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Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!seismo!hao!hplabs!hpda!fortune!dsd!avsdS!avsdT:deborah
From: avsdT:deborah@avsdS.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.micro
Subject: Re: VCRs
Message-ID: <506@avsdT.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 19-Jul-83 15:20:11 EDT
Article-I.D.: avsdT.506
Posted: Tue Jul 19 15:20:11 1983
Date-Received: Thu, 21-Jul-83 17:52:49 EDT
References: sri-arpa.3072
Lines: 14

A question was recently submitted " Can American videotapes be
used with an American TV, or in an American VCR?"

The answer is - NO!  The European standard is either PAL or SECAM, depending
on the country. Both of these standards use a 625 line picture, with a
50hz scanning rate. The American standard is 525 lines, ~60hz scan.
I work on professional video-tape recorders, and the best I can usually
get out of a PAL tape on an NTSC (american standard) machine is a marginal
black and white picture that is too big for the screen. On a home machine,
I suspect you'll just get garbage across the screen. 

-deborah gronke bennett
Ampex Corp.
fortune!dsd!atd!avsdT:deborah