PAL camcorder in America?
 

Does it matter if you have a PAL camcorder and you're going to edit the footage on the computer prior to putting it on DVD/Tape?

I dont think so.... when you capture/encode the video after just select PAL format.

Isn't PAL compatible with most VCR/DVD/TV's in North America?

And if it's not can't AVID or another video editor convert it to NTSC easily? If so, is the quality greatly diminished?

pal makes no difference on a pc (or mac) assuming youre using a capture card/ program, editing program that handles pal - dont know of any that dont.

you can even convert to 4:3 aspect ratio if you want. but you cant pop a pal tape into a ntsc built vcr or vidcam. I dont know about pal on dvd but the if you are authoring the dvd then the regional encoding would be the only thing keeping it from playing on a us vcr.

im guessing what you want to do is capture pal and output to vhs/dvd for ntsc format - should be able to do that, just when you encode to mpeg2 (dvd) change the output to ntsc standard - aspect ratio, lines of res, etc ... for vhs if your going to vhs straight from the puter should work fine. do a small test.

the one thing i know wont work is popping a pal tape into an ntsc cam. but if you put the pc/mac in the middle should be able to output in ntsc format when compressing/rendering.

What he says. Mikey knows this shit :)

Thanks Mikey_219Inc! :thumbsup

well do a test b4 capturing 100 hours of video ;) ... i wouldnt call myself an expert ... experienced but editing video is always a clusterfuck for one reason or another.

thx kraz ;)