PAL VHS Tape.....

[Kyle15]

Sorry that this is not game related, but I want to know if there is a way to watch PAL VHS tapes with normal NTSC equipment.
My current hook-up, a television with built-in VHS player, only displays snow with super-speedy sound.
When I fast-forward, the picture appears. (This is because of the different play rates, I know.)

Is there any easy solution to this?
If there isn't, it's okay: the video in question is only the German version of the sequel to Jurassic Park.

Thanks! :)
~Kyle15

[evildragon]

No way, sorry.

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

You'd need to either get a multi-standard VCR (increasingly hard to find and expensive, not a good combo if you're just going to watch this one thing) or find someplace that'll convert it for you for a fee.

Is there a way to jury-rig an NTSC VCR to play it properly? Nope. PAL is a different format, and foreign tapes have different standard speeds as well. Between those two, the tape's unwatchable on a domestic deck.

[dreamcaster]

It's interesting that in PAL territories that it is a standard feature that our televisions, VCR's, DVD players etc are all capable of carrying an NTSC signal or converting it to PAL.

Is this not the case in North America?

[Jimmy Yakapucci]

Nope, I guess in America, the companies are arrogant enough to believe that all we want is NTSC. Actually, if you live near a military base, you may be able to luck out in your local classified ads and find someone who bought a multi-format system while overseas and brought it back. Of course, just having a VCR that can play a PAL tape is only step 1. Then you need a TV/monitor that can display a PAL signal. Every now and then I see them for sale. Usually pretty cheap too.

JY

[FABombjoy]

Many multi-system electronics, being made in or around Japan, started their life as NTSC and had the PAL circuits added on. Not so much a conspiracy as an artifact of production.

If you can locate a PAL VCR, most computer video capture cards can receive PAL.

[omnedon]

Could you hook it up to a PC video cap card and set it to PAL?

[SnowKitty]

Could you hook it up to a PC video cap card and set it to PAL?

well that would work he'd still need a PAL vcr

[omnedon]

Would he? I'm sure a buddy brought home a brit VHS tape after a holiday in the UK back in the eighties. It played on the NTSC VCR, but the picture would roll.

[FABombjoy]

It really shouldn't work. Tape speeds are different, color circuitry is completely different... lots of reasons.

I've put a PAL tape in an NTSC vcr before. The best you can typically get is the audio in high-speed and some patterns in the static that resemble a video signal.

[phreak97]

nope, not really. even if you got a vcr that supports it you'd probably still need a tv that does 50Hz.. unless the vcr sped up the tape by 17.7%.
the reason youre currently getting nothing but fast audio is possibly that the tape is recorded in long play and your vcr is set to short play.

edit:

i clicked reply before the other replies loaded.. most of my post has been posted already:P my bad.

[Kyle15]

Thanks everybody! :)

Ah well, it's okay if I cannot watch it.
It's a great collector's piece though!
(the case and everything is included)

[evildragon]

I remember I got a PAL video once, I stuck it in my modern VCR and it reports that it's a PAL tape and can not be played.

Put it in my old vintage VCR (pop top lid, wood, mechanical buttons), and the motor kepts going faster, slower, faster, slower, not to mention the audio was horrible and the picture rolled with some nasty color artifacts (like the tint was all off) (and this was with a multi format TV)

[ProgrammingAce]

Would he? I'm sure a buddy brought home a brit VHS tape after a holiday in the UK back in the eighties. It played on the NTSC VCR, but the picture would roll.

That's because the VCR supported PAL but the TV didn't.

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

If you get a decent multi-standard VCR, it should be able to output in just about any video format. I've worked with one that could play a PAL tape back not just in PAL, but in NTSC or SECAM.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

If you live near any large professional photo/film developing service you could get it converted / transferred to an NTSC tape.

I lived in England from 98 to 99, before Eddie Izzard really broke out in the US, and I brought back a big PAL box set of all his comedy concert performances (which weren't available in the US) and had them transferred for about $15 each at a place in NYC.

(Now of course I have them all on DVD.)