Hello Susan,


Unfortunately there exists no such a thing.

The TV systems are different from each other and since analog systems don't
have convertors or anything built-in you can't go that way.  There are
however 'quite some' European (in general PAL) VHS recorders that can
playback 4.43MHz carrier NTSC VHS tapes.  Most can also playback SECAM
(French system).  But 'quite some' is never enough and it will require for
the viewer to know where the little switch is to playback NTSC tapes.

Next are the digital systems, which actually have the same problem.  They
are either 25 frames per second 720 x 576 (for PAL) or 30/29.7 frames per
second 720 x 480 (for NTSC).  None of the players I know, be it Betacam,
DVD, DVHS, DV, VideoCD, Super Video CD... can convert between the formats.
There might be some exotic format I don't know that can do it, but rest
assured no-one has such a player in home.

In general, if you want your tape to be universally viewable, forget it.

There however springs something to mind, which is double-sided DVD.  You
*could* use one side for NTSC and the other side for PAL.  Last time I
checked however with our mastering company, making two single-sided DVD's
was cheaper than one double-sided.  Oh and not too many people have a DVD
player.

So, worldwide video is a problem.  The only thing that's universal is
pelicule.  Cinema.  As soon as you go video, you have PAL vs NTSC (and all
the variations on those themes - PAL B, PAL I, PAL H, PAL G,... which are
*most* of the time compatible).  I won't start talking about quality
differences.  NTSC viewers will find PAL stuttering (less fps) and PAL
viewers will find NTSC unsharp, lousy quality.

If you want something as universal as possible that most people will be able
to playback, I suggest maybe a CD-ROM with MPEG files.  VideoCD's in
whichever format are playable on computers, be it NTSC or PAL - computers
don't care about formats, it's just a sequence of images for them.  So you
can then either play it in a NTSC/PAL VideoCD/DVD player or on most any
computer.

Hope this helps.  Feel free to post on the list for more info or more
answers.


- Kayjey -
www.fiatcoupe.net


-----Original Message-----
From: Susan Friesen [mailto:susanfriesen(at)telus.net]
Sent: Wednesday, January 08, 2003 8:45 PM
To: Hwg
Subject: semi OT: video format for world consumption


Hi everyone,
Our organisation is developing a video presentation that we want to be able
to send to anyone in the world to view, upon their expressed interest of
participating in our project. I understand the standard American VHS format
is not a universal medium - is there such an animal in an analog format?

What about digital - would that be a better avenue to pursue? Is the CR-ROM
or the DVD-ROM a universal medium that we could be confident that most would
be able to view our footage off of? Is there any particular codec/extension
that would be best if this is the case?

I'm hoping our world-wide membership could help me out with a few pointers
to get me in the right direction...

Many thanks in advance for your responses,
Susan


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Susan Friesen
Project Manager, KindActs Network Association of BC, Canada
Invest in a Kinder World Coin-spiracy Project
604-504-4242  or  604-515-5463
www.investinakinderworld.com
www.kindacts.net

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