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From: MRC%PANDA@SUMEX-AIM.ARPA (Mark Crispin)
Newsgroups: net.video
Subject: Re: NTSC<->PAL
Message-ID: <12190464477.11.MRC@PANDA>
Date: Thu, 13-Mar-86 17:21:22 EST
Article-I.D.: PANDA.12190464477.11.MRC
Posted: Thu Mar 13 17:21:22 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 15-Mar-86 19:46:23 EST
References: <8603131714.AA19694@seismo.CSS.GOV>
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Organization: The ARPA Internet
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     Here in Silicon Valley (lots of AV stuff done here), TV standard
conversion (NTSC <=> PAL <=> SECAM) conversion generally costs $80/hour
for an electronic conversion.  This is reasonable unless you are converting
PAL <=> SECAM, since that is a very simple conversion that can be done with
an inexpensive transcoder commonly available in Europe.

     A less expensive and often quite acceptable conversion is an optical
one.  That generally costs $40/hour around here.  Literally, they put your
PAL tape into a PAL VCR connected to a PAL monitor and point an NTSC camera
at it.  Needless to say, if you are going to do a non-trivial amount of
optical conversion you are best off renting a PAL TV/VCR (usually $80-$100/day)
and doing it yourself.  If you take the time to get the light levels right
you will get an agreeable copy without an annoying amount of flicker.

     If you just want to watch PAL programming, you can generally get a
PAL VCR and monitor for $1000 or so.  Another alternative is to buy an
Instant Replay VCR.  This is a GE (VHS, sigh!) VCR modified by IR.  It remains
an NTSC VCR (and completely capable of operating in NTSC), but if you flip a
switch it drives the motors at PAL speed and kludges up the signal.  The
result is a 50hz signal with NTSC colors (although red is a bit washed out
since NTSC heads can't read the full bandwidth PAL signal).  Most TV's and
monitors can grok this signal, provided you adjust the vertical hold a bit
and adjust the tint all the way to red to compensate for the lower red
response.  The notable exception to this are these new cutesy RCA TV's that
don't have vertical hold controls.
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