Sorry if this has already been answered n times before - I did a search and couldn't find any reference to it.........

I've got about 200 VHS tapes of stuff I've recorded off-air in the UK and I'm thinking about bringing them to LOS together with my UK VHS machine to play them. Question is - will they play OK on a standard Thai TV set using either Euro-SCART connector or via the 3 (red & black audio + yellow video phono plugs)? Failing that, I could bring my small UK portable TV if only for just viewing these tapes.

Thanks in advance............

Yes it will work, i brought all my vhs tapes although i bought the VCR here.

The Thai TV standard is PAL, same as the UK. The SCART connector is found mostly in Europe, but is not common in Thailand. The composite connector (Yellow (video), red/white (audio)) is common throughout the world (referred to as the "A/V" connector).

In other words, no problem.

Edited April 3, 200620 yr by Firefoxx

Thanks for the fast responses, DT and FF - good to know. I won't bother with bringing the small TV, then

Thanks for the fast responses, DT and FF - good to know. I won't bother with bringing the small TV, then

Just to add, you won't be able to use the antenna connection, only AV, also your VCR probably won't record off air (no sound), recording UBC via the AV will be fine.

Bring a SCART to RCA lead.

The tapes will be fine in Thailand, and so will the VCR, if you use the SCART cable.

Using the RF you may have a problem as there are different versions of the

PAL standard. Thailand is PAL-B

Your UK vcr will probably not record from the RF input for the same reason,

but again if you record from satellite using the SCART you will be OK

Thanks Crossy & Astral - also good points. I'm really only expecting to use the VCR for playing my existing recorded VHS tapes - "archive stuff", you like.

Even in the UK, VHS is already on its way out for video recording. I plan to get myself a hard-disc or DVD recorder in Thailand for future recording use.

Which reminds me: about 5 years ago, I was in Singapore and a local friend was showing me round. We were in a big Tower Records store and the video section was packed with VCD's. There was just one tiny section for VHS movies etc tucked away in a corner. My friend was laughing when he told me "Yeah - those are just for the lo-tech expats".................

In Thailand, it's nearly impossible to find any place that still rents out tapes, and the VHS recorders are also getting very hard to find.

You don't need to jump into the hard-disk/dvd recording thing just yet. Many camcorders (except low-end models) can record direct from the AV connector. I've been using mine to record UBC stuff for a long time now. As for recording from broadcast TV, you can use the AV-out connector from your TV.