NTSC Capture with Asus GF4 Delux Card

[JJF007]

Hi!

I have a little Problem, maybe someone have a answer for this.

I have a Asus GF4 Deluxe Card with Video In. Now i connected a PAL VCR (NTSC Playback capable) to the Video-In ovér Composite. When i try to capture a NTSC Movie with the ASUS VCR Software (also ever Program which uses the ASUS Driver) i get one second the movie with color and then it jumps to black-and-white only. I tried this with two several VCRs (both NTSC Playback capable) - and the quality is very very bad.

I used the ASUS WMI Driver 1.9 and ASUS VCR 2.2.

It would be nice if someone had this problem in the past and fixed it.

[Swan]

These PAL (with NTSC playback functionality) VCRs are common here in Europe. However, what they output is not genuine NTSC, but something called PAL 60 (or Pseudo-PAL or Quasi-PAL) . I've read that it was a format developed for US military personell, stationed in Europe, who wanted to see VHS tapes from "back home" on PAL TV's and VCR's.
You will have great trouble capturing PAL 60. I have not been able to do it, with any other card than my Matrox G450 eTV. It does it nicely. However, the resolution is limited to 704 x 576 and it does not provide the same quality as the Pinnacle PCTV card I use for capturing now. I also believe the quality would be higher if an NTSC VCR was used as the source for capturing, as opposed to PAL 60.
I have tested with both the driver that came with the other card I have and Btwincap (which has a setting for PAL 60), but it didn't work.

I have loads of NTSC tapes and am pondering on how to buy a genuine NTSC VCR, if anyone sells them in Europe. If anyone reading this has any experience in the matter (buying an NTSC VCR from a reseller in Europe), please respond. :)

/Swan

[FredrikM]

As a European living in the US I had a similar problem. I picked up the Samsung 5000SW which is capable of playing any format and also to convert from one format to the other. The conversion works on the signal from the line-in connectors as well. Fairly inexpensive - around 300 USD.

[JJF007]

Thank you for a fast answer.

So i will look for a NTSC VCR on eBay or in a town near here where we have us army baracks!

[Swan]

Originally posted by FredrikM
I picked up the Samsung 5000SW which is capable of playing any format and also to convert from one format to the other. The conversion works on the signal from the line-in connectors as well. Fairly inexpensive - around 300 USD.
And it generates genuine NTSC and genuine PAL? Not PAL 60?
Is this the one?
http://www.welectronics.com/VCR/SAMSUNG5000.Shtml
Where did you buy it?

/Swan

[FredrikM]

That's the one. Picked mine up at J&R here in NYC but I know that K-Mart carries it on their website as well as a few others.

Basically one sets an input system:
{PAL, NTSC,...,AUTO}
and an output system:
{PAL, NTSC, NTSC 4.43,...}
and everything that plays or is connected through the line-in connectors gets converted into the selected output format. Unlike virtually all other VCRs here in the US it also has SCART. I think that NTSC 4.43 is the same as PAL 60 so you do have the possibility to run pure NTSC out.

As far as picture quality goes it is pretty poor when I run NTSC cable TV through to my PAL TV set but on par with my other European bought VCR (Panasonic something) when playing PAL as well as NTSC tapes. Hence I think that the poor quality in the first case might be more attributable to the cable signal.