Save
Your Memories

Do not let time take your precious recordings away from you and your loved ones. Video Kitchen can transfer your videos and movies to a digital format allowing you to enjoy and share your memories for decades to come.

Foreign Tape and DVD Conversion

Video Systems

A VHS blank tape is a VHS blank tape wherever in the world you find yourself. Likewise for DVD's. However, the signals written on the medium can vary country by country. These are the major systems for VHS tapes:

  • NTSC - USA, Canada, Japan, Korea, Philippines, Mexico
  • PAL - Most of Europe, China, India, Australia, South Africa
  • M-PAL - Brazil
  • N-PAL - Argentina
  • SECAM - France, Russia, and Greece
  • MESECAM - Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and other Middle East countries

The world is a bit less complicated when it comes to DVD's: everything is either NTSC or PAL and a great many PAL players handle NTSC DVD's just fine. However, DVD's may have a region code on copyrighted material to control distribution of the media. All the DVD's we create have no region code -- they will play anywhere.

If you are in the US and receive a non-NTSC tape, when you play it on your VCR you see lots of horizontal black and white lines and you hear mickey-mouse voices. DVD players will usually give you a message or an error code if not NTSC.

In addition to VHS tapes we can convert to and from PAL 8mm, Hi8, MiniDV and DVCAM tapes and DVD's.

Foreign Conversion Prices

Convert to US tape or DVD

If you are bringing us a foreign tape or DVD to be converted to the USA standard (NTSC), you simply add $9 to the cost of a regular dub. See the standard duplication prices page for tape and DVD copy pricing.

Convert to foreign tape or DVD

If creating a tape or disc to send overseas, you simply add $9 to the cost of a regular dub. See the standard duplication prices page for tape and DVD copy pricing.


Standard Service is 24-hour turnaround, 6 days a week. Priority Service is scheduled to be completed within 4 hours, if possible, for 33% extra.

We do not copy copyrighted material or pornography.

We can convert foreign formats for which we have no equipment if you provide a foreign camera or VCR that plays the non-NTSC media. Call for more information.