Lens the man you want to see

Our video recorder can play American tapes - we also have another video recorder and a DVD recorder so just give us your tape and your wish will be done

OK. I think that I understand what you are asking regarding the video-to-video copy. Not sure of the answer myself. But I have posted the question in a Home Cinema discussion forum, so we should get something back from there.

My cousin who lives in the States has a old video recorder which actually allows you to set the format. Finding someone who has something like that would probably sort you out because it can read the NTSC-formatted tape but convert it so that the output was PAL (which is what our TVs & VCRs natively support).

The second part, can you record it to DVD? The answer should be Yes. DVD recorders are now getting to (almost) affordable levels and are designed as a replacement to the humble old VCR. Connecting a VCR to a DVD recorder and burning the contents of the tape on to disc should be possible. However, I would imagine that the same NTSC-to-PAL question applies.

Taping from one to the other shouldn't be a problem

Also there are places that can do it for you in the high street - most camera shops, and places like Snappy Snaps etc do it too

The general consensus of opinion from the Home Cinema forum is that you will need some sort of converter to be able to make a copy which will be guaranteed to work on your parents VCR.

However, another poster commented that as almost all modern VCRs will play NTSC-formatted tapes, the chances are that if your parent's player is less than 5 years old it won't matter as it will take it in it's stride.

let me get this right youve got an american tape, playing on an english vcr that plays ntsc and you want to record in ntsc format. Contact me at e-mail address and i'll try and sort it out for you (spent 8 years working in electrical retail) so i know a thing or two about it