We bought a video tape in Salzburg and were assured by the salesman it will work on our VHS tape player. It does NOT !!! <BR>On the box ("spine") it lists PAL and VHS. <BR>We, and obviously the salesperson, thought it means it is compatible with our system. <BR>What is wrong and how can we avoid same mistake next time ? How can we correct THIS tape and see the beautiful Salzburg's "Musical Tour" ?

PAL is European TV. <BR>VHS is the size and shape of tape. <BR> <BR>To be compatible with your TV in North America, it would have had to say NTSC & VHS. <BR> <BR>In larger cities you can probably find services to convert the signal and write it to a new tape in NTSC format. Otherwise, you're SOL. <BR> <BR>Sorry.

Look in your yellow pages under "Video Tape Duplication and Transfer Service" or some such. You will no doubt find someone who can convert your tape for you. It used to be very expensive but a few years ago I had a 1-hour tape converted for about $20.00. It was worth it for me, and it may be even less now. Most of Europe uses either PAL or SECAM whereas our system is NTSC, so that is what you need to look for to avoid having to transfer. Good luck!

Some VCR's work on both systems. Check if you find a little switch.

Even if the VCR worked with both formats - your US TV would not. <BR> <BR>As the others have said - The Austrian salesman was totally correct - the tape does work on a VHS vcr. Your problem was asking the wrong question - not if it would work on a VHS VCR, But "Will it work on a US TV?" <BR> <BR>Lesson learned - but you can easily have it copied over to the right format in any city.

Tom, <BR>not quite. There are VCR's that have built-in converters that make it possible to view European tapes on a US TV; cf. http://www.unbeatable.com/products/PAL/PALSys.asp

What a wonderful forum and such good advisors ! <BR>I did look around and found someone to do the conversion.Lesson learned and remembered forever... <BR>Most of all I'm impressed how quickly came the helpful response. <BR>Many thanks !!!

I found a website that offers to do the conversion :<BR>www.videoconversion.com<BR>I did not use it , so I can't recommend it, but it might be helpful to others who need to know.

Topping for Susan!

Thanks!!!!

I have a dual-format VCR, so I can play both NTSC and PAL format tapes. Bought it over the Internet, from some store in Texas. Just do a search. Think it was $500, but that was 3 years, so it may be cheaper now.

Seeing this makes me remember a funny story that happened to us in London. My son and nephew came in from shopping and were so excited that they had found some great bargains on vhs movies. I took one luck at the tapes and said go back to the shop and see if you can get your money back because these won't work. The store gave them exchange credit and they got cds instead. We have laughed about this several times since our trip.

Also: DVDs bought overseas won't work on American DVD players. Again, you can buy dual format players (for about $200 more).