Someone Explain DVD and PAL/NTSC

[Jorgen Sigvardsson]

Well, most newer PAL TV's are 100 hz, thus removing the flickering. The frame rate is still the same though. -- If I had the ability to smooth talk like John Simmons, this post would be less sarcastic and more to the point.

[Sean Cundiff]

DVD Region is an anti-piracy device. It has nothing to do with video format except that Region 1 is US/Canada and therefore NTSC (because NTSC is used in both Canada and the US). However, France and Germany are both Region 2. Germany uses the PAL video standard and France uses the SECAM video standard. -Sean ---- Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. -- Albert Einstein. I saw a woman wearing a sweatshirt with 'Guess' on it. I said, "Thyroid problem?" -- Emo Philips. Love is two minutes, 52 seconds of squishing noises. -- Johnny Rotten.

[Anders Molin]

Jörgen Sigvardsson wrote: I know that my Phillips DVD722 (I think it was the 722, not sure as I don't have it anymore) did both. I have a 722 and it can output both PAL and NTSC. - Anders Money talks, but all mine ever says is "Goodbye!"

[Joe Woodbury]

Just to clarify, NTSC is 525 lines per frame, PAL (and SECAM) 625 (there is a variant of PAL that runs at 60Hz and 525 lines per fram but will ignore that.) PAL DVDs are encoded as 720x576 and NTSC as 720x480. Also note that if you play a PAL encoded DVD on an NTSC television it will speed up by about 4%. This [probably] doesn't apply to progressive scan DVD players outputting to a digital monitor.

[markkuk]

That's because some people incorrectly use "PAL" and "NTSC" to mean 625 line/25 fps and 525 line/30 fps standards. Actually PAL and NTSC are methods to encode color information in a way that's compatible with monochrome TV, so they apply only to composite video or broadcast TV signals. You are correct in stating that MPEG2 signal on DVDs is neither PAL nor NTSC encoded, but the difference in line count and frame rate remains. You should be able to play both kinds of DVDs if the region coding permits it, but all TVs can't sync to "foreign" frame rates.

[Sean Cundiff]

It bothered me when I lived in Germany. I got used to it after a while. It sure made NTSC easier to look at when I got back to the US. I'll agree with Christian on the picture quality though. -Sean ---- Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. -- Albert Einstein. I saw a woman wearing a sweatshirt with 'Guess' on it. I said, "Thyroid problem?" -- Emo Philips. Love is two minutes, 52 seconds of squishing noises. -- Johnny Rotten.

[Lost User]

Your eyes are toooo sensitive. :-D My article on a reference-counted smart pointer that supports polymorphic objects and raw pointers

[Michael Dunn]

Christian Graus wrote: The colour encoding is different, PAL is far superior to NTSC. NTSC == Never The Same Color ;) --Mike-- Thing #9 to say when mad at work: "Therapy is expensive. Popping bubble plastic is cheap. You choose." Just released - 1ClickPicGrabber - Grab & organize pictures from your favorite web pages, with 1 click! My really out-of-date homepage Sonork-100.19012 Acid_Helm

[J Liss]

PAL - PAL (Phase Alternating Line) is a video standard used in many countries around the world. Countries such as the United Kingdom, The Netherlands and more use PAL as their video standard. When a VHS, DVD or laserdisc is released using the PAL format it can have a maximum resolution up to 625 lines with a vertical frequency of 50Hz. There are different types of PAL standards, one of which uses a vertical frequency of 60Hz instead of 50Hz. NTSC - NTSC (National Television Ssystem Committee) is another video standard used in many countries around the world. While it's not technically superior, it's more widely used thanks to its use in the United States and a variety of other countries, such as Japan. When a VHS, DVD or laserdisc is released using the NTSC format it can have a maximum resolution up to 525 lines with a vertical frequency of 60hz. So can you play a PAL VHS, DVD or laserdisc on an NTSC TV? The answer is no. TVs are either NTSC capable, PAL capable or both. Unfortunately, nearly every TV in the United States is NTSC only. If you live in a country where PAL is the standard you can generally get a TV that is capable of both PAL and NTSC native playback. So you live in an NTSC country and you want to play a PAL DVD yar sol.;P

[Michael Dunn]

Joel Matthias wrote: In theory shouldn't you be able to watch a PAL DVD on your computer because it already handles conversion of number of lines and refresh rates etc. I sure can. I have three seasons of Buffy and one of Angel, all PAL from the UK and they play fine with PowerDVD. --Mike-- Thing #9 to say when mad at work: "Therapy is expensive. Popping bubble plastic is cheap. You choose." Just released - 1ClickPicGrabber - Grab & organize pictures from your favorite web pages, with 1 click! My really out-of-date homepage Sonork-100.19012 Acid_Helm

[Richard Jones]

Michael Dunn wrote: I have three seasons of Buffy Ohhhh, man I have been searching for months for anything besides season 1&2. Are there more available down there? I notice you said from the UK, did you order them? Thx

[Michael Dunn]

In the US we only have 1 and 2, and no Angel at all yet. I order from DVDstreet[^] and they have been excellent. Just be sure that you can play region 2 DVDs. --Mike-- "Adventure. Excitement. A Jedi craves not these things."   -- Silent Bob 1ClickPicGrabber - Grab & organize pictures from your favorite web pages, with 1 click! My really out-of-date homepage Sonork-100.19012 Acid_Helm