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shipwrecked00 · 07-04-2000, 02:02 AM

What a sight! Charlene being hauled off to the States by Mounties on the 4th--Canada's revenge!! (JK)

"And stateside of the border(sic), custom agents gave her flight..."

About a dozen yrs ago I did volunteer work distributing VCR tapes from Estonia during the Soviet break-up. At that time, only one part of the world used what they call the NTSC video system--naturally, US and Canada. Everyone else in the free and not free world used PAL or SECAM and all you saw was "snow", dirty snow if the tape was not converted. If our friends overseas have "multi-system" VCRs, they should be OK. If not, the tape must be converted and it does lose some quality, commensurate with the lab's equipment and usally price paid. In the late 80s, the price of a single conversion was (for most here) prohibitive, and therefore batch processing (50+ copies) was the only realistic option. As I recall though, it might have been somewhat cheaper in Europe due to the volume of North American video being sold there. Physically, the tape and cassette are exactly the same. It's all in the differant hertz cycles or something--(don't ask, I was told).

You definately have it right though to use only your "master" tape to run copies off of. Each "generation" of copies loses significant quality---no more wrinkles!

Of course I'd like a copy and I think anyone else here will eventually want one too. 2much2lose has a point--unless you have a stack of VCRs, it can be very tedious work and a lab could knock-off 25 NTSC copies probably same day, at reasonable cost. But, they may ask questions...

Char, you're a gem and this "surprise" thing really has me curious -- but think about it!

"Was she drinking champagne when she made up her mind..."

------------------
"Is there someone sewing seams through all my hopes..."

[This message has been edited by shipwrecked00 (edited July 04, 2000).]

07-04-2000, 02:02 AM	#40
shipwrecked00 Member Join Date: Jun 2000 Location: Northern CT, Somewhere, USA Posts: 33	What a sight! Charlene being hauled off to the States by Mounties on the 4th--Canada's revenge!! (JK) "And stateside of the border(sic), custom agents gave her flight..." About a dozen yrs ago I did volunteer work distributing VCR tapes from Estonia during the Soviet break-up. At that time, only one part of the world used what they call the NTSC video system--naturally, US and Canada. Everyone else in the free and not free world used PAL or SECAM and all you saw was "snow", dirty snow if the tape was not converted. If our friends overseas have "multi-system" VCRs, they should be OK. If not, the tape must be converted and it does lose some quality, commensurate with the lab's equipment and usally price paid. In the late 80s, the price of a single conversion was (for most here) prohibitive, and therefore batch processing (50+ copies) was the only realistic option. As I recall though, it might have been somewhat cheaper in Europe due to the volume of North American video being sold there. Physically, the tape and cassette are exactly the same. It's all in the differant hertz cycles or something--(don't ask, I was told). You definately have it right though to use only your "master" tape to run copies off of. Each "generation" of copies loses significant quality---no more wrinkles! Of course I'd like a copy and I think anyone else here will eventually want one too. 2much2lose has a point--unless you have a stack of VCRs, it can be very tedious work and a lab could knock-off 25 NTSC copies probably same day, at reasonable cost. But, they may ask questions... Char, you're a gem and this "surprise" thing really has me curious -- but think about it! "Was she drinking champagne when she made up her mind..." ------------------ "Is there someone sewing seams through all my hopes..." [This message has been edited by shipwrecked00 (edited July 04, 2000).]