So far my Googling & "search"ing has reached a dead end.

I've looked @ a few retailers web sites & can find nothing to indicate compatibility w/PAL playback.

I'm not concerned w/getting a new unit.An older VCR would suit me just fine.

Are there any manufacturers that included it as standard in their lines?(I can't imagine why they would-but hey,ya never know).

I'd like to see Disneys'"Song of the South" & don't want a DVD copy.

I'm too cheap to buy the LD. :D

Any ideas?

There were definitely "multi-region" (i.e., NTSC & PAL) VCR's available. I actually found one (Samsung, IIRC) at the swap pile at our town dump once, but it was inert, so I returned it. Radio Shack sold one at one point.

Found some on eBay by searching for "pal ntsc vcr" http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?sofocus=bs&sbrftog=1&catref=C5&nojspr=y&from=R10&fcl=3&frpp=50&satitle=pal+ntsc+vcr&sacat=-1%26catref%3DC6&sargn=-1%26saslc%3D2&sadis=200&fpos=92359&ftrt=1&ftrv=1&saprclo=&saprchi=&fsop=1&fsoo=1 (minus the quotes)
Many (or all) require a PAL TV to use them though.

About a year ago, my European friend and I were at the Best Buy, looking at a VCR that accepted NTSC and PAL tapes, and output to an NTSC set. Yamaha, I think. I know they don't have it now. Sorry.

Yeah, I have one. Will read the model number when I get home. It accepts PAL and NTSC, will record in PAL or NTSC, and will output PAL or NTSC, all individually selectable.

I don't know if they still make them, but they probably made them recently enough that you can still get them from eBay or surplus stores in good condition.

Samsung mulri-system machines are still available at Fry's....saw a stack of them in Las Vegas back in January!

Well,thanks!

Now I know that what I'm looking for isn't un-obtanium.:)

If I need a PAL TV(I hadn't considered that) to view the output then I might just as well spring for the LD version.

Hmmm.Thanks.

Yeah, I have one. Will read the model number when I get home. It accepts PAL and NTSC, will record in PAL or NTSC, and will output PAL or NTSC, all individually selectable.Thats good to know!!!

Does it play PAL stuff at the right speed I wonder?? (I reckon it depends on if they did it right to begin with)

Geez talk about resurrecting an old thread!

The Samsung SV-5000W was a multi-standard VCR that converted PAL to NTSC (or NTSC to PAL) among other standards (SECAM, PAL-N, PAL-M) . also the fancier SV-7000.

I worked on a boatload of those back in the day. Very high failure rate of the power supply and also an EPROM IC that held all the alignment settings. People paid to have them repaired though because they were expensive and unique VCRs. Contrary to many ebay listings these were NOT S-VHS.

Sounds like a beautiful unit Eddie!

Makes ya wonder why more didnt have both... All it is IS a speed difference right?

There were major differences in color method and color carrier frequency, frame rate and frequency, number of scan lines. The Samsung was the only one I know of that would convert from one format to another on the fly so you could receive NTSC off the air with its tuner and record one of the other formats on the tape, in case for example you wanted to record American TV shows and send to your friends in England or France. It did that digitally. Other multi-standard VCRs would only play back at whatever the format of the tape was so you had to use a multi-standard TV with those. That Samsung was pretty sophisticated, too bad it had so many failures but the ones I fixed helped pay the bills!

I bet they did :)

Yeah I have one of those multi standard Samsung VCRs as well. I’ve Never played a foreign tape though. A bit of a disclaimer, the process of converting standards is digital :D