Hi.

There seems to be a US and Europe model for this camcorder. Do you know if the US (NTSC) can be swapped to support PAL by a hidden menu or some other method.

Anyone with any ideas please let me know

[redsox_mark]

I am 99.999% sure the answer is no. There are a few (expensive) pro camcorders out there that can shoot both PAL and NTSC (e.g. the Sony Z1). If the MG77 could shoot both there would be no reason to hide it – it would be a selling feature. It’s not like DVD region coding, where due to pressure from the film industry they need to pretend to be one region only. There are fundamental technical differences between PAL and NTSC, and to have a camcorder do both costs more… if it could do it they would tell you, not hide it.

The chip set manufacturers nearly always support both as the standards are not that different in the encode/decode area.
720x576@50hz = PAL
720x480@60hz = NTSC

This can easily be controlled in SW(firmware) or a menu.
The reason why camcorder manufacturers don't advertise that they support both is that fact that the US models are ~£300 cheaper than the Europe/UK models... So if they supported both would you buy one from the US and take the discount or buy one from the UK and pay a premium...

[redsox_mark]

Interesting...
I still think if that was true then we would see more camcorder manufacturers offering dual standard ones.
Other electronic items (e.g. digital cameras) which have no format issues are also cheaper in the US, and while some will import from there, I don't think it impacts that much on the UK market.
Prices tend to be as cheap or even cheaper in China which is PAL, so if you want to import you can import from there.
And I've found that lately the price differences are not that much if you take away VAT (which you should have to pay if you import anyway). US prices can look much cheaper sometimes when you see "rogue" traders advertising unrealistic prices... if you compare the UK price and the US prices from a quality vendor they are not that much different.... see this example for the HC3
SONY HDRC3 "whats the cheapest out there?"

Its cheaper for a manufacturer to make one unit which supports both standards (manufacturing costs reduced) and then enable/disable the feature by firmware and then just change the model number.

I'm in the US now and travel regularly so I've seen the price differences and Fry's has a very good instore deal on at the moment. Hence the question.
(so no import costs as I'll be purchasing in the US).

[redsox_mark]

I'm very familiar with US prices (I'm American). Your premise is that the manufacturers are making more money from the UK so they won't offer dual strandard.. the manufacturers don't get the VAT... and if you compare list prices without VAT they are very similar. I.e. the wholesale price without taxes is very similar. Things are more expensive here due to things like VAT. JVC will be making similar profit if you buy from the UK or US.

Of course, if you buy a camcorder in the US and bring it into the UK you are required by law to declare it, unless it is worth less than £132.

I don't doubt you are right about it being cheaper to make a model which does both standards... just if that is the case I'm still suprised they don't offer it as a feature. Also I've never seen or heard of a way of altering the firmware to make it dual standard.