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Television sets operate differently from country to country. NTSC is the standard used throughout North America and Japan. With NTSC, 525 lines are scanned across the screen about 30 times per second. PAL is the standard used throughout most of Western Europe. 625 lines are scanned across the screen about 25 times per second. Because of these differences, these two systems are NOT compatible. A VHS tape can be recorded in NTSC or PAL. The outside shell will look the same for NTSC or PAL, but the signal on the tapes is very different. Therefore, unless you have special equipment to convert the signal, tapes from North America cannot be played in Europe and vice versa. |
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Most commercial DVDs are encoded to only work in certain regions of the world. The regional encoding of a disc must match the encoding of your DVD player, or the disc will not play. While some players may have this function disabled, the vast majority will contain regional encoding. The various regions are: Region 1 - United States and Canada; Region 2 - Japan, Europe, South Africa, and Middle East; Region 3 - Southeast Asia and East Asia; Region 4 - Australia, New Zealand, Pacific Islands, Central America, Mexico, South America, and the Caribbean; Region 5 - Eastern Europe, Indian subcontinent, Africa, North Korea, and Mongolia; and Region 6 - China. All DVDs sold through Movies Unlimited and Amazon.com are Region 1 (unless otherwise specified). In addition to region, NTSC and PAL (see above) may also make some discs unplayable in certain parts of the world. |
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LaserDiscs were invented in the late 70s as an alternative to the emerging video cassette market. They were very much like phonograph records; they were unrecordable, about 12 inches in diameter, and with two different sides. They were reflective like compact discs and in the 80s they received an upgrade to digital sound similar to that of CDs. LaserDiscs finally started to gain popularity in the 90s. In recent years the DVD has been introduced. The DVD uses smaller discs (the same size as CDs) that do not need to be flipped over. They feature digital sound and video. They are not compatible, although a few manufacturers have made combination DVD/LD players. |
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Most prerecorded VHS tapes are in the 2 hour, Standard Play (SP) mode. This is the highest quality a standard VHS tape can achieve. On occasion, some tapes (those from Video Treasures in particular) are sold in the 4 hour, Long Play (LP) mode. This usually results in low quality recordings. Tapes are rarely produced in the poor quality 6 hour Extended Play (EP) mode. |
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LaserDiscs came in two speeds. CAV discs hold 30 minutes per side and allow for special effects such as slow motion and crystal clear pausing. CLV discs hold 60 minutes per side but lack the special features (many newer players offered these features using digital effects). There is no noticeable picture quality difference between the two. Some discs will be mixed. For example, if you have a 90 minute program, you can put 60 minutes on side a in CLV and the final 30 minutes on side B in CAV. Most discs are CLV. |
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