Leon & Brian,
The Aiwa MX1/100, and now, its many relatives (such as the very reasonably
priced Samsung SV-5000W - $490), are true converter-based VCRs, that will
accept any signal input format, and output in any format. This type of VCR
outputs to the a standard TV (so you do not need to purchase a
multistandard model, you just use what you've got).
This means that a PAL tape can be easily played on a NTSC TV, and that an
NTSC program (and therefore signal) can be recorded as a PAL tape (or
SECAM, or anything else for that matter). They use switched mode power
supplies, so they run on anything from AA's throught to 440v (well, joking
on the AA's but you can get down to 100V A/C).
I agree with Brian that these systems are not integrated into VCR/TV
combos, but the capablility is so good that the loss of integration ain't a
big deal (and I can confirm that the MX1 is a really nice piece of kit ..
pity it ain't Dolby-surround sound just yet!).
Tony
>I am not aware of any multi-format TVs with built in VCRs in the US.
>I have (at work) a multi-format VCR that runs on 60Hz 110V that outputs
>NTSC (Never The Same Color) for conversion. There are other VCRs
> that run on 60Hz 110V but output PAL or SECAM and require
>a multi-format monitor. The connectors and everything looks the same,
>but you can't connect these machines to NTSC equipment for conversion.
>Our machine does a good conversion from PAL to NTSC. I have not seen
>the results of the NTSC to PAL. (a friend's parents in the UK say it's fine)
>
>FWIW American NTSC runs on 60Hz 110V. The monitor scans 525lines at 30
>frames per second.
>UK PAL runs on 220V at 50Hz. The monitor scans 626lines at 25 frames per
>second.
>Having 100 more scan lines the picture is better in the UK.
>
>
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> E-MAIL ADDRESS: borgstede@umsl.edu
>
>Brian Borgstede I
>Telecommunications Engineer, I '68 Triumph
>University of Missouri, St. Louis I
>Instructional Technology Center I TR-250
>Phone: (314) 516-6433 I (or 2 or more)
>Fax: (314) 516-5294 I
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