Ellie Clemens

When I move to France this fall, I will be buying, among other things, a
new VCR. Is it possible to buy one that will play both US VHS tapes
(NTSC encoded) and French VHS tapes (SECAM?)? What about the television
set it hooks up to? Does this have ot be different to play the two
different formats?

--
~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^ ~^~^~^~^~^~^~

http://www.ellieclemens.com

"It's not a game, it's not over."

Jean-Pierre Raffarin

Magda

On Thu, 13 Feb 2003 18:44:32 GMT, in rec.travel.europe, ellie clemens
arranged some electrons, so they looked like this :

... When I move to France this fall, I will be buying, among other things, a
... new VCR. Is it possible to buy one that will play both US VHS tapes
... (NTSC encoded) and French VHS tapes (SECAM?)? What about the television
... set it hooks up to? Does this have ot be different to play the two
... different formats?

I have had such a VCR for five years now. AFAIK the kind of TV set hooked to it does not
make any difference. At least it didn't with my old set (it was 17 years old when I
changed it last year).

======
We do not see things as they are; we see things as we are.

Alec

"ellie clemens" wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > When I move to France this fall, I will be buying, among other things, a
    > new VCR. Is it possible to buy one that will play both US VHS tapes
    > (NTSC encoded) and French VHS tapes (SECAM?)? What about the television
    > set it hooks up to? Does this have ot be different to play the two
    > different formats?
    > --
    > ~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^ ~^~^~^~^~^~^~
    > http://www.ellieclemens.com
    > "It's not a game, it's not over."
    > Jean-Pierre Raffarin
Most VCRs on sale in France are multi-standard. Just double-check it has
NTSC playback, as well as SECAM (for France) and PAL (for rest of W Europe).
If you connect your VCR and TV with a SCART lead, you have no problem. If
you try to connect with an RF lead (via aerial socket and TV tuner), you may
have problems if your set isn't SECAM compatible (i.e. non-French set). BTW
the run-time indicator will be out by c 20% when playing back US tape
because of different tape speed.

Alec

Wolfgang Schwanke

ellie clemens wrote in
news:[email protected]:

    > When I move to France this fall, I will be buying, among other things, a
    > new VCR. Is it possible to buy one that will play both US VHS tapes
    > (NTSC encoded) and French VHS tapes (SECAM?)?

Yes, such VCRs are common in Europe. Best is to buy a VCR with "NTSC
playback" function in France.

    > What about the television
    > set it hooks up to? Does this have ot be different to play the two
    > different formats?

Yes and no. A European TV cannot decode straight NTSC (multistandard ones
exempted). But the "NTSC playback" VCRs transcode the NTSC to a PAL-ish
compromise format, which most European televisions can cope with. (TVs sold
in France nowadays are usually dual format PAL/SECAM). You cannot record
this signal on a second VCR though.

Regards


--
relaxen und watchen das cursorblinken

John Bermont

ellie clemens wrote:
    >
    > When I move to France this fall, I will be buying, among other things, a
    > new VCR. Is it possible to buy one that will play both US VHS tapes
    > (NTSC encoded) and French VHS tapes (SECAM?)? What about the television
    > set it hooks up to? Does this have ot be different to play the two
    > different formats?
    >
    > --
    > ~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^ ~^~^~^~^~^~^~
    >
    > http://www.ellieclemens.com
    >
    > "It's not a game, it's not over."
    >
    > Jean-Pierre Raffarin

Ellie,

We moved to Germany ten years ago. Before going we bought a multi-system
TV and VCR from a company in NYC. They were expensive but they were
about half the price of those we saw in German stores after we moved
over. I can't recall the name of the NYC store but a google search
should turn up several possibles.

My page http://www.enjoy-europe.com/hte/chap22/living.htm based on
several stints of living in Europe can help you get up the learning
curve on this topic and others.

Bon voyage!
John Bermont
--
------------------------------------------------------
* * * Mastering Independent Budget Travel * * *
http://www.enjoy-europe.com/
------------------------------------------------------

Evelynvogtgamble

ellie clemens wrote:
    >
    > When I move to France this fall, I will be buying, among other things, a
    > new VCR. Is it possible to buy one that will play both US VHS tapes
    > (NTSC encoded) and French VHS tapes (SECAM?)? What about the television
    > set it hooks up to? Does this have ot be different to play the two
    > different formats?

