Switching between PAL and NTSC

[MikesMovies]

Hi Guys

I know I can do it but have forgotten.

How can I easily switch between PAL and NTSC mode?

I want it so that the default 'share video' options come up correctly.

Thanks

[Ken Berry]

In VS 2018 and X10 at least, in Preferences > General, at the bottom of that box you can select NTSC or PAL. I'm not sure about X8 which I see you also have, as I don't have it on this computer.

[Davidk]

To clarify installation choices.
For x8 and prior, installing used a self-extracting executable, you got choice of country (big list) OR TV system (PAL or NTSC). If you simply selected the defaults, you got a US installation using NTSC as the TV system. To get PAL you either had to know that was the TV system, and make that choice; OR select your country from the list: VS made the TV system choice for you. After installing the only way to change the Tv system was to uninstall, and then re-install and be very careful of the country selection.
From x9 onwards, with a stub installer you made a choice of TV system as part of the install, and if required changed it later using Settings/preferences, last item on the general tab.

And in share, it's not really as simple as it might appear. Consider the attached screenshot

In this shot of VS2018 I have composed the settings panel on top of the share screen, for a project file that contains HD clips and has project properties of 1920x1080. The settings panel makes it quite clear that the TV system is PAL. Yet, to render the file as mpeg2 for a DVD or similar play/display, the properties panel in share clearly shows it as NTSC. See the 2 circled items and joining arrow in red.

Why is it so? good question, and periodic bug items haven't resolved it. So I don't think your intent - share values come up correctly - is going to be satisfied.

As to the effect you get when rendered like this - a check on the properties of some the rendered mpg files (rt clck on file, properties, detail tab) on my PC from this activity series shows them as 25fps, which is PAL. So while the share panel info looks wrong, the effect seems to be correct. At least on my machine. Test it and see what happens on yours.

[asik1]

PAL & NTSC can be selected by F6 since X9, but need VS restart.
The main culprit on that halfbacked feture is that one can ezely make mistake by loading a PAL/NTSC old project to NTSC/PAL set VS and mess things up. (From my own recent experience)
Untill I started to name my projects with NTSC/PAL suffix.

[MikesMovies]

Thanks all, not getting notifications again so missed these answers. Will give the F6 a try.