Page 1 of recording NTSC dvd`s to vhs. *Please Help!*

I want to copy some of my NTSC Hong Kong discs onto VHS (if i own them, i can make 1 copy!)

Anyway - I have a Tosh SD110E connected to a Tosh V231UK vcr and it works fine when I play them through it. I intend to get a Macmaster to disable Macrovision

Will they record in colour? anyone know anything about doing this?

This item was edited on Friday, 4th January 2002, 09:51

It will only play in colour if your video can play NTSC films, If not then a B&W picture you will have unless you buy an NTSC to PAL converter - normally about £50.00

Lee

Does your player not convert NTSC to PAL for you : there may be a switch somewhere (perhaps round the back) ?

Most will convert to Pal 60. You need a player like the Dansai/Mico which outputs as Pal 50 to record to VCR.

An NTSC-PAL converter costing £50 won`t allow you to make back-ups on a PAL VCR. You`d need a digital converter to alter the frame rate from 30 to 24 (ditching six frames every thirty), but they cost £200+(!). Most cheap converters just change the colour carrier to PAL (so the image won`t be B&W on old/awkward TV`s).

The tosh unfornatly does not do ntsc to pal it only does ntsc to ntsc or pal to pal.

ravi

yes u can,buy ur self a thompson video recorder,they pick up the ntsc signal in colour

Video recorders that display NTSC signals in colour won`t necessarily be able to record them onto tape!. The only kind of VCR that will be able to do this is a `world standards` effort (one that performs the complicated conversion itself), these cost upwards of £400 though!.

Displaying NTSC is one thing, but recording it onto PAL tapes is quite another. Like I said earlier, you`ll need a DIGITAL converter to alter the frame rate from 30 to 25 (I said 24 before, but that`s the rate used for `film`, so that wouldn`t help!). Basically, you need the signal to be changed to 25fps before reaching the VCR and although a very rare number of DVD players do perform this function (Digitron and the like) your best bet is a stand-alone digital converter, but they usually cost a fortune!.

There are cheap Thomson-branded VCRs on the market which can actually record in NTSC - I think this is what the previous poster was referring to. These particular models are *not* standards-conversion VCRs, they can only record PAL as PAL and NTSC as NTSC. Prices are around £100-£150 I think.

Regarding NTSC->PAL 50Hz conversion: A DVD player with built-in conversion (e.g. Samsung 709) will usually do a much better job than a standalone converter, since they eliminate the unnecessary analogue conversion stage. You can get a second-hand Samsung 709 for well under £100, which is a lot cheaper than any converter.

In short, the DVD player does the conversion directly from the digital video information on the DVD - while the standalone converter takes the analogue video output from the DVD player, converts it to digital to do the 60Hz->50Hz conversion, then converts it back to analogue again! This usually results in a fuzzy picture with lots of artefacts, at least with the cheaper converters. A standalone converter should really only be considered if you are converting from analogue sources, like VHS and Laserdisc.

Mike

This item was edited on Sunday, 20th January 2002, 18:21

dvd player which convert ntsc into pal 50hz are samsung 709 smart 2000/3000 dansai852/decca2110 hitachi505e most jvc do as well be better buying yourself a dansai/decca for around £100 to £115 for shure