Someone Explain DVD and PAL/NTSC

Jorgen Sigvardsson

The region code is just something Hollywood added to the spec. Good DVD players can be told ignore the region code. :) Mark Conger wrote: Isn't there some inconsistency in PAL implementation between certain countries??? Not only PAL suffers from version inflation. There are also a billion versions of SECAM (I know france used SECAM, dunno if they do still.. at least it was used heavily on satellite channels in the 80's/90's). There is at least another version NTSC - some japanese version. I'm just waiting for HDTV to be standardized properly.. -- If I had the ability to smooth talk like John Simmons, this post would be less sarcastic and more to the point.

voodoopriestess

Humm, Should have explained that better: Region 1 DVDs - NTSC to the TV Region 2 DVDs - PAL to the TV No converters involved at all... Iain ---- "I would be careful in separating your weirdness, a good quirky quantum weirdness, from the disturbed weirdness of people who take pleasure from PVC sheep with fruit repositories."

Marc Clifton

Your TV was probably capable of adjusting to the different sync rates, but the color encoding in PAL is different too. I can't remember what though. Marc Help! I'm an AI running around in someone's f*cked up universe simulator.

Lost User

"code free DVD players with no region lock, PAL-NTSC multisystem guaranteed to play multi region DVD Movies from all 6 regions. Pl. note that code free DVD players can not play PAL region DVDs on standard US TV (NTSC) or NTSC region DVDs on PAL TV. To do that a Multisystem TV is required" I found this on the following site: http://www.dvdoverseas.com/codefree_dvd.htm[^] My article on a reference-counted smart pointer that supports polymorphic objects and raw pointers

Christian Graus

It was an old TV, barely capable of playing PAL. The colour encoding is different, PAL is far superior to NTSC. I can see the difference when I play an NTSC DVD, and I have an expensive TV to play it on. Christian No offense, but I don't really want to encourage the creation of another VB developer. - Larry Antram 22 Oct 2002 Hey, at least Logo had, at it's inception, a mechanical turtle. VB has always lacked even that... - Shog9 04-09-2002 Again, you can screw up a C/C++ program just as easily as a VB program. OK, maybe not as easily, but it's certainly doable. - Jamie Nordmeyer - 15-Nov-2002

Lost User

http://www.dvdbuyingguide.com/codefreedvd/bigfaq.html[^] My article on a reference-counted smart pointer that supports polymorphic objects and raw pointers

Marc Clifton

Doesn't the lower frame rate of PAL (50hz) bother you? When I worked for an imaging company, we had PAL and NTSC cameras and I could always "see" the flicker. Yuck. Marc Help! I'm an AI running around in someone's f*cked up universe simulator.

Jorgen Sigvardsson

I know what you were saying (believe it or not! ;)) voodoopriestess wrote: Region 1 DVDs - NTSC to the TV Region 2 DVDs - PAL to the TV I just wanted to clarify for the audience that this is the way to go. Converting players simply suck. -- If I had the ability to smooth talk like John Simmons, this post would be less sarcastic and more to the point.

Christian Graus

No, having the colours all screwed up is more what worries me. I've been watching PAL all my life, so it's probably subjective. Christian No offense, but I don't really want to encourage the creation of another VB developer. - Larry Antram 22 Oct 2002 Hey, at least Logo had, at it's inception, a mechanical turtle. VB has always lacked even that... - Shog9 04-09-2002 Again, you can screw up a C/C++ program just as easily as a VB program. OK, maybe not as easily, but it's certainly doable. - Jamie Nordmeyer - 15-Nov-2002

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