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From: agn@unh.cs.cmu.edu (Andreas Nowatzyk)
Newsgroups: net.misc,net.tv
Subject: Re: TV & VCR standards
Message-ID: <215@unh.cs.cmu.edu>
Date: Wed, 15-Jan-86 13:42:19 EST
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Posted: Wed Jan 15 13:42:19 1986
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No: Europe does not use a single standard. There are 3 major systems
in use:

    NTSC:  The US standard
    SECAM: developed by France
    PAL:   developed by West Germany.

The are several derived 'standards' that differ in the audio carrier
frequency, color carrier frequency, number of lines and/or number of
frames per second. So there are a total of about a dozent different
systems, all of them incompatible to various degrees. As mentioned
earlier, conversion is expensive, because you need a digital frame
buffer to do it.

You don't have to convert if your VCR can handle multiple systems
(and your monitor...). The following VHS recorders can all handle
most of the standerds mentioned above and are only slightly more
expansive than a normal VCR:

   National NV-330	   Panasonic NV-630PX
   Sharp    VC-477	   Akai      ???
   Hitachi  VT-39EM

Sony has a nice high resolution monitor (computer grade) that
can handle all these systems.

  --  Andreas