Re: why won't this video play?

SDavies@mtroyal.ab.ca
Fri, 21 Jun 2002 10:50:23 -0700 (PDT)

Renee,
VHS tapes and their corresponding players are "zoned" globally, just
as DVDs are. I have made it part of my student/staff's bootcamp to learn
that we need NTSC and to avoid PAL and SECAM. Your patron won't see this
video properly until they have paid someone to convert it to NTSC.

You'll find adequate explanations of the three VHS formats at these
two websites:

Videotape Standards Conversion: NTSC, PAL, SECAM
http://www.3dresearch.com/video/Conversion2.html

Video Broadcast Standards - NTSC - PAL - SECAM
http://www.alkenmrs.com/video/standards.html

A lengthier explanation can be found here. While equally factual,
this site is amusingly written:

Worldwide TV Standards - A Web Guide
http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Contrib/WorldTV/

Funnily, we don't often see tapes in other formats. Our problem
comes up when the intuitive part of our LCD projector switches its settings
as tho it were reading a foreign signal, and we must manually get it back
to NTSC settings.

Stephen Davies
Mount Royal College, Calgary
mailto:SDavies@mtroyal.ca