COM WORLD CMD-850 Digital Video Converter retro technology: Convert PAL to NTSC, NTSC to PAL

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Get a PAL to NSTC CONVERTER here: https://amzn.to/49MIoPb SEARCH FOR PAL/NTSC CONVERTER for sale: https://bhpho.to/44us5XF Here's a piece of retro tech from about 15 years ago when television standards was still a thing:  A small, budget television formats converter sold by World Gift Center Inc., today World Import.  Made in Korea, this nifty device could convert video signals on the fly to any signal as selected on the control panel of the device.  But how was the quality?

Transcript

00:00now here's a piece of shall we say retro tech that used to come in handy when

00:05needed it's the what is it it's the com world digital video converter system

00:13sold by world gift center Inc yeah this one's model number is CMD 850 what does

00:21this say digital video converter system NTSC to PAL conversion 525 to 625 line

00:27AC cam to PAL conversion 625 to 625 lines AC cam PAL to NTSC conversion 625 to

00:36525 line yeah now those of you who have absolutely no idea what this was for

00:43there used to be a time television standards was a thing also called

00:48television formats there was PAL and NTSC PAL and its own resolution NTSC at its

00:55own resolution and also frame rate but yeah I know many people used to have

01:02these stories about say they are from England or from South Africa and they

01:08travel to America and they buy themselves there all these nice videos that they

01:14don't find in their own countries and they bring them back to their countries

01:18and then their own video machines and televisions will not play back those

01:23videos it just shows all scrambled signals and whatnot and sometimes they

01:29didn't understand what are tapes faulty but I know it's because those videos

01:35were recorded in NTSC and their home countries use PAL so that was usually

01:40people's nasty introduction to television standards was there a way to convert NTSC

01:47NTSC to PAL or PAL to NTSC yes there was devices like this could do that let me

01:53show you here what it looks like what you would do there's the back of it first of

02:00all there's the switch I love these old switches or well not old necessarily but I

02:09do love these shiny metal switches that sort of have like a little pin that you

02:15push up you hear when it goes yeah it just feels like a real switch I don't

02:22like all these other switches that you just press and you don't know did you

02:26press it or didn't it to you it doesn't make a sound or whatever anyway what you

02:31would do is you see there's an S video and an RCA input and there's an RCA and an S

02:39video output so what you would do is you take your source video the one that you

02:45want to convert say it is PAL and you would plug it in there or there or there

02:51and then on the top you would select let me just stand closer and then here on the

02:58top you would select see there's your input usually it could be selected

03:03automatically okay but there's not a signal now but anyway you will select it

03:10if it selects it wrong yeah it won't go to auto now but anyway and then there's

03:16your output switch you select you want it PAL or PAL-M or PAL-N or NTSC 3.58 or

03:25NTSC 4.43 yeah that's how you would select your in and out signals and then

03:34this device will send out the signal that you selected NTSC or PAL or whatever

03:39well yeah that's basically all you can select the NTSC or PAL different NTSCs

03:45and different PALs yeah I don't even know what the difference was between those

03:50those various PALs and the various NTSCs NTSC 3.58 was basically the most

03:56common one but then of course you need a VCR or a DVD recorder that can record

04:02that NTSC signal you also cannot record that with your PAL VCR or DVD recorder

04:09yeah what was also just important to know is that if you plug in a source into your RCA in it will

04:17come out of the RCA out you cannot then expect the signal to come out of the S

04:23video if your source went in there if you wanted the better quality S video out

04:30then you should plug it plug your source in also into the S video in quite a nice

04:39little device nifty device the quality of the conversion was quite good for the

04:45price range what it did is for example if you want to convert PAL to NTSC is it would sort

04:52of like blend different frames together to make up the difference in the frame rate because for

04:58NTSC you would need 29 point I don't even remember what almost 30 frames per second but

05:05not quite so the machine had to make 25 frames per second 29 point something frames per second and

05:12it did that quite well quite smooth motion it blended some frames into each other so that you would still

05:18get smooth enough motion when you converted the frame rate the video quality it was okay I couldn't

05:28complain although if you say for example you had computer graphics or something that really had bright

05:35colors it wouldn't come out that bright if for example you had a lime green bright lime green character

05:43it would come out a much darker green darker dull green in the NTSC converted signal or yeah bright red

05:52would sometimes come out sort of like a more dull maroon but yeah it basically got the job done this

06:00machine wasn't much to complain about unless you wanted to spend a lot more on a lot fancier

06:06equipment this thing did have its uses and it did a good enough job I would say not really network

06:14broadcast quality but for home use it was more than adequate personally I just used it for conversion

06:22first of videos and later of DVDs so that I could send them to my overseas friends or business colleagues

06:29but today of course that's all history now usually we just send everything over the internet and

06:36nobody has problems watching different standards NTSC or PAL I mean resolutions are now basically

06:43standardized HD is always 1920 by 1080 and 4k is always 3840 by 2160 if I'm not mistaken doesn't matter if

06:57it's in PAL or NTSC the frame rate might still differ but yeah basically as far as I know all digital

07:04televisions can play any video back now any video signal doesn't matter the resolution or the frame rate

07:12anymore so I suppose this is now just a nice piece of memories of the past and it struggles all right

07:21thanks for watching please remember to like this video and if you have not done yet so hit the subscribe

07:30button below I'll see you in the next one

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