I sold a videotape for 15 bucks in an online auction. The thing is, I’m in the States and the buyer is in the UK.
As I understand it, North America and Europe have two different video formats. I write the buyer telling him that, hey, this video is in the NA format. He’s persistent. Here’s what he says,
Hope it’ll work, trusting in advancement of modern vcrs. Send it.
Um, am I an idiot or is this dude getting screwed even though I warned him? I always thought that putting a NA videotape into a European VCR was like putting a Beta tape into a VHS. Am I wrong? Or can they actually transfer NA/European videos over there now?
I know there are VCR’s out there that can play both (my cousin in France has one), plus there are probably shops that will convert from one format to another.
He knows what he’s getting and there are ways for him to deal with it. I wouldn’t give him a refund if he asks for it.
I used to sell PAL video tapes to americans , so its OK
unless he has a rock bottom cheap ass / old as your granny
VCR which won’t support it and if he says its ok thats good enough as a release.
It’s definitely possible to convert between the two formats, but it’s sometimes a little difficult to find someone offering the service. Here in the US, the usual recommendation is to look for an Indian video store - the film industry in India is very strong, and their native format is PAL, so 90% of these stores have a rig to convert between any two video formats.
Dunno how that helps your buyer in the UK, though - I’m not sure what the equivalent would be over thataway.
My friend is in the UK & can play american ntsc videos just fine on his UK vcr. They accept both formats. I wish the usa was like that but for that we would have to buy a $800 vcr that does both.
When I lived in Germany in the early 90’s, multi-system TV’s and VCR’s were exceptionally popular. The TVs were capable of receiving and showing PAL, NTSC, and SECAM (France or Japan?) signals.
VCR’s were a little more complicated and had a lot more options. Among the multi-system VCR’s, you could get a cheap one that only worked with a PAL or NTSC tv (or multi-system TV), or a more expensive one that actually converted the signal to the correct format.
We soldiers with our soldierly incomes usually bought the inexpensive multi-system VCRs and the multi-system TVs. The TV’s weren’t THAT much more expensive, but a VCR with the electronics to convert the signals WAS expensive.
If your friend’s vcr accepts both formats it is because it is multisystem which you can get just the same in the US but standard VCRs in the UK, as elsewhere, are not multisystem and will not play NTSC recorded tapes.
And, BTW, I am sure you can get a multisystem VCR in the US for far less than $800. I paid a bit over $500 for mine and that was in 1993. I bet you can find them much cheaper now.
And BTW, Bathisar, my cheap, multisystem VCR is of the type that converts the signal to NTSC so I can see it on a regular NTSC TV.
I was in a video game store the other day and the guy had an import GameCube from Japan up and running on a US TV. I was surprised that it worked with just a standard RCA connection, I thought you would need a converter. I know you can’t mix Japanese and U.S. consoles and games (at least not without unauthorized mod chips), but I though you would need a special TV as well.
Japanese is ntsc, which is the same as the USA. But try to put US games in the Japanese GC…that’s another story.
sailor, I only saw one for sale & with taxes & shipping, about $800 is right. I know, it seems like alot compared to the one you bought but then again, I bet it does a whole lot more.Here is another one at $500: http://www.us.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=90007119&loc=13504
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Odd that Japan follows American standards like NTSC (and also use IALA B for navigational buoys), but drive on the left like the British. And that India is just the opposite, IIRC.
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I wasn’t aware that the US VCR market was so restrictive.
I picked up a (one above entry level) VCR last year for around £100 and that plays both PAL and NTSC, outputting to PAL format (I suppost that I could use it for conversion of NTSC to PAL), these machines are very common here, the OPs customer would probably have no problems playing the tape.