Is it possible to buy a TV in America that supports PAL? Do American TVs have SCART sockets?
Possibly, but it won't be easy. Here in Europe its quite common to find TVs that will support NTSC/SECAM as well as PAL, but in the US most TVs will support NTSC (525 line, 60Hz) only.
Also, I'm thinking that maybe I can get around all of this by buying an LCD projector and using the super-video output of my DVD player. Does anyone know if this is PAL / NTSC independent?
S-Video isn't PAL/NTSC independent. S-Video is essentially composite, but with the chroma carried on a different wire to the luminance signals rather than composited into a single wire. The only video signal formats that avoid PAL/NTSC are RGB or YUV (component) formats. RGB is commonly used in Europe, YUV is the standard format used in the US.;-(
Also, you should be aware that technically PAL/NTSC refer to the colour-coding format used, independent of the picture resolution and frame rate. So even if you found a TV in the US that was capable of handling RGB or YUV (thus avoiding the PAL/NTSC colour coding issue) you'd need to be sure it could handle 625 line, 50Hz signals. (Although any TV claiming to handle PAL would almost certainly support 625 line/50Hz).
One possibility is to buy a multi-standard converting VCR (about $4-500 last time I looked) and use the conversion circuitry in that to convert PAL 625/50 to NTSC 525/60. That would result in a significant reduction in picture quality though so isn't particularly desirable.
Another possibility is to take your TV with you and run it from a power converter. Problem with this one is that you won't be able to use it to watch US broadcast/cable TV or output from US VCRs.
BTW SCART is a European standard (once referred to as Euroconnector), virtually unheard of in the US.
Slashdot Mirror
Possibly, but it won't be easy. Here in Europe its quite common to find TVs that will support NTSC/SECAM as well as PAL, but in the US most TVs will support NTSC (525 line, 60Hz) only.
S-Video isn't PAL/NTSC independent. S-Video is essentially composite, but with the chroma carried on a different wire to the luminance signals rather than composited into a single wire. The only video signal formats that avoid PAL/NTSC are RGB or YUV (component) formats. RGB is commonly used in Europe, YUV is the standard format used in the US. ;-(
Also, you should be aware that technically PAL/NTSC refer to the colour-coding format used, independent of the picture resolution and frame rate. So even if you found a TV in the US that was capable of handling RGB or YUV (thus avoiding the PAL/NTSC colour coding issue) you'd need to be sure it could handle 625 line, 50Hz signals. (Although any TV claiming to handle PAL would almost certainly support 625 line/50Hz).
One possibility is to buy a multi-standard converting VCR (about $4-500 last time I looked) and use the conversion circuitry in that to convert PAL 625/50 to NTSC 525/60. That would result in a significant reduction in picture quality though so isn't particularly desirable.
Another possibility is to take your TV with you and run it from a power converter. Problem with this one is that you won't be able to use it to watch US broadcast/cable TV or output from US VCRs.
BTW SCART is a European standard (once referred to as Euroconnector), virtually unheard of in the US.
Barry