I think what you want is a multi-system VCR. Take a look at
http://www.mindlogic.com/index.shtml. DVD's will most likely replace
VCR, so when I recently bought a DVD player, I got one that is "code
free", "region free" and has a built-in PAL/NTSC converter. (Of course,
if I were to take it to Europe, I'd still need a TV set compatible with
European standards, but you can buy TV's in "multi-system" format, too -
they're just rather pricey.)

    >
    > --
    > ~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^ ~^~^~^~^~^~^~
    >
    > http://www.ellieclemens.com
    >
    > "It's not a game, it's not over."
    >
    > Jean-Pierre Raffarin

Ellie Clemens

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Yes, I do have a DVD player, in my laptop computer. It lets me switch
regions 5 times and then it locks on the 5th choice. My husband also
has the same type of laptop so we'll have to let one be for region 1 and
the other for region 2 (Europe is region 2, isn't it?)

But the reason we need the VCR is for French tapes. I speak French well
enough to get along and I'm sure I will improve when I live there, but
my husband hardly speaks it at all. We have the full set of the "French
in Action" tapes, though, and he's looking forward to using them as his
initial learning method.

Thanks to everyone for all the very helpful information!

Ellie

EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque) wrote:

    >ellie clemens wrote:
    >
    >>When I move to France this fall, I will be buying, among other things, a
    >>new VCR. Is it possible to buy one that will play both US VHS tapes
    >>(NTSC encoded) and French VHS tapes (SECAM?)? What about the television
    >>set it hooks up to? Does this have ot be different to play the two
    >>different formats?
    >>
    >I think what you want is a multi-system VCR. Take a look at
    >http://www.mindlogic.com/index.shtml. DVD's will most likely replace
    >VCR, so when I recently bought a DVD player, I got one that is "code
    >free", "region free" and has a built-in PAL/NTSC converter. (Of course,
    >if I were to take it to Europe, I'd still need a TV set compatible with
    >European standards, but you can buy TV's in "multi-system" format, too -
    >they're just rather pricey.)
    >
    >>--
    >>~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^ ~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~
    >>http://www.ellieclemens.com
    >>"It's not a game, it's not over."
    >>Jean-Pierre Raffarin
    >>

--
~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^ ~^~^~^~^~^~^~

http://www.ellieclemens.com

"It's not a game, it's not over."

Jean-Pierre Raffarin



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Yes, I do have a DVD player, in my laptop computer. Â It lets me switch regions
5 times and then it locks on the 5th choice. Â My husband also has the same
type of laptop so we'll have to let one be for region 1 and the other for
region 2 (Europe is region 2, isn't it?)

But the reason we need the VCR is for French tapes. Â I speak French well
enough to get along and I'm sure I will improve when I live there, but my
husband hardly speaks it at all. Â We have the full set of the "French in
Action" tapes, though, and he's looking forward to using them as his initial
learning method.

Thanks to everyone for all the very helpful information!

Ellie

EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque) wrote:


ellie clemens wrote:


When I move to France this fall, I will be buying, among other things, a
new VCR. Is it possible to buy one that will play both US VHS tapes
(NTSC encoded) and French VHS tapes (SECAM?)? What about the television
set it hooks up to? Does this have ot be different to play the two
different formats?



I think what you want is a multi-system VCR. Take a look at
http://www.mindlogic.com/index.shtml. DVD's will most likely replace
VCR, so when I recently bought a DVD player, I got one that is "code
free", "region free" and has a built-in PAL/NTSC converter. (Of course,
if I were to take it to Europe, I'd still need a TV set compatible with
European standards, but you can buy TV's in "multi-system" format, too -
they're just rather pricey.)



--
~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^ ~^~^~^~^~^~^~

http://www.ellieclemens.com

"It's not a game, it's not over."

Jean-Pierre Raffarin




--
~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^ ~^~^~^~^~^~^~

http://www.ellieclemens.com

"It's not a game, it's not over."

Jean-Pierre Raffarin





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