Hello, everyone! I'm new on the forum but not new to legacy formats. But generally, I'm a music person. Recently, I've taken the dive into video formats, as I've discovered the many, many concerts and music-related concert released on Laserdisc that have not been preserved on DVD (or even VHS). Issue is, I'm living in PAL-Land and own an NTSC Laserdisc machine (a Pioneer CLD-1580K). I also own an international VCR from LG that can play NTSC tapes, I assume by converting the signal to PAL60 upon playback. It's been a nightmare trying to output a recordable signal using cheap USB capture cards.

I've done some experiments in converting VHS tapes using a DVD/VCR combination drive (which I unfortunately don't have regular access to) and have had great success. As such, I'm looking to invest in an external DVD recorder, as I've read that this the best way to go when upscaling and converting Laserdiscs.

My question is this: Would a Panasonic DMR-E55 be a suitable machine for digitizing my NTSC tapes through the international VCR and my NTSC Laserdiscs? According to a manual I've found online, it should be able to decode both PAL and NTSC signals, but as I'm still at the very start of this process, I wanted to hear what you all thought.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Here's a shot of the device in question:

This was discussed in DVD Recorders with 3D Comb Filters but not on this particular model.

Julien