the most common in the US is NTSC. another used in other countriesvis PAL. the format is separated into regions, and they are as follows,
REGION 1 -- USA, Canada
REGION 2 -- Japan, Europe, South Africa, Middle East, Greenland
REGION 3 -- S.Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Parts of South East Asia
REGION 4 -- Australia, New Zealand, Latin America (including Mexico)
REGION 5 -- Eastern Europe, Russia, India, Africa
REGION 6 -- China
REGION 7 -- Reserved for Unspecified Special Use
REGION 8 -- Reserved for Cruise Ships, Airlines, etc...
REGION
0 or REGION ALL -- Discs are uncoded and can be played Worldwide,
however, PAL discs must be played in a PAL-compatible unit and NTSC
discs must be played in an NTSC-compatible unit.
you can use MAGICdvdRIPPER software on your computer, it works with NTSC, and PAL formats and vice versa.
PAL to NTSC conversion
1) A converting VHS player; they are fairly expensive.
2) A separate video converter (hardware); they run for about $200-$500; just put this between your VCR and the TV.
3) Capture the PAL on your computer using a software like Movie Maker via a Firewire cable. Than convert it to NTSC on your machine using software like Nero... do a search on Google for converting software. Or just watch it on our computer in PAL format, most computers do that... For this step I use a separate camcoder that has a passthrough feature. The VCR connects to it and the camcorder connects to the computer via Firewire.
