Anyone buying from the U.S?

[jon]

Anyone got US tapes or DVDs I can transfer to UK PAL for nominal costs only (postage + tape). Email me interested.

jon

[golostruda]

Erm, unless someone bought their video or DVD player from a 1987 car boot sale, all modern players happily play NTSC. Or are you lookiing to pirate stuff? Your posting doesn't make it clear. Either way, I suspect the answer will be an unanimous 'no'.

[jj]

Well, since these conversions play better on UK equipment than the originals.......
probably a resounding yes.

[Buttsie]

As an unbiased bystander you're right JJ.

Isn't PAL better all round especially as you can make copies.

Anybody know what the life expectancy of a normal vhs ntsc or pal tape is before it loses its quality? Is it 20/30/40/50 times played etc.

Nothing more frustrating than when you're favourite tape starts to die.I have noticed some places in the USA asking extra for PAL tapes-is that due to conversion.

cheers
B...OZ

[magoo]

PAL is better because it has 625 lines as opposed to NTSC with a paltry 500 or so lines. Higher definition in other words. If you look closely at an NTSC vid you can see its lower resolution.

Also Betamax was far superior to VHS but the cheapest always wins.

[golostruda]

VHS won because it was unregulated, whereas Sony controlled all the Betamax releases and refused to release porn films on it. Basically, VHS prospered 'cause you could get dirty films on it. Most display technologies (eg the internet) are driven by filth in one way or aother.

[jon]

Er, a bit of clarity here gents. All this stuff about PAL being better than NTSC is a bit irrelevant. No, I am NOT pirating, and no, post 1987 videos will NOT necessarily play NTSC in colour (or should that be color?) - depends on the tv used.

I am offering the service to, ahem, widen my horizons, as a hobbyist like your goodselves. Any harm in that?

Cheers
jon

[alec]

Watching a tape converted from NTSC to PAL gives you worse quality than watching the original NTSC tape - if your system can play it. However, there are other legitimate reasons for wishing to convert apart from backup which has already been mentioned - it only becomes piracy when you make copies for sale or trade. You are much more likely to get problems - of horizontal hold and aspect ratio - playing an NTSC tape on a computer, which some people may want to do just to watch the film (unlikely I know, but possible as the PC may be in a private room), and I want to do so that I can capture stills for the unknowns section, for example. The stills capture in some cases actually comes out better from a tape played through a TV card than from a DVD played via a DVD drive and software.