jono300

iTrader: (8)

Okay guys looking for a bit off advice on behalf off "" dad "" who has just been given two video cameras from a friend off his who had no further use for them, unfortunatly it turns out that both the video cams use the American ( ?? ) NTSC formatt as opposed to our ( ?? ) PAL formatt, so okay one camera uses mini DV tapes to record onto and the other camera uses discs.

just wonder if there is any use for any off them given that they use a different formatt ?? so okay the one that uses the mini DV tapes, obviously any video taken that he wanted to view via the tv set itself would be a no go I take it?? any alternative ??

the one that uses discs to record onto, can your average cheap play everything Dvd player play this formatt or again is it a no go ??

totally confused myself but told him I would try gather some info via good old scoobynet for him !!!

cheers folks.

boxst

I have a couple of NTSC video cameras that I had to buy for work and it was cheaper to do so whilst in America.

Anyway, what you CAN do:

Most televisions are happy to accept aa NTSC signal through RGB, so he can record and then play through the television.

Most DVD players will playback DVDs as they are not region specific.

You can use firewire to copy the recordings to your computer and then pretty much do what you want with them (convert to PAL perhaps)

What you CAN'T do:

Put a tape into a PAL camera and expect it to play

Steve

jono300

iTrader: (8)

Thanks so much mate appreciatte the info and will pass it on.

the only thing I am unsure about is regards your last comment on not being able to put a tape in and expecting it to play ??

cheers

p.s sorry RGB - whats this ??

boxst

RGB: The cable with Yellow, Red and White ends that games consoles and the like use to input to a TV.

I very naively recording a whole bunch of things in America, brought the tapes back with me and tried to put them in a PAL video camera. It couldn't read the tapes. I had to fed-ex the camera to me in England!

So I'm just saying that you can't record something on the NTSC camera and put it in another (PAL) video camera and play the tape.

Steve

jono300

iTrader: (8)

Yep with you now mate sorry about that !!

so basically at the end off the day there is not really much off a downside to these cameras being in this alternative formatt and they will certainly still be very usable ??

again thanks foy your expert advice , thats great.

boxst

They certainly are usable.

Steve

GC8

Red yellow and white isnt RGB, thats compostite video (the yellow RCA connector) with stereo left and right sound through the red and white RCA connectors.

RGB stands for Red Green Blue, but to make it all a little more difficult the three wire cable with red green and blue RCA connectors is actually Component video...

I would only expect RGB to be delivered over a Peritel/SCART connector, although I may be wrong...

Simon

boxst

Yes, composite cable. I have no idea why I thought it was RGB.

Steve

jono300

iTrader: (8)

Okay guys back again, we tried the first camcorder - the one that uses discs to record onto, recorded okay and played back okay via the camcorders own screen, unfortunatly could not get the disc to play in my " play everything dvd / divx " player, tried putting the disc in the pc but no matter what I try open it with the picture will still not play.

1/ Realplayer gives a message off "an error withdigital cdplayback occured . your cd may be dirty or realplayer may not be properly configured to play cds digitally.

2/ Windows media player did not want to know about it either

3/ Power cinema - again did not want to know.

should my pc be able to play this disc again bearing in mind that it is recorded in this alternative formatt ?? or will I possibly have to convert it to Pal via a software before it will play on the pc ?? if so any particular software that can be recommended for the Ntsc to pal conversion ??

the tv set I am trying to view the final picture thru is a panasonic TH42px70b 42 " plasma, only a few years old, have yet to confirm that it will accept ntsc but will try find out this before I go any further. should mention that the dvd player is hooked up to the tv via scart- this in itself able to cope ??

a few question there above, hope I have explained in enough detail ??

cheers

boxst

Have you finalised the disc? On the (Canon) camera I have you have to take that option from the menu before the PC (or DVD player I assume) can read the DVD.

Steve

jono300

iTrader: (8)

AHH !!! did not realise u had too, will get back to you, but in the meantime yet again thanks so much !!