I have family in Europe they are sending me VHS in PAL mode?

Question

Does any body know what is the cheapes way to watch them or convert them. I dont want to spend $300 on multi system for VCR.
also I need to know It I buy one of those VCR/DVD recorder and play the PAL mode and burn on DVD , can the DVD player convert it or not?

Answer 1

Well basicly you're screwed. #1 because it's VHS and B because it's PAL.

Honestly My experience with PAL is limited, but what i can tell you is the cheap piece of crap $30 DVd player i used to sell when i worked at Best Buy would play PAL DVDs. now you're probably thinking, "well that's a dvd player. this jerk is comparing apples to oranges." You're right, but $30 + $100 for a PAL dvd burner = $130. less than half the $300 multi format vcr.

Answer 2

I'm not sure how trying to convert will affect your DVD but unless you already have a VCR that will play a PAL tape (in which case you wouldn't need a converter) you won't be able to record it to DVD anyway. The only suggestion I can give you is to check out samstores.com because they have the best prices I've seen for region free and conversions that I've seen. That where I got my DVD player from.

I would think is you were able to convert it to DVD it should be fine if you can record it on your DVD as region 0 that way you can play the DVD on any player. (region 0 is considered the free region)

Answer 3

You guys forgot the big ticket item.
The multi-system TV.

When I lived in Asia, Europe & the Middle East I had a nice multi-system VCR, but I had to watch everything on a 14" multi-system TV, because multi-system TVs are so expensive that any multi-system TV 19" or larger was out of the question for my budget.

Your best option might be doing a web search for a web site that converts PAL video tapes to NTSC videos tapes & mail your tapes there.

This is the first site that popped up for me when I typed in "PAL to VHS" in a search engine.
http://www.dimagec.com/dvdvideoservices2.html
"PAL To VHS $15.00 per hour"