An old friend now living in America has sent me some Videos, but they are in NTSC, my VCR will play them, but I'd like to make a copy for friends, so, Could any kind teckie out there tell me (in VERY plain english), is it possible, or feasable, to buy software for a pc to convert the above, and what size of hard drive would I need, or do I have to have a special machine, I know there are companies that will convert them, but I'm just curious.
Thanks
Bob
NTSC to PAL
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joey
Re: NTSC to PAL
Wouldn't it be easier to just get another VCR?
You would need a very large drive to store the whole
thing uncompressed (I guess 30G or more for a 90min
tape) and a capture card and fast enough comp to handle
everything. You need to store uncompressed, because encoding
video to a compressed format on the fly is *very* CPU-hungry.
(Or you could buy specialised hardware that does this - not
cheap.)
You could get away with a lot less drive space by doing it
in chunks, I suppose.
And you will need some way of passing the video-out back
to your VCR - ie a video card with TV out, or whatever the
best format is that is supported by your VCR as input,
if possible. Again, specialised hardware (eg one of Miro's
video editing cards, I think) may bundle this with
capturing.
I've never tried this, so doubtless those who have will
correct me..
You would need a very large drive to store the whole
thing uncompressed (I guess 30G or more for a 90min
tape) and a capture card and fast enough comp to handle
everything. You need to store uncompressed, because encoding
video to a compressed format on the fly is *very* CPU-hungry.
(Or you could buy specialised hardware that does this - not
cheap.)
You could get away with a lot less drive space by doing it
in chunks, I suppose.
And you will need some way of passing the video-out back
to your VCR - ie a video card with TV out, or whatever the
best format is that is supported by your VCR as input,
if possible. Again, specialised hardware (eg one of Miro's
video editing cards, I think) may bundle this with
capturing.
I've never tried this, so doubtless those who have will
correct me..
-
Ned
Re: NTSC to PAL
Only way I know of to convert NTSC to PAL (video to video) is by a multi-standard vcr (must be able to play NTSC as 50htz PAL) or by a very expensive ?300+ converter box. The cheap boxes and most domestic vcrs play NTSC as PAL 60htz, which you can watch ok but you can't copy the signal as the frame rates are different.
Multi-standard vcrs are also fairly expensive.
Multi-standard vcrs are also fairly expensive.
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ZeeBee
Re: NTSC to PAL
Samsung has an affordable multi-format vcr which allows you to make copies into PAL-NTSC-SECAM
If I remember correct it's the Samsung-W3000 or W2000
If I remember correct it's the Samsung-W3000 or W2000
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Anthony
Re: NTSC to PAL
Hi
Funny you should be writing about this as i was just reading a review on the Samsung SV-5000W which is multi standard. This is available for around ?500 from any of the cheap shops.
There is also a company called Lektropack who also sell another machine which is also multi standard for around ?500.00, this one is based on a Panasonic chassis.
You should be able to find these on the net.
Anthony
Funny you should be writing about this as i was just reading a review on the Samsung SV-5000W which is multi standard. This is available for around ?500 from any of the cheap shops.
There is also a company called Lektropack who also sell another machine which is also multi standard for around ?500.00, this one is based on a Panasonic chassis.
You should be able to find these on the net.
Anthony