DVD play on PAL and NTSC?

[MovieStuff]

I am in the process of setting up for DVD recording. The front runner in our choice is the Pioneer DVD 7000 recorder. It uses standard blank DVDs but records in real time. My question is about the compatibility between PAL and NTSC. If I record a DVD here in the states, will it play on a PAL DVD system as well? I've had two different answers from people: One person said that the DVD would play in PAL country on anyone's computer but not necessarily their PAL television. That sort of makes sense, as the computer would be sort of universal. Another person said that the DVD, itself, is universal and would play on any PAL DVD player and television. Anyone out there have hard information regarding this?

Thanks!

Roger

[TA 152]

Some, not all DVD player can play it all. There are as far as I know 5 "zones" and if you look at a commercial DVD film cover it will show the zone code like 1 (USA) and 2 EUROPE if I remember correctly. It does not matter if the DVD is PAL or NTSC format then. I bought several NTSC films from USA and play them on my (hacked) PAL Harman Kardon player.

Some DVD player are totally "zone free" and some can be "hacked" very easily like entering a code on the remote control while the player is in "stand-by" mode.

There are sites on the net that lists the DVD players and their capacities and how to "hack" those who needs them.

Right now I do not remeber the address but search the net with DVD player zone hack or something like that and you will find it.

The dealers of DVD players do usually know what players that offers "zone free" capabilities.

May be good to ask the seller if the player can deal with "home brew" DVDs too.


R

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ November 09, 2002 07:17 AM: Message edited by: S8 Booster ]</font>

[TA 152]

Some general info + zone compabilities:

http://www.vcdhelp.com/dvdplayershack.php

A lot more:

http://www.alltheweb.com/search?cat=...free+hack+list

[MovieStuff]

But only commercial DVDs are "regioned" or "zoned". I'm talking about home brew DVDs, not the kind you get commercially. If I make a DVD myself of someone's transfer, will it play on PAL television systems?

[8th Man]

This probably won't help, but I lived overseas and could play ntsc discs and PAL on my dvd set up, but when I got home the PAL discs I bought there could only be played on my Macintosh. Even though I have a region free PAL/NTSC player it won't do me any good with a standard NTSC monitor. The monitors overseas must've handled both NTSC and PAL.

[TA 152]

My PAL DVD player plays only PAL DV by default on my PAL TV.

However by using the "hack" swithcover it can play all 5? zones, one at the time:
Some plays all zones right away.

My MAC "Superdrive" handles PAL and NTSC directly and most likly all other DVDs, no zone limits.

R

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ November 09, 2002 09:56 AM: Message edited by: S8 Booster ]</font>

[MovieStuff]

Okay, let me try this again. I do NOT care about the "zone" or "region" issues as that is an artificial limitation implemented on DVDs for restricting their use in other countries. My DVDs will not have any zone or region limitations.

The ONLY thing I am interested in is whether there is something (from a format standpoint) that would preclude playing an NTSC DVD on a PAL television set up. Talking about "region" and "zone" issues is like me asking if an NTSC tape will play on PAL video deck and someone answers,"Well, if it has Macrovision then you'll have a problem copying it to PAL." It doesn't apply. My DVDs will not have any type of security encoding that will make them region or zone designated, I do not believe.

Therefore, I don't care about security issues that only apply (as far as I know) to commercial DVDs that you buy or rent. I am only intersted in the technical aspects of whether there is anything really "NTSC" about a DVD that I would produce here myself in the USA that would prevent it from playing on a PAL set up overseas.

I want to play a region free, zone free NTSC DVD on a PAL television/DVD player. Will that work and does anyone know without speculation?

[mcarter4121]

If I may muddy the waters a bit, my SVCD CD disks play on my DVD player. SVCD has a standard of 29.970 fps. like NTSC. That is the way SVCD disks are made; it is a standard that is loaded in Nero.
I assume the OTHER standards for DVDs therein will display other frames etc.. I know the size is different. SVCD uses 480 x 480 which the DVD player changes larger.

More, when I used to make VCD disks, 352 x 240, they could be made in three ways, ntsc, pal, and film. They all played on the PC, but I don't know about on a TV. I assume pal for pal, and ntsc for ntsc, but 'film' for both might work, too.

There are lots of clips to download from vcdhelp that are made in Pal, NTSC, or Film. Burn 'em on a DVD and see.

Perhaps you could purchase a cheap Pal TV from B&H?

[mcarter4121]

Nero requires you to select Pal or NTSC for the encoding resolution.

TMPGenc DVD encoding requires selections between NTSC and PAL using high or low resolution for either format.

VCD selections only had the film setting for NTSC.

So, it is pretty clear. DVD making must be specific for Pal or for NTSC. The image size will be different and so will the frame rate.

You will need to make captures at specific sizes or resize to them then encode the DVD for Pal or NTSC.

[Matt Pacini]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><table border="0" width="90%" bgcolor="#333333" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="0"><tr><td width="100%"><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" bgcolor="#FF9900"><tr><td width="100%" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by MovieStuff:
...I do NOT care about the "zone" or "region" issues ....</font></td></tr></table></td></tr></table></BLOCKQUOTE>

Yeah, but the PLAYERS might care.
I'm not an expert here, and I'm repeating second hand info here, because i've been trying to find out all the answers to this lately too, but it's my understanding that the players are all looking for that code before they will play a DVD.

In other words, you may (and I'm not sure about this) be asking a question akin to someone saying "I want to make a VHS tape, and I don't care if it's PAL or NTSC", or whatever.
You may have no choice in the matter.

I recently picked the brains of some CompUSA employees, told them what I was trying to do (record DVD's that would play on everyone's DVD player, NOT their computers), and after much discussion, they basically told me I shouldn't buy one now, because the compatibility issues are still not ironed out.
Zones did not come up at all in the conversation, it was the fact that computer DVD recorders do not necessarily care about our need to play these on stand alone DVD players.
They said the one's that come installed in the new Mac's are the most universal, and that perhaps in 6 months there would be more universal burners out there.
So I'm waiting...

Again, I'm not an expert, but when salespeople listen to you, and tell you NOT to buy something from them, they're probably not full of crap, since it means they're not getting the sale.
But if I'm wrong, someone please tell me so...

Matt Pacini