I never thought about it before, but using the PV prefix for NTSC cameras and the NV prefix for PAL camcorders certainly would seem to indicate a rather dyslexic thought process!

Plug "NV-GS400" into Google and everything that comes up is PAL.

those DVD recorders record in mpeg format directly to DVD, not to HD, right? If using TV card I could record to HD, and would it be another, 'better' format?

are TV cards either for NTSC or PAL only, or could they capture both/either?

my NTSC-GS400 bought in Japan is called NV-GS400

At that price, there is no HDD in the DVD recorder. Most DVD recorders can do 8mbps MPEG-2, which is all but overkill for recording from an analog OTA broadcast, unless the codec in the recorder stinks. You can go to Half-D1 when recording from an analog OTA broadcast also, to make the compression much more efficient. You could capture, using a tuner/capture card to uncompressed files (make sure you are using 7200rpm drives, with NTFS formatted partitions, if you have a PC), and then compress using whatever codec you like, later.

Take a look at some captured DV files from your camcorder, with your computer. I'd be pretty surprised if it isn't 25fps, with 576 lines.

thanks again for your answer.
if you don't mind two more minor clarifications please:
1: you wrote: 'Most DVD recorders can do 8mbps MPEG-2, which is all but overkill for recording from an analog OTA broadcast, unless the codec in the recorder stinks.' sorry, this question is just because of my limited English, but the meaning of your words is that the MPEG-2 encoded recordings would do more than justice to the ananlog signal, or in other words that the quality of this recording would be more than enough. Did I understand that right?
and 2: what is 'Half D-1'? ( sorry if my question is very dumb )

and the capture videos from my camera are: 29.970 fps interlaced, 720x480x24, DV

If you are willing to invest a little money you can buy an external video input card, I don't advise the internal ones, I have had 2 and they were both appauling quality (and they weren't cheap ones either!) I now have a very nice little external video in card which is usb 2.0 so you get good bandwidth going in. It has s-video, analogue and composite in. So it's all I need,
hope this was of help

do I understand right that the 'video input card' would connect directly with my TV set, and convert the signal to digital? In other words, no TVcard for the PC needed. How much does such an external 'video input card' cost?
Which would be the advantage/disadvantage of the two setups? ( either 'video input card' connected to my TV or 'TVcard' to receive directly )

Doesn't your sattelite reciever have any digital outputs?

PV-GS is NTSC (P stands for Panasonic)
NV-GS is NTSC in Japan, usually black camcorders (N stands for National)
NV-GS is PAL anywhere else

MPEG-2 files encoded at a bitrate of 8mbps will provide excellent quality recording of over-the-air, standard television broadcasts.

Half-D1 means 352x576 pixels (for PAL) or 352x480 pixels (for NTSC).

Many people record analog broadcasts at Full-D1, which is either 720x575 (PAL) or 720x480 pixels (NTSC).

Half-D1 provides enough resolution for recording standard broadcasts and is a good match.

Full-D1 provides much more resolution than needed to record standard broadcasts, and makes compression less efficient.