Are Workshop made DVDs region free?

chickster25 · Post by **chickster25** » Fri Aug 12, 2005 8:28 am

Hi,

I am using the full version of DVD workshop2 and have made a lot of DVDs and I thought they would be made region free to play on any DVD player.

I have just had a customer in the USA complain that he cannot play it on his player? Has Workshop put European coding on my disk and if so, how do I turn the region settings off to make region free disks?

thanks

Devil · Post by **Devil** » Fri Aug 12, 2005 10:37 am

There are two issues here. All DVDs burnt using DVDWS2 are region free. It is not even possible to put region restrictions on a DVD±R/RW: the feature is only for DLT tape for glass mastering.

OTOH, if you have burnt a DVD in PAL, there are 999/1000 chances it would not be readable in the USA, which uses NTSC and different parameters, to boot (the reverse is not true). If you want to distribute in N. America etc., you MUST burn in NTSC.

chickster25 · Post by **chickster25** » Fri Aug 12, 2005 10:50 am

Ok, thats pretty straight forward, thank you very much

Just one last thing, is it only the USA that you would need NTSC DVDs for, or do any other countries use it as I will be doing Worldwide distribution?

Thanks

Devil · Post by **Devil** » Fri Aug 12, 2005 11:27 am

NTSC: Most N and S American countries, Japan, Korea and some odds and sods.

DVDDoug · Post by **DVDDoug** » Fri Aug 12, 2005 7:34 pm

And, there are audio issues: Do not use MPEG audio on an NTSC DVD.

- All players must play LPCM audio.

- PAL players must also play MPEG audio (AC3 is optional).

- NTSC players must play AC3 (MPEG audio is optional.)

Devil · Post by **Devil** » Sat Aug 13, 2005 8:09 am

DVDDoug wrote: - PAL players must also play MPEG audio (AC3 is optional).

That having been said, all PAL DVD players, AFAIK, made in the last 5 years DO play AC-3

johnpr98 · Post by **johnpr98** » Sat Aug 13, 2005 10:25 am

Agreed

That having been said, all PAL DVD players, AFAIK, made in the last 5 years DO play AC-3

chickster25 · Post by **chickster25** » Sat Aug 13, 2005 4:12 pm

Arrrrgghhh it wont let me burn in NTSC format.

I gone into Burn project to disc in DVDW2 and found the place under Disc Templates to switch between PAL and NTSC. But whenever I select the NTSC option and close to go back to the main burning screen, it sets the option back to a PAL format.

Help please, how can I set it to burn a NTSC DVD?

johnpr98 · Post by **johnpr98** » Sat Aug 13, 2005 4:19 pm

Unfortunately you will have to redo the project, a pain but the only way.

The way I do it:

1. Re-encode the file in Media Studio Pro from PAL to NTSC
2. Note all chapter points in DVDWS + Menu style & Picture Location & Font type & sizes
3. Start from scratch with NTSC settings

If anyone knows another, quicker way, speak now

The abilty to re-encode a DVDWS project from PAL to NTSC or vice versa has being asked for before.

Regards

GeorgeW · Post by **GeorgeW** » Sat Aug 13, 2005 4:51 pm

Ulead's DVD MovieFactory 4.0DC has this feature

chickster25 · Post by **chickster25** » Sat Aug 13, 2005 6:05 pm

I cant believe it, its taken me months to get the PAL version right and now I have to start over for the NTSC ???!!!!!!

That is very poor ULEAD !!!!!!!!!!

GeorgeW · Post by **GeorgeW** » Sat Aug 13, 2005 6:28 pm

I don't consider that poor on Ulead's part. There aren't many packages that will let you simply create a PAL and NTSC version of a DVD Project by changing a setting (I mean converting the video assets as well as the Menus and maintain all proper navigational controls including chapter buttons and chapter marks).

Professionals using the product would know ahead of time whether they needed a PAL and NTSC version. And if so, they certainly wouldn't have expected DWS to simply output the other format at the push of a button.

chickster25 · Post by **chickster25** » Sat Aug 13, 2005 6:38 pm

I dont see why not, you are using the same menus, the same video, DVDW2 is still the same product. All you want to do is get the program to convert your project to the correct format i.e. PAL or NTSC It does the conversion when you burn the DVD anyway so why cant it change it for you or at least let you import the same menus into your new project.

All my input files are still the same so why make life so hard !!!

GeorgeW · Post by **GeorgeW** » Sat Aug 13, 2005 6:54 pm

That's the issue, you are not using the same menus, and the same videos. All the assets need to be adjusted to proper format properties -- that means changing the resolution of the menus, changing the resolution of the videos, changing the framerate of the videos (and menus if you have motion in them), and then syncing the chapter markers to be where they are before the conversion took place.

I'm not saying it cannot be done, but you are saying that it's very "poor" on Ulead's part, and all I am saying is at the time DVD WS 2.x was released, it was ahead of so many packages, and not many (if any at all) could change standards formats at the push of a button. Now is a different ballgame, and perhaps more packages will include this feature going forward...

Maukka · Post by **Maukka** » Mon Aug 15, 2005 12:54 am

I completely agree with chickster25, this is very poor indeed.

Me too, I have spent literally months in getting my project ready, and am now discovering that I must do everything from scratch for the NTSC version!!!

This is not just poor, but frankly outrageous.

Surely a "professional" software with such features as reagional coding and copy protection should be able to convert menus from PAL to NTSC!! It makes litle sense to say that a professionals would know in adance whether they need PAL or NTSC. Very often they need BOTH.

Someone else here said that even MovieFactory is able to convert menus, so what on earth could be the justification for Ulead's "profesional" software not to have this feature? Did they just forget or is it a bug?

AAAARGH... I am now facing the unexpected perspective of having to spend days on something I already thought finished. What could be more frustrating?

Maukka