Well now, an update as promised...

Took the NTSC dvd - as transcoded from PAL in Nero - to the U.S. and it played OK on both a laptop and a dvd-to-tv player. It was a little jerky (the switch of formats) and maybe just a fraction more so than a vhs converted tape (by chance I already had sent a vhs copy of the same item to my host a few years ago so could do a direct compare). However the BIG difference was in the colour - the vhs blurs/glares (typical copying problem) while the dvd doesn't.

So, mainly a success.

What I should have done but didn't think of until too late, was take a PAL copy and see how it played on the laptop (should be fine??) and on the tv player (probably wouldn't but I can't say).

Next plan is to do up something different in both formats and post them over to get a second opinion.

Again, watch this space!

Nick