60 which is an entirely
different
matter! FAR better to get a DVD copy made of the prog as this will at
least play on a computer.

If I am misunderstanding the request and a TELEVISION replay is
required
then it's a standards converter that's required.

Expecting a 50 quid video to actually convert the line and frame rate
is
not on, it just converts the colour system.
Modern TVs will play both 50 and 60 frames per second only because
they
have a special frame chip.

Before anyone comments PAL/SECAM conversion IS possible as they are
both
625/50.


Is it not simpler to use a video capture card to turn it into an MPEG?
At least that way you could watch it on the computer.
Unless I am missing something that might not make that possible?

I'm guessing the original poster doesn't have a PAL machine to play the
tape.

If you can't play it, you can't capture it!

Given that one can now purchase a cheap PAL VCR for around £30 in the UK, it
may well be an option if someone who is visiting the UK could purchase one
here to take back to the US.

I know that there's the voltage thing, but modern power supplies should work
OK even down to120 volts.. in fact to prove the point I've been using a
(cheap 'lightweight') Bush VCR906SIL which still works quite happily when
wound down to115 volts on a variac.

The PAL output from this could then be fed as composite into something like
a Win-TV card to be captured and converted by Nero into a DVD.


Cheers,
David.

Ivan wrote:

I know that there's the voltage thing, but modern power supplies
should work OK even down to120 volts.. in fact to prove the point
I've been using a (cheap 'lightweight') Bush VCR906SIL which still
works quite happily when wound down to115 volts on a variac.

I have an old JVC which works perfectly at 80 volts, so I've no doubt you're
right.
--
Adrian A

On 30 Mar 2006 14:48:25 -0800, "smitten" wrote:

I'd be happy to mail the VHS tape to somebody who could burn an MPEG-2.

I will ask my friend who has a video recorder (PAL) and a DVD
recorder. He could burn a DVD for you. But I am from Poland/Europe.
Check costs of delivery to Poland.

Gregory

ps. let me know via an email: mistermc (at) o2.pl

--
Peptulis Amargolis peptulis malpa web.de

On Fri, 31 Mar 2006 11:11:13 +0100, Paul D.Smith wrote:

as much use to us as a chocolate tea pot

Americans neither understand irony, nor the concept of a teapot.

--
Nigel M

And lack subtlety, too, thus...you have bad teeth and should bathe more
often.
spectator

David,

Follow-up questions below.

I would suggest that you ask around friends and relatives who might know
someone with a dual standard video recorder. They're quite common over
here

...but the reverse isn't common "over there"

(my very cheap model does this) and have dropped in price so much that
they're probably common over there now. This allows you to play your
PAL
tape and get NTSC output.

You're thinking of the standard VHS machines over here which will "let
you watch NTSC tapes on a PAL TV". The reverse doesn't really exist in
the USA. Enen what _we_ have over here doesn't _convert_ 525-line NTSC
to 625-line PAL - the output is 525-line PAL/NTSC hybrid.


Can you give a little more detail on what these videos actually throw out
then? I know enough to know about 625/525 and 60/50. Are you saying that
what they throw out is 525/60/PAL (and I believe UK standard is 625/50/PAL)?

Aside: I have a very old Sony which Sony tells me will handle 60Hz OK, and
does play US sourced DVDs happily (but of course that's using RGB).

If the output I describe is correct, what would be wrong with throwing
625/50/NTSC at a TV/capture card in the US? Would it not be able to handle
it? Are video capture cards really so sensitive?

As someone with US in-laws, I have a slightly vested interest in such things
;-).

Thanks,
Paul DS.