posted on August 31, 2000 11:36:36 AM new
I sold a video to a guy in the UK. Went for a lot of money. He now writes that he has a problem; he didn't realize that US videos are incompatible with British video players.
posted on August 31, 2000 11:46:33 AM new
You are not liable for his lack of knowledge. I'd suggest you tell him to just resell it on eBay unless he at least pays return shipping and your fees plus an "aggravation" fee also known as a restocking fee.
posted on August 31, 2000 11:48:40 AM new
Did your listing indicate NTSC? I suspect most North Americans who don't trade tapes on a regular basis would not even think of including the tape format info on their listings. Europeans seem to be a little 'smarter' with their listings
I trade tapes on a regular basis with friends all over the world, however they all have multinational VCRs that allow them to play PAL, NTSC, or SECAM tapes.
In the interest of good customer relations, and due to the fact that many people have no idea of the different formats, I would take the tape back and credit him with the cost of the tape only. The shipping should be covered by your buyer.
I respectfully suggest that anyone listng tapes on eBay should specify what format the tape was made in to avoid these types of problems.
posted on August 31, 2000 11:55:36 AM new
I wrote "VHS". Is that enough to indicate the format? Educate me!
Anyway, problem resolved. I told him that I can't refund it but pointed out that other bidders were interested too. I guess he'll figure out what to do with it.
posted on August 31, 2000 12:15:41 PM new
No, it doesn't James
Without getting too technical and boring you ...
VHS and BETA are different TAPE formats - that is, the tape itself and the shell that holds it are completely different. A VHS tape will not fit into a BETA machine, and vice versa. These are terms that were 'invented' by the VCR manufacturers. BETA came first and was copyrighted by Sony. I'm not sure who created VHS - I think Hitachi or Phillips or one of those other 'biggies' came up with this format.
Although each has benefits (BETA will reproduce a better quality picture; VHS will allow more information (time) to be placed on a tape), VHS has 'won the war'. You would be hard-pressed to find many BETA tapes at your local video joint - they are about as rare as the old 8-track audio tapes that were replaced by casettes and now CDs.
VHS tapes can be encoded using different standards. The tape itself is identical - the difference is how the VCR puts the signal on the tape and how the tv monitor decodes it for you to watch it. In North America, we use the NTSC standard. The UK and Australia use the PAL standard, and France, for example, uses the SECAM standard. Unless you are interested in getting into the tape trading hobby (ONLY way to get stuff that never airs on North American teevee!), there's really not much you need to worry about. If you are bidding on a tape though, and the seller is in another country, it may be a good idea to touch base before you commit.
Your buyer should have done this, but again, probably was not aware of the different formats.
Now, when you get into DVDs it gets even more complicated. These discs are 'region' encoded - a Region 2 DVD sold in the UK will not play in a Region 1 DVD player sold in North America ...
But, I ramble (sorry!) ...
I am glad that you seemed to have worked this out with your buyer.
posted on August 31, 2000 08:51:09 PM newRB Thanks for some great info.
Question: When you bring in a tape and have it converted from one format to the other, is the physical tape you hand them converted or do they dupe the one you have onto another tape in the requested format?
