What does a NTSC picture look like on a PAL tv?
 

Is it a garbled mess with a hint of black and white picture on stationary scenes?

And next question is there any box-o-tricks that you can cheaply get/build from maplin/RS etc that you can take a composite PAL (note the pal) output from the source which is a mess (because it's trying to output an NTSC picture via PAL encoding), sort it out and output it as a nice and clean PAL signal.

Bit difficult explaining what I'm doing.

But For an easy "typical" example (not what I'm doing, but the same principal). A video tape recorded in NTSC which I play in a PAL player. What comes out is a mess. So what can be done with the composite output to sort it out and give the correct signal to a TV?

I should add that this is live analogue signals, no digital video here, so use of computers to do real time conversion is unfeasible. Don't say buy NTSC compatible equipment as I can only work with what I already have ;)

I should also note that the source is a Pal (signal and timing...but is a mess as the origin is NTSC) so I'm unsure if commerically available (and expensive) NTSC to PAL convertor boxes will do the job, as I assume that they use a pure NTSC source.

You might want to ask your question here instead:
http://www.avforums.com/forums/index.php

The place is crawling with geeks who might know the answer.

An NTSC picture on a PAL system will constantly frame roll and will never lock to a steady picture. It is sending pictures at 60 per second rather than the 50 that PAL expects (sort of) so you might occasionally get a black and white image but it will roll up the screen very quickly.

What I'm getting is vertical lines rather than horizontal rolling though. Perfectly stationary scenes scan ok although in BW :confused: So maybe what I'm looking isn't NTSC but a scrambled picture (such as macrovision or similar).

I don't do the AV fourms I'm afraid ;)

Is there any chance that the vision has sound in syncs on it? I know this is highly unlikely at home but...

It is possible that NTSC would roll either horizontally or vertically and possibly a combination of both.

I can get audio, but the the TV keeps self muting as it thinks it's getting no signal :brickwall:

I May have to venture into AV afterall if my googling doesn't give any results <shudder> ;)

Most modern mid to high end TV's will accept NTSC signals.

Most modern DVD players will play NTSC DVD's and give a choice of signal outputs.

You are stuffed with VHS though. Most Video's will not play a NTSC video tape.

You probably need to post more info on what you are trying to do.

Cheers
Lee

My tv plays r1 dvds perfectly, which is meant for ntsc play back. The tv switches it to pal and theres no streaming or bars.

It's nothing to do with vhs or DVD..was just using vhs as the best description to the scienario.

Experimentations with analogue CATV if you really need to know, nothing serious, just want to see what is achievable ;)

Anyone have an old analogue Scientific Atlanta CATV set-top box....I have a feeling I may need the converter doobrey that plugs in the back of it to sort it out. (Scientific Atlanta being American, so I guess its a NTSC box, which is adapted for PAL use in the UK).

Tell a lie...the box on the back of the old analogie set-top boxes is a RF by-pass unit, to allow RF reception on standard non CATV equipment using CATV media, so that won't work.