Worldwide DVD formatting

scotty · Post by **scotty** » Wed Nov 21, 2007 11:47 am

I am just finishing a wedding DVD for family relatives.
This will go to Australia, copies may well have to go to France, and possibly the states.

Am I right in thinking Australia is PAL?
I know France is Secam but will they show PAL DVD's?
As for the states, it looks easy to generate an NTSC disc from Videostudio but does anyone have any pointers to watch out for

Post by **Ken Berry** » Wed Nov 21, 2007 12:48 pm

Yes, Australia is PAL, and PAL discs should also work in France.

While it may look easy to convert from PAL to NTSC, it isn't. If you think about it, a conversion program not only has to change the frame size (NTSC frame height is smaller than PAL), not to mention adding 4.97 frames per second to the speed. So essentially it has to invent frames. The resulting conversion is usually not particularly watchable.

The only program that I know of personally that does a good job is a professional one and that means it costs quite a bit.

Most PAL DVD players these days have not trouble playing NTSC discs, but unfortunately the same is not necessarily true of NTSC players playing PAL DVDs. So I am not sure what to suggest. You could try sending a PAL disc to the US and hope that it might play. You could also try converting it with VS and see whether you can live with the result.

scotty · Post by **scotty** » Wed Nov 21, 2007 1:56 pm

Ken,

Thanks for the response.
I thought NTSC from PAL seemed too good to be true,
I agree its got a lot to do! It doesn't surprise me that they don't have many PAL players either as they always get first release on films there's not much call I guess.

Thankfully the person in the states is not a major party in the wedding, so it's not worth buying a special program for.
I could try ithe conversion or perhaps I just generate a non-interlaced mpeg2 version they could play on their computer?

.

Clevo · Post by **Clevo** » Wed Nov 21, 2007 1:59 pm

They should have no problems playing on their PC. Maybe I was locuky but I recently sent a PAL DVD to a friend in the states and she reported that it played fine on her DVD player AND PC.

Hugo · Post by **Hugo** » Wed Nov 21, 2007 2:05 pm

I live in the US, but my brother, who lives in Queensland, regularly sends me PAL dvd's of Rugby League games recorded directly from tv broadcast in Australia.

They play perfectly through both my pc, and using an OPPO upscaling dvd player connected to my HDTV, I get fantastic results through the telly too.

Not sure if this is normal, or if I'm just lucky

scotty · Post by **scotty** » Wed Nov 21, 2007 2:18 pm

Thanks for the replies,

Sounds like the best thing is to do is stick with PAL and see if we get lucky.

Cheers

skier-hughes · Post by **skier-hughes** » Wed Nov 21, 2007 6:16 pm

I do a lot of work that goes to the USA and I have a programme to convert to NTSC.
A lot of USA's new dvd players and tv's have the ability to play PAL ok, but they both have to be newish to do it, a new dvd player may play the disc, but an old tv won't accept the signal.
I'd suggest sending a PAL disc, as if it doesn't play on the tv it will play on the pc and it'll look pretty decent.

DVDDoug · Post by **DVDDoug** » Wed Nov 21, 2007 7:16 pm

Here's a handy website that shows TV standards around the world.

Most of the world is PAL, and I assume SECAM players will also play PAL. NTSC is used in North and Central America, Japan, and in several other scattered countries.

Clevo · Post by **Clevo** » Wed Nov 21, 2007 11:08 pm

Hugo wrote:I live in the US, but my brother, who lives in Queensland, regularly sends me PAL dvd's of Rugby League games recorded directly from tv broadcast in Australia.

They play perfectly through both my pc, and using an OPPO upscaling dvd player connected to my HDTV, I get fantastic results through the telly too.

Not sure if this is normal, or if I'm just lucky

Heh! I sent South Side Story to a friend in Texas.

scotty · Post by **scotty** » Fri Nov 23, 2007 9:42 am

DVDDoug wrote:Here's a handy website that shows TV standards around the world.

Most of the world is PAL, and I assume SECAM players will also play PAL. NTSC is used in North and Central America, Japan, and in several other scattered countries.

Doug thanks for that, excellent link page.
I had forgotten to mention on the first posting that there was a guest from Namibia, from the link I see they are PAL as well so quite safe there.
Interesting to see how the french standard SECAM has spread including Russia !

Graham, thanks for the advice on PAL players in the states.

skier-hughes · Post by **skier-hughes** » Fri Nov 23, 2007 1:04 pm

Look at the different sorts of PAL as well, as some don't work with each other, can't remember which though of the top of my head.

Post by **Ken Berry** » Fri Nov 23, 2007 6:45 pm

PAL-M is sui generis and only works in Brazil...

PidTel · Post by **PidTel** » Fri Nov 23, 2007 8:12 pm

If I remember correctly, with the exception of PAL M, the differences between the other versions of PAL are in the video bandwidth and the audio carrier frequency. Some versions have additional audio channels.

These differences are only relevant if you are using an rf connection.

If you are connecting (baseband) video and audio with Scart or RCA leads the differences do not exist.

Tom