# PAL/SECAM/NTSC?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pal-secam-ntsc/92505>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 9, 2001, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pal-secam-ntsc/92505 "2001-11-09T20:45:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![booklover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/85f322/32.png) [@booklover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/booklover)\
**Post date:** [November 9, 2001, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pal-secam-ntsc/92505/1 "2001-11-09T20:45:55Z")

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So I’m bidding on ebay and realize the seller of the video I want is in France…I know there’s a difference between European & American electronics. I know I want the video to be in a format that will suit my American VCR. Help! Which format am I looking for here??

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**Author:** ![sethdallob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@sethdallob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sethdallob)\
**Post date:** [November 9, 2001, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pal-secam-ntsc/92505/2 "2001-11-09T21:18:50Z")

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The US and most of North America use NTSC.

France and most of its colonies’ use SECAM.

Most of the rest of the world (Europe, etc.) uses PAL.

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**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2001, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pal-secam-ntsc/92505/3 "2001-11-10T00:18:29Z")

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A French SECAM tape will not play in a US VHS machine. If you’re a speccy type, you can click [here](http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Contrib/WorldTV/) for the technical reasons.  
The video could be converted to NTSC, but it needs a little work (and some $)

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**Author:** ![geepee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ebca7d/32.png) [@geepee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/geepee)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2001, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pal-secam-ntsc/92505/4 "2001-11-10T00:39:36Z")

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Well to add to the confusion , PAL CAN play Secam only there are niggles #1 being it is in monochrome #2 the picture quality is reduced slightly but that maybe related to #1 , I recall someplace where it said it was much the same with NTSC playing secam tapes , but that was years and years ago