Why is a special VCR needed for multiple video standards?
A VCR is not simply ‘analog playback’ in the same way that an audio recorder doesn’t care whether you record classical or rock. The VCR must synchronize to the video timing and demodulate the luminance and chrominance information in order to lay down the tracks on the videotape. There are enough differences among world video formats that while technically possible (and such multiformat VCRs exist) it is not automatic – or free. The video timing and modulation techniques for video formats like NTSC, PAL, SECAM, etc. are sufficiently different that additional circuitry is necessary to handle multiple formats. In the U.S. at least, there is not enough demand to justify the added expense. The technology of video recording makes interesting reading and the sophistication of the circuitry and mechanism of a $200 VCR is quite amazing. TVs are more likely to accommodate difference standards than VCRs. Even a regular TV may be able to be used to play from a different standards VCR. For example,
