We are trying to buy a VHS video copy of the movie "Sunshine" for a
friend who lives in Hungary. From my own research, I have found that
the VHS format used in Hungary is SECAM. However, in searching for
this format, videos in SECAM (especially American ones) are very
expensive--I found one for $194.00. Two questions:

1. Is it possible that SECAM is quite rare and that she probably has a
video player that would work with PAL?

2. Could you find me a European site on which I could purchase a copy
of the movie in the correct version? It is "Sunshine" with Ralph
Fiennes and Rachel Weis. It came out in 1999.

Thank you very much.

Regards,

Leslie Finkel

Dear leslie33,

It is true that Hungary used to exclusively use the SECAM format for
TV broadcasting, like most countries of the formed Eastern Bloc did.
SECAM was originally developed in France, but Eastern Europe had a
special version known as "SECAM-Ost", which is far more incompatible
to the Western European PAL standard than the more sophisticated SECAM
used in France today.

The good news is that Hungary, aspiring to demonstrate that they wish
to be part of Western Europe, switched to PAL after only the three
public TV stations still were broadcasting in SECAM, while the private
TV broadcasters already were using PAL. So any VHS video players (and
DVD players, too) used by Hungarians would most likely be PAL format
devices.

This means that a PAL format VHS tape would be fine for use in Hungary.

Now to the question on how to obtain a VHS of the movie "Sunshine".
The easiest way would be ordering from the British branch of Amazon.
They offer it for £14.07, which equals approximately $25.00, or 21.00
Euros:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00004WI7C/202-8385323-7395003

If your Hungarian friend owns a DVD player, you might be interested in
the British DVD version (Hungary has Region Code 2, like the rest of
Western Europe):
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000056IFN/202-8385323-7395003

The German branch of Amazon also offers a DVD version of "Sunshine",
featuring both the original soundtrack and dubbed German soundtrack,
for only 5.99 Euros ($7.12):
http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/tg/stores/detail/-/dvd-de/B00004W1FB/028-8317748-4773361



Sources:

LazloK, "Re: PAL or SECAM?" Online posting (2004-04-26),
<soc.culture.magyar> via Google Groups
http://groups.google.de/groups?hl=de&lr=&newwindow=1&selm=uafjc.90918%24dP1.278074%40newsc.telia.net


Search terms:
hungary SECAM "to PAL"
http://groups.google.de/groups?q=hungary+SECAM+%22to+PAL%22&hl=de&lr=&newwindow=1&sa=N&scoring=d
hungary SECAM "to PAL"
://www.google.de/search?hl=de&newwindow=1&scoring=d&q=hungary+SECAM+%22to+PAL%22&btnG=Suche
hungary SECAM PAL
://www.google.de/search?hl=de&newwindow=1&scoring=d&q=hungary+SECAM+PAL&btnG=Suche


Hope this helps!
Regards,
Scriptor

I couldn't have asked for a quicker or more complete response. Thank
you so much.--Leslie