PAL VHS, NTSC TV - do I have the right recipe?

8 Dec 2005 5:17 AM

survivalist

My wife has a stack of PAL VHS tapes from Russia (they say PAL on
them). We live in the USA and have an NTSC TV.

I believe to play them, I need a PAL VCR + and a PAL->NTSC converter.
I was thinking something simple like a Sharp VC-A50 Multisystem VCR
(I'm not looking for a high-end setup)

The converter is more what I'm concerned with...the $25-30 ones I've
seen on eBay say "Only works on the NTSC 50Hz compatible TV, auto sync
TV or NTSC TV with a V-hold adjustment button to stop it rolling."

I have a couple Magnavox TVs (one is a TS2678-C101) and the manuals
don't have anything approaching technical specs, nor does Magnavox's
web site. They do not have a V-hold button or anything like that in
the setup, and I can't see if they're "auto sync".

I guess my question is...in general does a PAL TV + an NTSC->PAL
converter (e.g.,
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=5838739052)
give me what I need for a typical American TV, or am I missing
something? Is there some way to tell if my TV supports 50Hz NTSC or is
an "auto sync" TV?

Thanks!

11 Dec 2005 9:21 PM

bernie

As no-one in the US has answered this, here's one thought. Rather than
worry about manuals, just put the tape in the machine and play it and
see what happens. If you were here in the UK and had an NTSC tape, it
would almost certainly work fine, because modern VHS machines and tvs
sold here will play NTSC, even though such tapes are extremely rare in
Europe. It's probably because the Asian manufacturers find it easier to
build "one size fits all".