Just a clarifying note, as video production is my profession:

Krazy Kiwi wrote:

>  you
> would need to look up your VCRs instruction manual to see if the ORIGINAL
> video tape you want to make copies of has to be recorded as NTSC in the
> first place.

Making an NTSC recording from a PAL tape (or vice-versa) requires "black box"
called a Standards Converter between he two VCRs.  The differences between the
two video systems principally revolve around: NTSC = 525 scan lines per
picture, 30 pictures per second.  PAL = 625 scan lines per picture, 25 pictures
per second.  To convert from PAL to NTSC requires dropping 100 scan lines from
each picture AND adding 5 pictures every second (and deciding what pictures to
insert where!)  Because all of this involves some rather complicated electronic
bit-crunching, the Standards Converter is a fairly high-tech item.  The market
for such devices is fairly small, since a few large commercial production
centers create the bulk of the large-quantity jobs such as dubbing theatrical
movies for overseas release on home video.  As a result the boxes are costly
and the outfits that do standards conversion can charge a healthy fee for their
services.

It is unlikely that your VCR can successfully convert between these two
standards (although I suppose anything is possible!)   There are several VCRs
on the market that can playback both formats, but because of the great
differences in signal electronics these machines normally work in only one
format at a time.  NTSC tapes play back NTSC video, and PAL tapes play back PAL
video.

I didn't mean to run on so long with this non-scuba information, but the
explanation took longer than I expected!  My apologies . . .

Dive safe [\],
-Dave

--
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Dave DeBarger
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"ASSETS make things possible.  PEOPLE make things happen!"
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