My brother lives in UK and visited me this year in Charlotte, NC. He bought a Sony camcorder and spent hours recording scenesso he could go back to England and make a vcr tape or DVD made so he could play it for his grandchildren. He copied the tape here in US for me to watch and it came out great. However, was disapointed when he returned to UK to discover this American Sony camcorder was not compatible with UK tv's. Consequently he has been unable to make a video or DVD for UK use and is planning to return the camcorder to Walmart when he returns here in the fall. A million thanks if you can you help us solve this problem?

-- Jean Beatty (jeanone@prodigy. net), July 12, 2004

Answers

The USA uses the NTSC system for television and video recording. The UK uses PAL. I'm not exactly sure what you mean when you say that his Sony camcorder is not compatible with UK TVs. Do you mean he can't playback the Sony camcorder through his UK TV or that he made a VHS tape or DVD from it that he can't watch? Many TVs in the UK are what are called "multistandard", which means that they will play both NTSC and PAL. Your brother could either get a multistandard TV or he could pay someone in the UK to convert his video from NTSC to PAL. Most PAL DVD players will convert NTSC DVDs automatically, although there a few that wont. If he is trying to play a VHS video tape, then I would guess that his VCR only supports PAL playback.

-- Root (root@yahoo.moc), July 15, 2004.