Re: Katetopia Video

[btd@carina.cray.com (Bryan Dongray)]

Hello,

We're forgetting about different country video formats, having
recently moved from the UK to the USA, I have many UK (ie PAL
format) video tapes, so the VCR I bought is a multistandard one.
I didn't just get one that could somehow "cheat" and able to play
my tapes, I wanted to send my home videos of the kids to the
grannies, so got a VCR that can take an NTSC (ie USA format)
or PAL (UK format) signal, then record to tape in either, and
playback either tapes, to either output (ie TV) type, all done
digitally (of course). It does SECAM apparently too, but there
seem to be some caveats to do with the colo(u)r, so I'm not going
to offer that service!
Yes, it was a fairly expensive machine.

Sometime I intend to get a 2nd VCR, just a good NTSC one, so with
these two I will be able to convert the NTSC KateTopia tape into
PAL for someone in the UK (or other places that are in PAL format),
and they could distribute in PAL from there, ie make a PAL master.

Of course I'm sure I could take it round a friends, or borrow their
VCR to copy THE tape, if I'm a bit slow in buying that 2nd VCR.

It'd be good if the tape was not too far down the nth-generation copy,
I think the PAL folks would prefer as good as a copy as can be made,
especially as they'd be getting a NTSC-PAL then PAL-PAL copy at the
minimum (unless they had the PAL master I made).

I understand that video shops will do this too, BUT for a vast
sum of money, I'd do it for the postage and cost of a tape for
someone in the UK (or wherever else is PAL), and for the joy of
getting a copy of the tape myself! Yes, I'd send back the master
NTSC tape, and just keep an NTSC copy myself.

So two people need to contact me directly, someone who would be the PAL
master copier for all other PAL requests, and whoever has as good a
NTSC KateTopia tape as possible. Of course there could be a few PAL
masters made, for different countries, or just to get a few distribution
points for major country requestors.

			Bryan Dongray