NTSC Bluray play in Germany?

[AussieTX]

I have a project burned to Bluray for my sons Water Polo team and their entire past season.
They have a foreign exchange student who was in the team and returning home soon to Germany and I would like to give him a disk to take with him.
I have seen past posts that a lot of DVD players in the UK will play NTSC. Does that include Bluray Players in the UK and NTSC format? I assume it would.
And would that be the same for all across Europe?

Thx

Pat

[canuck]

A blu-ray will play on any blu-ray player across the globe. As they are all 1080p standard. So no NTSC(480i) or PAL(576i) anymore, like DVD and VHS before it.
The only problem may arise if the BluRay contains video in the standard format. In general all European DVD players will play both NTSC and PAL video. It is only North America that is behind the times and thinks the whole world should be NTSC

[AussieTX]

Thanks canuck.

[SoNic67]

Actually there is no more NTSC or PAL in HD (Bluray), it's just a digitally compressed file, same pixel format (1920x1080) everywhere in the world.
Slight variations are about the actual framerate - it can be 24, 25, 29.97, 30, 50, 59.94 or 60 FPS. All the players can "play" any of those, and 99.999% of the modern HDTV's (in US or EU) can reproduce any of those framerates. In US they might not be all listed on the box, but they all support 25 and 50 FPS. Only 24 FPS might be more of a hit and miss, previously was reserved mostly for flagship HDTV's, but recently (newer sets) is not an issue anymore even on cheapest sets.
Even for SD signals (like form a DVD), the new HDTV's will play any framerate.

That's why I always think that the framerate is an artificial issue, almost like an urban legend, maintained mostly by the national television regulations is former "PAL" countries, just to protect their previous IP and markets.
Personally I advise anyone, regardless of their world location, to "shoot" in 60p the sport events (best motion caption), and in 24p the semi-static scenes like theatrical plays (lowest compression for the available bandwidth/storage space).

[immerjan]

@SoNic67: Being from Germany, I also got a camera with 60p because I thought it'd be better. Fact is, I have returned to the standard 50p, because there are more issues to the topic than just "can it play on my device?"
And for the sports: The difference between 60p and 50p is if at all hardly visible while flicker from TV screens, lanterns etc. is.
I even started a thread here because I couldn't get the flicker out of a video I did in Prague - very romantic atmosphere, but the flicker ruined it totally ...
So my personal advice is: If you are in a 50Hz environment, go with 50p, else do else.
Even Sony's a5100/6000 cameras can now be switched from one format to the other (even if you have to format your SD card for that). So if you are European going to the US, Taiwan, Japan - just adjust your cam to the local 60Hz and everything will be fine.

[asik1]

Why the SD card care what the frame rate is? it doesn't make sense.
Should I format SD card between English doc and German doc?

[immerjan]

It is how Sony handles it technically.
You switch from 50 to 60 or vv and the system formats the SD card.
I assume that the disk is formatted in cluster sizes that just fit the one or the other frequency, but I don't really know.
Anyway, it helps to avoid getting a mix of clips in both frequencies, which would be a problem when you want to make one video of both.

[asik1]

What you saying is if it happens you have 60fps files on the card and you switch to 50 they will be erased? it's nuts.
do you get any BIG GIANT menu WARNING ?

[Ken Berry]

I suspect what he is saying is that if the card is formatted for 60 *cycles* per second, not 60 fps, yet you film in 50 cycles per second light (50 Hz), then you will get the sort of flashing effect which is complained about. Mind you, that being said, I am not aware how you would format specifically for cycles per second light... unless simply by formatting it to 60 fps means it also accepts the 60 cycles per second (60 Hz) which goes with it, and the accompanying video is thus without any strobing/flashing effect.

[immerjan]

As a matter of fact, Sony gives you a warning, so no need to panic.
I have changed the frequency back and forth, and the camera will always warn you that the disk will be formatted.