Would testing it do any good? I just had a camcorder returned at great cost to me for the return shipping postage label and duty handling charge (from the U.S.) under the claim that it was 'faulty' because it would no longer connect by firewire cable to their computer. They had used it to transfer their PAL system tapes to their computer successfully for most of the ten weeks since I posted it to them. I made a video of unboxing the return and it being connected to a computer and transferring video, to prove that there was no fault with the camcorder. Although their computer could have been at fault, ebay said they would do nothing about the customer either being in error or lying.  Is ebay becoming a free rental service for buyers to borrow an item, use it, then return it for a full refund? They would have been hard pressed to find a PAL system camcorder of that model available from a U.S. seller, as the U.S system is NTSC.