I have just moved from New Zealand to UK and brought a Panasonic NV-FJ600EA
vcr with me. Problem is that it doesn't seem to tune in to UK reception
properly (picture okay-ish, audio just a load of white noise). I have played
around changing the RF output channel, but to no avail. Anyone any ideas? It
has auto and manual selection of NTSC and PAL etc, but makes no difference.
It could just be knackered of course, but was fine when last used in NZ
prior to shipping.

Neil.

Neil Finnegan wrote:
I have just moved from New Zealand to UK and brought a Panasonic NV-FJ600EA
vcr with me. Problem is that it doesn't seem to tune in to UK reception
properly (picture okay-ish, audio just a load of white noise). I have played
around changing the RF output channel, but to no avail. Anyone any ideas? It
has auto and manual selection of NTSC and PAL etc, but makes no difference.
It could just be knackered of course, but was fine when last used in NZ
prior to shipping.

New Zealand uses PAL-B/G and the UK uses PAL-I. Although the underlying
system is the same, the precise frequencies that things are carried on
are slightly different - hence why you're getting OK picture and bad
sound, I suspect that you're seeing an "edge" of the sound signal only.
For example, according to the chart at
http://www.mastervideo.com/palbg_chart.htm#nz, channel 35 in NZ is
582-590MHz with the video on 583.25 and the sound on 588.75. In the UK,
channel 35 is 582-590 still with the video on 583.25, but the sound is
on 589.25. So the modulator in your video is looking at 588.75Mhz for
the sound and only seeing part of the signal on 589.25Mhz.

I'm no expert on this, but I suspect that you'd either have to change
the modulator inside the VCR or run the input signal though a system
converter in order to get the sound right. Anyone else got specifics?

You may find it cheaper to either replace the VCR or use it in
combination with a Freeview box - I doubt if the VCR has SCART sockets,
but you could feed a composite video input into it. Or you could get a
PVR - which is actually what this group is about, by the way... so you
may want to try uk.tech.broadcast

--
Angus G Rae Computing Services
Science & Engineering Support Team University of Edinburgh
The above opinions are mine, and Edinburgh Uni can't have them.

On Fri, 23 Jan 2004 11:52:53 +0000 (UTC), Neil Finnegan
wrote:

I have just moved from New Zealand to UK and brought a Panasonic NV-FJ600EA
vcr with me. Problem is that it doesn't seem to tune in to UK reception
properly (picture okay-ish, audio just a load of white noise). I have played
around changing the RF output channel, but to no avail. Anyone any ideas? It
has auto and manual selection of NTSC and PAL etc, but makes no difference.
It could just be knackered of course, but was fine when last used in NZ
prior to shipping.

See (for instance):

http://kropla.com/tv.htm
http://www.tenlab.com/worldtv.htm

NZ uses PAL G, UK uses PAL I, the main difference being that PAL G has
the sound at an offset of +5.5MHz from the video signal whereas PAL I
has it at +6MHz (and there's an implication on one site that PAL G uses
FM for sound whereas PAL I doesn't, but that may be an error, no other
site I've found mentions it). So at best you will have either picture
or sound but not both.

If you use a SCART connector (or RCA Phono plugs) then it will record
and play from/to those fine with UK equipment, but RF won't work for
either recording or playback.

Sorry, this is a general problem, a lot of Europe uses PAL G. Perhaps
you can sell it to someone going to Germany, Austria, Denmark etc. (but
not France or Belgium -- see the table at one of the web sites above)...

Chris C

Thanks both for taking time to explain; I thought PAL was PAL and had no
idea there were different standards...will just use it for playback then I
guess...

Cheers,

Neil.


"Chris Croughton" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 23 Jan 2004 11:52:53 +0000 (UTC), Neil Finnegan
wrote:

I have just moved from New Zealand to UK and brought a Panasonic
NV-FJ600EA
vcr with me. Problem is that it doesn't seem to tune in to UK reception
properly (picture okay-ish, audio just a load of white noise). I have
played
around changing the RF output channel, but to no avail. Anyone any
ideas? It
has auto and manual selection of NTSC and PAL etc, but makes no
difference.
It could just be knackered of course, but was fine when last used in NZ
prior to shipping.

See (for instance):

http://kropla.com/tv.htm
http://www.tenlab.com/worldtv.htm

NZ uses PAL G, UK uses PAL I, the main difference being that PAL G has
the sound at an offset of +5.5MHz from the video signal whereas PAL I
has it at +6MHz (and there's an implication on one site that PAL G uses
FM for sound whereas PAL I doesn't, but that may be an error, no other
site I've found mentions it). So at best you will have either picture
or sound but not both.

If you use a SCART connector (or RCA Phono plugs) then it will record
and play from/to those fine with UK equipment, but RF won't work for
either recording or playback.

Sorry, this is a general problem, a lot of Europe uses PAL G. Perhaps
you can sell it to someone going to Germany, Austria, Denmark etc. (but
not France or Belgium -- see the table at one of the web sites above)...

Chris C

On Fri, 23 Jan 2004 16:08:37 +0000 (UTC), Neil Finnegan
wrote:

Thanks both for taking time to explain; I thought PAL was PAL and had no
idea there were different standards...will just use it for playback then I
guess...

Yes, PAL is PAL (Phase Alternating Line colour encoding, 625 lines
interlaced, 50Hz frame rate) which is why you can play back the videos
(and record from SCART, composite, etc.). It's the broadcast standards
(what frequencies they use) which are different, and the UK seems to be
in a minority (why am I not surprised?) as to which we use.

Just be glad you aren't in France, their SECAM standard is nothing like
and you wouldn't even get a watchable picture...

I had to look this stuff up when I went to Germany for 3 years, it's in
my bookmarks file as it tends to be asked occasionally...

Chris C

On Fri, 23 Jan 2004 Neil Finnegan wrote:

I have just moved from New Zealand to UK and brought a Panasonic NV-FJ600EA
vcr with me. Problem is that it doesn't seem to tune in to UK reception
properly (picture okay-ish, audio just a load of white noise). I have played
around changing the RF output channel, but to no avail. Anyone any ideas? It

As others have pointed out, it's the unusual audio offset of PAL-I
that's causing the trouble. Depending on the design of the VCR's RF
stages it may be possible to detune the offset to match the UK
transmissions. It certainly used to be possible to do this with some
European TV sets.

The trouble is that tradesmen's time is now so costly, and VCRs so
cheap, that it's probably not economical to bother unless you're
prepared to lift the lid and have a tweak yourself.

--
Kev
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