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A subject covered here befor I know, but I wasn't listening. I buy stuff from excalibur in the states. All of which is 10/10 but its NTSC how do I convert this so my English buddies can share the smut.

Many PAL VHS machines can playback NTSC these days, RTM. Conversion is costly.

To turn it around,Can any u.s.a NTSC machines now play PAL tapes ?

As Matt2 says, nearly all U.K. video's will happily play NTSC tapes on our televisions. You can buy video standard converters mail order from many audio / video magazines ( what satellite has lots of dealers advertised in it ).

Unfortunately the other direction is not simple at all.
You will need:
Special VCR + Special TV OR
specaial VCR + PAL-->NTSC convertor device

Some vendors sell NTSC versions of their tapes; so shop around you may find a vendor offering NTSC version of the tape you're after. Also video production companies (check you telephone directory) do conversions, expensive but still less than purching the special devices required to do it yourself.

Check http://www.mindlogic.com/SITE_faq.shtml
for a general overview of consumer products available for doing this kind of stuff.

OR http://dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html
and http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/vidconv.htm
for VERY intense techincal info on the subject.

Simplifying it, as far as I'm aware, this is kinda accurate:
PAL (UK format) is slightly better quality than NTSC (USA format). To do with number of lines on TV screen (USA 525, UK 625). To enlarge a smaller US format to fill a UK TV screen is easy, but to squash a higher quality UK signal down to a fit a US TV is more difficult. Basically. But ultimately I doubt many of you care. I'm just showing off.

e-mail me. I can help.