with a capture card it depends on what sources it can record

basically you have NTSC at 60hz and PAL at 50hz as the main standards (although there are a number of variations of them. some uk PAL vcr's can play NTSC tapes, but they output at a "non standard" 60hz PAL. unfortunately few recorders can record a 60hz PAL signal. some capture cards can do it, but many can't. likewise some dvd recorders and vcrs can do it, but most can't

there is an important difference between being able to accept and display a "non standard" PAL60 image, and being able to record it, as the recording typically means the record has to convert PAL60 to either PAL(50hz) or NTSC(60hz) - there are different numbers of lines in PAL and NTSC

CherlyFan - I have PM'd you. I can do this for you.

No, I'm not- with respect, you're oversimplying it.

This poster already confirmed that PAL 60 didn't work with his DVD recorder *nor* his TV card. On the other hand, this other person found a DVD recorder that works. As I (correctly) guessed, it's a case-by-case basis thing. It's not guaranteed, because no-one said it was.


I think you expect more from both TVs and TV cards than they guarantee; I doubt any can handle "all" signals.

"PAL 60" is essentially a trick that relies (AFAIK) on the fact that *most* recent PAL sets can tolerate and display nonstandard framerates and line counts (i.e. 525-line/60Hz) sufficiently. That doesn't change the fact that it's not within the standard spec (and I'm guessing that most TVs don't actually *claim* to support it).

But TV cards have to handle the signal quite differently in order to digitise it. I guessed- correctly as it turns out- that the fact that one can normally "get away" with PAL-60 for TV display says nothing about whether it'll work with a TV card or DVD recorder's digitiser.


"NTSC Playback" does make an NTSC *cassette* "viewable" on most PAL TVs, but it's definitely *not* (and probably doesn't claim to be) a true signal conversion compatible with any PAL equipment.

VCRs that do a proper NTSC to (genuine 50Hz/625-line) PAL conversion exist- see one of the linked posts above- but that's not the same as lower-end PAL-60 "NTSC Playback" models.


Assuming you mean a cheap "NTSC Playback" (PAL-60) VCR- not an expensive standards-converting one as above- then... no, that wouldn't work.

Reason being that it *hasn't* been converted to PAL, only PAL-60. And while most TVs will display that, it's still nonstandard, and PAL video recorders generally won't re-record it.

I tried recording an NTSC tape from VHS to VHS ages ago and just got a black screen.
A film buff I know had a world standard VHS recorder which were over £300 to buy. Which converted it.
Yet my Panasonic DRM ES10 will record an NTSC tape if connected via scart to composite leads in the back of the recorder. Just made sure the VHS is set to AV2 and the Recorder to AV4.
I did try a back up of one commercially bought tape with this method but got a message on the DVD recorder saying unable to record and it stopped about 20 seconds in. Only rarely happens.

According to this post, the "World Standard" recorders actually *converted* the signal to a regular spec-conformant PAL signal, though. So in that case, it *ought* to work anyway (though analogue video recorders could sometimes be flakey, I guess).


Just out of curiosity, are you feeding it an actual NTSC signal or a PAL-60 one from an "NTSC Playback" machine?

That's the DVD recorder detecting the Macrovision copy protection - nowt whatsoever to do with NTSC or PAL etc.