PAL to NTSC??

[KD-AVX1]

I have an NTSC player ( a JVC from Canada ) and live in Australia and pretty much only have access to PAL DVD's.

Is it possible to rip my PAL DVD's and convert the rip to NTSC in the PC and burn it to disc and play it successfully in the NTSC player?

Or is there any other way ( apart from buying NTSC DVD's from oversea's )?

Thanks for your help and suggestions.

[blutach]

It's not easy. But look here.http://www.videohelp.com/convert#4;41

The best thing to do is get a player that plays both formats and a TV which does too (most of the more recent TVs (in the last 5 years or so) will do a 60Hz PAL on 4.43Mhz to simulate NTSC).

Regards

[KD-AVX1]

Thanks blutach, I've checked out the guide and downloaded ifoedit. I'll give it a few shots and see how I go.
Appreciate the help.
Jim

[blutach]

The patch method - using IfoEdit - is notoriously unuseful. Some folks it works for, but most others, no. You can try though.

The other, more detailed, methods seem to have a greater success rate.

In any event, good luck.

Regards

[KD-AVX1]

I'm going to try dgpulldown and tmpgenc as well. At a guess, at this point, I think that's my best bet after reading more.

Thanks mate.

Jim

[shulthise]

Hey KD-AVX1
I think it should be easier/cheaper to hack the NTSC DVD or just buy one that is multi-zone.
I have a mix of various DVD devices (pc and standalone) and media with zones 1, 2 and 5 (I'm zone 2, my wife came from zone 5, and for a few years we lived in the USA – zone 1). It use to drive me nuts and I even considered the possibility of converting all DVD media to a single zone but when I though about the hours and days I have to put to it, the reduction of the converted DVD quality, and the cost of the media where I live, I gave it up.
I just popped to the store and purchased a zone-free DVD device for about $100.
It was worth every $.
(the only pain now is the DVD burner which I can’t hack and works only with Zone-1)

[digidragon]

I'm going to try dgpulldown and tmpgenc as well. At a guess, at this point, I think that's my best bet after reading more.

If the DVDs you're converting are progressive (i.e. movies) then DGPulldown will work well. I've used it several times, and when using it along with mainconcept's MPEG encoder, it's surprisingly quick.

[KD-AVX1]

As best I can tell from my player manual it won't play a PAL disc. I'm O.K. with that because the system I will be using it with expects an NTSC signal, so far so good except for owning all PAL disc's.

I am not going to try and convert my whole collection, just a select dozen say over a period of time. I should'nt have region trouble cause I'll use DVD Decryptor to rip so that should cure region stuff, the player plays 1 or all.

The device to allow a PAL disc to play is exactly what and where would I get one? Maybe that is the easiest solution? Any chance I'd turn one up in an Ebay search?

Thanks for your suggestions guys, learning quickly and getting some great links!

Jim

[shulthise]

The device to allow a PAL disc to play is exactly what and where would I get one? Maybe that is the easiest solution? Any chance I'd turn one up in an Ebay search?

Well, to my understanding DVD players can play DVD media from ANY zone. The hardware is the same for all DVD players. The manufacturers just "set" or “program” the device to play only one "allowed" zone.
Where I live all people buy what we call “multi-zone” DVD players. This is because people here get a lot of the electronics and media abroad or on the web.
The DVD device I got just came unprogrammed – it was not set to a specific zone.
The official instructions leaflet instructed me how to set it to the right zone (what should have been done by the manufacturer or distributor). So I just set it to zone 0 (as instructed by the unofficial leaflet ) and that was it.
The device can play media from any zone.

Where can you get one ?
You are living in Australia – there should be tons of these kind of “multi-zone” or “zone-free” DVD players from Asia. Mine is (actually most of them are – even known brands).

[KD-AVX1]

But...but...it's not the zone I'm having trouble with, the player will only play NTSC disc's ( well thats what the manual says anyway..I have'nt installed it yet to see if it's true...I just believe it???!!!)

So the problem is my discs are PAL, therefore theoretically the player won't play them? And if it did play them I presume it would output PAL and my system ( the screen ) expects NTSC and can't be changed.

O.K. I thought you meant some snazzy little box of tricks that would do what I'm trying to do but you're talking region free DVD players. I'm stuck with this one, I'm lucky the missus did'nt kill me for buying this one, let alone another!

So I guessed that copying my PAL discs and converting to NTSC was my only solution?

[shulthise]

My DVD media is both PAL and NTSC. (europe and north america DVD media)
So maybe the words you're looking for is "multi-system", meaning the output of the DVD can be NTSC or PAL.

[KD-AVX1]

Well guess what? I did a quick hook up to the car battery and inserted an all region PAL DVD and the player played it!!! So the stupid manual is wrong!!

But I'm still stuck with trying to output NTSC for the screen? So maybe I'm no better off !!??!!

Remembering I can't change the screen, it's NTSC RGB only. So I think I'm still stuck with the original convert in PC solution...right blutach...help....!!!

[shulthise]

Pal to NTSC Boxes.. from $30 to $400:

http://www.fgshop.fontesgratis.com.br/pal/transcoder-ntsc.php

http://www.world-import.com/samar.htm

http://www.google.com/search?hl=xx-elmer&q=PAL+NTSC+Transcoder

Hope this helps..

(I always favor the multi-capabilities Device on media conversion as it's a one time investment that gives more felxibility and it applies for future needs as well)

[KD-AVX1]

Thanks shulthise, thats beginning to look like the boxes of tricks I need!

Excellent!

I'll try and track down some here in Oz first, I'll import if I have to.

[shulthise]

Just don't buy anything without trying it first... a $30 box will not deliver the same quality as a $400 box will.. and we are talking about DVD quality..
Also, it would be a good idea to check out the web for product dis/satisfaction of users after 3-6 months they've been using it.