Hey all,

I have a quick, dumb question I need help with; if I have a run-of-the mill, American suburban type VCR, will it be able to play tapes that are in PAL format?

Thanks...

I don't think you can, but I'm not sure.

Ive got a question...whats PAL format???

PAL is the format they use in Europe for VCR tapes. We use NTSC. I have no idea what the difference is, but I'm pretty sure our VCRs won't play PAL tapes.

The simple answer is :

Read the VCR's instruction manual.

If it is able to play PAL tapes it will say so in the manual.
If however, like you say, you just have a really cheap, bog-standard VCR then it is unlikely that it will play PAL tapes.
In the UK even the most basic VCR's are able to play NTSC recordings but I doubt the converse is true in America. There are a lot more movies available on VHS and DVD in America than in Europe so a lot of people here import movies from the States so we need equipment that can play them. I doubt there are many Americans who import tapes/DVD's from Europe (unless you're into dodgy German porn! ;) ) so I don't think that there would be much demand for PAL compatible equipment in the U.S.
Another factor which you must take into consideration in this case is this:
Even if your VCR is PAL compatible, unless it can convert the PAL signal into NTSC you will also need a PAL compatible TV. I have encountered this problem when dealing with DVD players. I had one PAL DVD player which could play America discs but the signal it put out was still NTSC. My TV at the time was not NTSC compatible and so it could not show the picture. Another DVD player I had could play American discs and it converted the NTSC signal into PAL so my TV could handle it perfectly well.

There are companies who will convert PAL tapes into NTSC. If you can locate one I'm sure they'd be able to convert the tape for you. I hear this service is actually quite cheap aswell.

I hope my reply didn't confuse you too much. I'm really interested in stuff like this so if you want more info please PM me!

Mossopp
Chit Chat's resident home cinema expert.