NTSC DV from PV-DV953 to PAL through S-video output?
 

I shot a wedding for a friend, and afterwards the couple told me they want to ship it to their family in Europe. Great timing! Is it possible to simply convert from NTSC to PAL by connecting the camcorder to a PAL VCR?

Sorry Emre, but it's not quite that simple. Your average PAL deck wouldn't know what to do with an incoming NTSC signal, anymore than an average NTSC deck would know what to do with PAL. However you should be able to find a duplication service in your area with an above average PAL deck, such as an Aiwa MX100 or a Samsung SV5000. These VCRs are referred to as multistandard decks because they'll actually do what you're looking for, that is, take NTSC through the inputs and record PAL to tape. They're upwards of $400 if you want to buy one of your own, but like I said, your friendly neighborhood duplication house should have at least one or two of these on permanent duty. Check the yellow pages of the nearest large city. Hope this helps,

Emre, don't worry too much about conversion. I'd first try to send a NTSC tape, as most newer PAL VCR can playback NTSC tapes. Also most modern PAL TV sets shouldn't have problems to display NTSC signals.
Another idea would be to make a NTSC DVD. This would work on almost every PAL DVD player for sure! I did this several times for my parents and friends in Germany and they had no problems at all.

I think Andreas is on the money. I've burnt NTSC DVDs and VCDs (from PAL footage) for people overseas, although I don't know how they watch VCDs anymore - I kept thinking something was wrong when I previewed it on my widescreen tv...

Kyle, this is not what I meant! Do not burn NTSC DVDs from PAL footage, or vice versa! I said just burn a plain NTSC VCD/DVD and play it on a PAL player. If you try such a mixing thing, it will probably confuse the DVD player.

Andreas,
I think we both missunderstood each other.
You are correct, an NTSC DVD plays in most PAL DVD players, so that could be a very easy option.

My situation is reversed: I don't think NTSC players play PAL discs (not sure though) so I made NTSC discs. What I meant by that is I rerender the PAL video as NTSC, then author an NTSC dvd. No confused DVD players, everyone's happy.

OK, Kyle, understood! I thought you trick your authoring/burning software in using PAL footage disguised as NTSC somehow. Well, not many programs support this, anyway...
Which software did you use to convert it from PAL to NTSC?
But I also played some PAL VCDs/SVCDs and DVDs on a NTSC DVD player here in Taiwan successfully. Maybe this was good luck. But I still suggest Emre to send a NTSC DVD to these "PAL people". If this really doesn't work, you still can consider other, more pricey solutions.

I was playing it safe by making NTSC discs. It is interesting that a PAL discs worked on the NTSC player, I wonder if most can do that?
I would think it would be cheaper for manufacturers to make their players play both formats and output both formats, then they could just sell the one player into both markets?

I rendered the project using Vegas (from the initial project), but I think DVDA could probably do it to if I had a PAL DV avi. I wouldn't try to rerender a PAL mpeg to NTSC though.

Andreas, I confirm that in Taiwan all (new) DVD players can play both PAL and NTSC DVD. You can see it in the stores. Furthermore I have 3 DVD players at home and they can play both PAL and NTSC, and in PROGRESSIVE !