Translate PAL to NTSC

I'm new in this forum and obviously know nothing about video. Hopefully one of you gents can help a newb. I performed a concert in India and got a copy of the vid they shot. I'm assuming the reason I can't see it is because it's in PAL format. My question is two part: what the cheapest way to convert it to NTSC, and/or how much would be a fair price to pay a vid company to do it for me? Thanks for your help.

it all depends on: How long is the program? What media was it shot on? What is the audio format? What format was it shot in? and... where are you located? If... it is a 1 hour show on a Standard Def format... A tape to tape transfer might cost anywhere from $500 to $750 here in NYC. HDcam or other HD media might be a bit more costly. Also don't forget actual media costs. ( from $50 to $500 per tape depending on type ) Doing it yourself will probably be more painful.. again, depending on the data above. cheers geo

Did you get your copy on DVD? If so, quite a few DVD players will play either PAL or NTSC on your NTSC monitor. If yours does not, maybe a friend's will.

Whatever you do get a second to second conversion and not a frame to frame conversion. That way your PAL soundtrack will still sync up with your new NTSC video conversion. It should cost you about $800. If your on the East Coast USA Studios in New York has a full Alchemy set up. Just make sure you close on a price with them before they do the work.You do not want to be charged by the hour! Good Luck Mitch

Thanks to you all! It was given to me on a Mini DV tape. I have a Canon GL-1 that will play that size tape, but when I import it into iMovie, it's scrambled. Is there a Mac application I could get that would translate PAL to NTSC?

did you set up your iMovie project as a PAL project? it could be defaulting to NTSC, which explains the scrample.

Thanks Tom! No, I didn't try setting up as PAL. I will try that tomorrow. Once I get it in iMovie as a PAL project, will iMovie convert it to NTSC as I export it as a Quicktime movie so I can burn a DVD that I can put in my home DVD player?

Will your CAMERA play PAL tapes, or only NTSC? You may need to rent a DVCAM deck (such as a DSR-11) that can do both. Good luck!

if you are trying to capture PAL and then convert to NTSC, then you need to setup your iMovie as PAL and capture. then you can convert to NTSC in QT, or, import those PAL clips into an NTSC iMovie session.