Purchasing a Video Cam (PAL/NTSC)
 

I was looking at getting myself a good video camera. When I was in school I was working with a Canon XL1, and I liked the camera. Initially I wanted to get an XL1 but then came across the Canon XM2. I could not find a link to the English page, but here is the link to the overview for this Camera in German http://www2.canon.de/pro/vid/dig/xm2.

I have a few question, I am currently in German, how does the PAL or NTSC get involved?
If I would buy this camera here in DE, would I have problems using it in the US or Canada?

You can use a camcorder anywhere, it doesn't know the difference. But the signal it's recording may not be playable on the native equipment there.

PAL is the european broadcast format and NTSC is american. They are completely incompatible and require a convertor to view/record one format on the other's equipment, resulting a loss of the picture information (less so from PAL to NTSC than the other way around).

The american (NTSC) equivalent of the the XM2 is the GL2, a good workhorse of a camcoder, better than a SONY 950 but a tad less than the VX2000 or PD150.

So I want a VX2000 or PD150 and, it doesn?t really matter if the cam is PAL or NTSC since I will capture it onto my computer anyhow. How about the tapes? VX and PD aren?t MiniDV are they?

If you want to record a video and play it on PC
it wont matter if its ntsc or pal, because computers can play both formats without problem.

So could I not capture it from the cam, and then output it per Firewire or capture deck.. onto a NTSC tape???? Would be no problem.

How about the tapes... themselfs.. are they different?

Tapes are tapes, but you'll get longer recording times with NTSC but a better picture with PAL. If I didn't publish to VHS tape, I'd use PAL.

And, yes, MiniDV's in those camcorders, though the PD150 is capable of recording in DVCAM mode (which locks the audio with the picture and is more robust than the DV format).

No such thing as NTSC tape, that just refers to the signal recorded on it.

The DV format is a way of digitally storing the signal, but DV PAL is not the same as DV NTSC- a convertor would be necessary to bridge the difference still.

So.. between the computer and the cam I need a converter? Different digital system.. when I capture to Premiere or FinalCut?

Good question. I have Premeire 6.0 on a Sony VAIO system, that has native software for firewire called DVGate on it. I can import NTSC DV into Premeire and save PAL DV AVI files. However, there isn't any way for me to see if it would output and play properly, since my only PAL capable equipment (an AIWA multi-system VCR) doesn't have firewire.

But I beleive the restriction would be on the video capture card itself, it would be capable of only one or the other.

But, if all you're doing is web video, forget the convertor. Go with a PAL camcorder and capture board.

This might be a stupid question to some, but what is a capture board?

Oh and thank you all for helping out..

I just bought the Canon GL2 for $2700
Its a really good camera.


http://www.corehosting.com/gl2.jpg


edit: It looks like that xm you're talking about IS the gl2! :thumbsup

Oh, cool dude. I bet you are stoked about your new camera. Cam is looking pimp.

I just have the problem with PAL and NTSC. I just need to make sure that I can capture onto a computer in the States from a PAL cam, or vice versa.

Im not too sure about that, this is very new to me, I just heard from the big guys actually on this board that the GL2 or XL1 is what I want to do things like bangbus.com does. So thanks about the looking pimp, hell yeah it is! :)

Ah, this video thing is just a hobby, I would like to combine my 3D work with some footage, also I would like to not forget what I learned back in school, although I don?t use that stuff anyhow.

I wanted a XL1 first but it not having a little display screen would make things a little difficult. Especially for the things I would like to do, no crew.

The PAL and NTSC issue is still totally unclear to me.

help?

Does anyone know of a company in the US that will take European PAL DV tapes and convert them to AVI's on CD? I've checked with all the local companies in the North East and nobody can seem to do this.

Thanks