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Quote:

Originally Posted by hodgey (Post 68611)

When plaing NTSC tapes in PAL VCRs, they usually output a special PAL-60 format signal, rather than NTSC.
It is essentially NTSC but with PAL color encoding, using the PAL color frequency made it easier to adapt TVs/VCRs to output/accept it without too much extra components like an additional oscillator.

What's happening is that the PAL-60 signal from the VCR is being interpreted as a normal PAL signal by the DVD-recorder. The PAL Panasonic DVRs can be switched to NTSC mode, and used with NTSC, however at least the older ones do not support the PAL-60 format most PAL VCRs put out though, so you would only get a black-and white image out. You can change from PAL to NTSC format in the DVR menus somewhere. The only DVRs I know that support PAL-60 are the later Sony/Pioneer models, while they do have a decent line-tbc they're not quite as capable as panasonics.

Some PAL decks can also be set to output in NTSC-4.43 format instead of PAL-60. I'ts possible the Panasonic DVRs support this but I haven't gotten around to testing it yet (though I do remember e.g the AVT-8710 TBC accepting it in NTSC mode). I don't think the Blaupunkt VCR can output NTSC-4.43, but I know Sony is capable of it. There's a switch on the back of the VCR that switches between NTSC-4.43 and PAL60 , so you you give that a try in combination with setting the DVR to NTSC mode.

There are multi-system VCRs that can do both proper NTSC and PAL playback (and often SECAM variants) though almost all of them are variants of a manufacturers hi-fi or 2-head models with extra stuff added for multi-system playback/recording. I think JVC made a handful of multi-system SVHS decks but they're rare and expensive.

Thankyu for the feedback. That effectively gives me a problem. I need to record NTSC tapes as losslessly as possible, and forced conversion to PAL isn’t going to allow for that. The issue is that while it may be called PAL60, it’s not playing back at 60hz so I can’t rely on that.

Is there an actual American VCR I can use instead that would be recommended? And would that work okay with the Panasonic DMR-EH495? I won’t get shot of the Blaupunkt as the PAL recordings will be better through it, however I can’t deliver the video footage to my American clients in the wrong image size and framerate.

PAL60 is playing back at 60 hz (or 59.97 more accurately). The framerate and resolution isn't changed like it would if put through a standards converter box or similar, it's only the color signal that is a little different.

A pal VCR will (when playing NTSC tapes) the luma signal will go through as normal (other than in-VCR TBC and possibly some noise reduction being disabled). The difference is that instead of upconverting the chroma from the ~627khz signal on the tape to a normal NTSC 3.58 Mhz color signal, it will upconvert it to the PAL color frequency (4.43 MHz). NTSC 4.43 is purely NTSC with chroma at a different frequency, while with PAL60 the color encoding is changed to the PAL format as well. NTSC 4.43 should in theory (all else equal) not lose any quality compared with normal NTSC. In practice there may be some slight difference (in either system's favour) especially with composite video but I haven't done test captures with test patterns to spot minor differences as of yet. Don't know if there is a noticeable difference with PAL60 either, but a bit less sure there.

One comparison I did do when transferring some Video8 tapes was between a PAL Sony Hi8 camcorder (NTSC 4.43 and PAL60 seemed identical) and a Sony NTSC Video8 player and the former looked better, so the format difference was not enough to outweigh the better playback device at least.

Since you have the Sony, I would at least check if playing a NTSC tape in NTSC 4.43 mode gives you color with the Panasonic DVR in NTSC mode, if the Pana can handle NTSC 4.43 that would make it a bit easier to track down a VCR at least. You can of course import a nice SVHS deck from the US, but that will end up costing a fair bit in shipping.

Looks as if the Sony can output NTSC 4.43 via a switch on the back, but with it on or off it still shows black and white.

Looks like an NTSC S-VHS is the only way to be sure.

Concerning the AJA FS1 and TBC, from their own documentation:

https://www.aja.com/assets/support/f...2.1_r1_Web.pdf

"Composite/S-Video input and output with TBC"

User here on Digitalfaq, VideoTechMan, may have more insight as he has the unit and has claimed that it has since replaced all of his TBC's.

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