SECAM to PAL conversion

[Martin963]

A couple of months ago someone reported on the forum that he had got a French sourced VCR to display colour on a UK sourced PAL TV using French terrestial off-air signals and linking the two units by Scart. I must say that I was surprised that this set-up worked, as although French VCR’s naturally recognise and record SECAM colour, it seemed unlikely that they would transcode them back to PAL for display on a PAL only TV (though the SECAM would of course be fine on a French TV).

However, a bit of research using a Philips DVD recorder (DVDR 610, widely sold in Comet etc) shows that my doubts were unfounded and that indeed this transcoding can take place. In my case I’m feeding the baseband output of an analogue satellite receiver (fed by Atlantic Bird 3, French terrestial channels in analogue, SECAM colour) via SCART (composite video only of course, no RGB involved here) to one of the Scart inputs on the Philips DVD recorder. The output is then going off to the TV (UK PAL only) and bingo – it’s in colour, of a far higher quality than obtained with a dedicated SECAM to PAL transcoder.

There’s no need to do any actual recording, the transcoding seems to take place just by using the Philips as part of the signal chain.

Even our Hitatchi UK TV which resolutely refused to recognise colour from the dedicated SECAM/PAL transcoder without being given 20 minutes notice seems to be entranced by this new set-up and working fine.   Interestingly if the Philips drops into stand-by,  the o/p reverts to black and white,  so presumably the transcoding process stops.

Worth a try if you have the SECAM problem, as although a Philips DVD recorder is double the price of a transcoder you get much better quality and a recorder thrown in.

I doubt it would work with all makes of DVD recorder though. Maybe Philips are OK because they have a large penetration into the French market – and they presumably don’t bother to disable the SECAM facility even on recorders sold in the UK

[Martin963]

I can now confirm that NOT ALL DVD recorders will do this conversion;  I 've just tested a Panasonic DMR-E55 (an otherwise excellent machine incidentally) but it just splurges colour lines and patterns all over a SECAM signal when viewed on a PAL TV.

The devil is in the detail - the Philips handbook mentions recording in SECAM & PAL but playback in PAL only,  the Panasonic book carefully avoids any mention of SECAM.

[IAN_S]

Martin

We had this discussion a few weeks ago if you remember, but I never did get my PAL only Hitachi tv to accept secam in colour via a French bought LG VCR that does mention secam L, mesecam, NTSC for recording in it's handbook which is why I thought it might work.

Now of course I get the digital signals from AB3 for as long as they last, a long time I hope!

 

 

[Martin963]

Hi Ian.  As I said above,  I was more than a bit surprised when the Philips DVD recorder got up and did its transcoding stuff,  particularly as it conflicted with what I had written to you in the previous thread citing the guy who said he had got his VCR to transcode.

I'm going to speculate here,  but my hunch is (still) that MOST French VCR's are capable of recording the colour information as EITHER SECAM OR PAL,  depending on which they are getting through the aerial.   In their ability to record either type of signal they do not have any need to transcode,  so on playback they o/p the same type of signal as they recorded,  leaving it to the TV to decide which it is;  and in the case of France with universal SECAM and PAL compatibility throughout its TV modern population,  there is no problem as a PAL or a SECAM tape will show colour on a French TV.

I seem to remember some years ago that if you bought a pre-recorded VHS tape you sometimes were able to specify whether it should be in PAL or SECAM,  and that some tourists came back with SECAM versions that they then found wouldn't play in colour back in the UK.

Turning to the Philips DVD recorder,  it is clear that it is actually converting SECAM to PAL to record subsequently onto DVD.  Maybe the DVD standards have specifically "forbidden" SECAM on DVD,  I don't know.  Either way it makes life a whole lot simpler.  (Incidentally,  the whole of French TV is universally originated in PAL at the studios,  the signals being far easier to mix and process,  and converted to SECAM just prior to distribution to the transmitter networks,  gives some idea of what French engineers think of SECAM!).

My guess is that the contributor who got his VCR to transcode had a rather expensive one (perhaps genuine multistandard) and was lucky.   But until he comes forward we won't know,  and I can't apologise to him for even questioning what he had seen!!   Unfortunately I'm in Devon at the moment and my French VCR is in France,  so I can't go and test all this out any further.