I recently sent my friend calm kiwi who lives in New Zealand, a video tape in VHS format.I had it confirmed from her that VHS format was used in NZ.But it turned out that she couldnt play the tape over there.Is there a difference in VHS formats in different countries?If yes, what are the various differences?Or was there some other reason that the tape didnt work?
There are 2 major forms of VHS encoding:
NTSC and PAL. NTSC is used in the United States whereas PAL is used in Europe. The two different formats are usually not compatable on any 1 given set of hardware. Usually you need a PAL VHS player or an NTSC VHS player to play back the appropriate tape. Although, there are some player capable of playing both formats.
I would guess that you sent the video in one format and your friend’s hardware is of a different format. A search on Google or the like should result in a wealth of information on the subject.
There is no physical difference in VHS tapes from one country to another, but there is a big difference in the type of video transmission that is used. North America uses the NTSC system, most of Europe uses PAL, and SECAM is used in parts of Africa and Eastern Europe. Your location says India, and according to my sources India and New Zealand both use PAL video, so I would think you should be OK.
There are two issues here: television scanning system, and videotape format.
VHS is a videotape format, as are Quadruplex, Betamax, Betacam, U-Matic, HI8, and many others.
Onto that videotape, you can record signals from several different television scanning systems. Most of the Western hemisphere, Japan, and the Philippines use the NTSC (National Television System Committee) system of scanning television images that has been in place since 1941: 525 lines and scans at 60 fields per second.
PAL (Phase Alternate Line) is a color television system developed in Germany and used in all Western European countries except France, and by New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia, China, Brazil, and Yugoslavia. It has 625 lines and scans at 50 fields per second.
SECAM (Sequence á Memoire) is a color television system developed by the French government in 1967. It has also been adopted by Russia and most middle-eastern and African countries. Although like PAL it has 625 lines and scants at 50 fields per second, it is nevertheless incompatible with PAL.
And now to actually address the OP. Yes, there are two distict formats of VHS. There is standard VHS and S-VHS (Super VHS). If you have a tape recorded in S-VHS format, you need an S-VHS capable deck to play it back on. This, I suspect, is the real issue here, since both countries us the same television format. And S-VHS player can play both formants, but a VHS player can only play VHS tapes. Have her check the tape you sent her. Chances are, it says S-VHS on it someplace. If this is the case, you can either dub her a new copy of the tape using a VHS tape (the machine will automatically record the correct format, because the carts are slightly different, and it can tell which is which), or she can take the existing tape to a video shop and have them do the conversion.
And to mix things up even further, my VCR has a mode called “SVHS-C” or something like that. It’s supposed to produce Super-VHS quality using regular VHS tapes. Shows recorded in this mode do indeed look better than shows recorded without it. However, if I take a tape recorded in this mode to a VCR that doesn’t have it, it’s unwatchable. As a result, I don’t record anything in that mode that I intend to keep, for long-term compatibility reasons.
Can you even buy SVHS tapes anymore? I can’t seem to find them anywhere.
Both countries use PAL: http://www.kropla.com/tv.htm
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3 formats worldwide?
ANy chance that HDTV will simplify this to a single format used worldwide (or at least players that can play all major HDTV formats)?
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Its also possible that at some point the package you sent was X-rayed, which, IIRC, can erase a video tape (or camera film)
This is not correct. Tape recordings (of all kinds) can be affected by strong magnetic fields, but not X-rays. I was once told by an X-ray technician that the only way an X-ray machine could damage a tape would be if the machine were on fire when you put the tape in it.
X-rays can, of course, fog unprocessed photographic film.
Thanks a million to all you guys for the prompt and informative posts.
Q.E.D I dont think it should be a S-VHS problem because my VCR does not record in that format.
I assume the only way she can view the tape now is by getting it re-encoded in her format, so I feel it will be better if I send her a VCD instead,because AFAIK there shouldnt be any problem with multiple formats or different regions ala DVD`s in this case.