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PAL / NTSC / NO REGION ???? HELP!
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micetrap
Newbie
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19. June 2003 @ 13:19 |
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Hello, I just ordered a Sony DRU510A Internal DVD±RW IDE Drive and I am totally new to DVD burning. The sole purpose of purchasing the DVD burner is because I own an underground music label and I have just started carrying DVDs. The first release was sent to me in both a PAL and NTSC format, but it is easiest for them to send me the PAL format only.
Now, I have a few questions:
Is it possible to transfer the PAL DVD info onto my computer and convert it to NTSC before burning it onto a new DVD? I could even do it the opposite way, from NTSC to PAL.
Rather than doing an NTSC and a PAL version, could I simply burn the master DVD region-free so it could play on machines all around the world? Also, what format and black DVDs would I want to burn the master DVDs in... once I have the masters ready, they will be duplicated at a professional factory.
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I hate titles
35 product reviews
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19. June 2003 @ 16:02 |
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Quote:
Is it possible to transfer the PAL DVD info onto my computer and convert it to NTSC before burning it onto a new DVD? I could even do it the opposite way, from NTSC to PAL.
This is one question that I've never, ever got any good answer to. The facts that I know are:
-all TV camera and movie camera material, whatever the country is that you live in, are in 24.00000000000000000fps.
-Material is converted to NTSC by process called telecine (check out our glossary at http://www.afterdawn.com/glossary/ for better explanation of the process) which adds "dummy frames" to the video in order to get it to 29.97fps that NTSC uses.
-Material is converted to PAL by simply playing it faster. Sounds crazy, you are s*itting to your pants and laughing out loud and thinking I'm crazy ;-) But I'm not. If you live in any PAL country (EU, etc), all the TV shows that you've seen in your life, all the movies that you've seen in TV, etc -- all have been played a bit faster (higher pitch voices as well).
...so, conversion from PAL back to FILM material should require only dropping the bit that states that the material should be played at 25fps to say that it should be played at 24fps and then do the telecine to get it to NTSC. But life isn't that easy -- PAL and NTSC have different video resolutions -- most common DVD resolution for PAL is 720x576 and for NTSC 720x480. You see the issue?-)
Also, if the material is shot with camcorder (analog or digital, doesn't matter), it most likely isn't in 24.00fps originally (but 25fps or 29.97fps instead) and everything I explained above is false for that situation.
Quote:
Rather than doing an NTSC and a PAL version, could I simply burn the master DVD region-free so it could play on machines all around the world? Also, what format and black DVDs would I want to burn the master DVDs in... once I have the masters ready, they will be duplicated at a professional factory.
Region is not the problem -- it doesn't actually have anything to do with the video system. I could do a DVD that has Region 1 (US/Canada) and use PAL (everybody else except US, Japan, Canada and some other countries) for that one and it would be totally valid DVD. But by strict DVD rules, there wouldn't be any DVD player in this world that could be capable of playing that :-)
Luckily world isn't that bad place. Pretty much only country in the world where region-free players are illegal, is the U.S. In the UK, virtually everybody has a region-free DVD player that also supports NTSC playback on PAL TV (so-called PAL60 output).
So, in theory, you would gather quite a large chunck of market by releasing a Region 0 (region free) DVD that uses NTSC. Americans normally can't playback NTSC, virtually all Europeans can. But the problem is that some Europeans can't. And some can, but can't stomach NTSC :-)
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AfterDawn Addict
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19. June 2003 @ 16:09 |
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dRD - im sh*ttin my pants and laughing at you. Are you telling me that PAL video plays faster than an NTSC video. Does that mean a PAL video will finish before an NTSC video if they are the same program. Are you smokin weed?? lol
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I hate titles
35 product reviews
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19. June 2003 @ 16:13 |
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That is exactly correct (finishes faster, not smoking weed ;-).
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I hate titles
35 product reviews
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19. June 2003 @ 16:45 |
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Ok, two fixes:
All TV cameras are adjusted to the country they're operated at, not for 24fps. Movie cameras are virtually always 24fps.
And obviously I meant when I said
Quote:
Americans normally can't playback NTSC, virtually all Europeans can.
that American users can't play PAL, but European users can play NTSC.
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Admin
9 product reviews
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19. June 2003 @ 17:05 |
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Oriphus:
Quote:
dRD - im sh*ttin my pants and laughing at you. Are you telling me that PAL video plays faster than an NTSC video. Does that mean a PAL video will finish before an NTSC video if they are the same program. Are you smokin weed?? lol
You might need a new pair of pants, matey.. =) That's exactly how FILM to PAL conversion works. Video shot at 24 frames per second is played back at 25 frames per second. That's why, for example, The Matrix DVD http://us.imdb.com/DVD?0133093 has a running time of 131 minutes in PAL and 136 minutes in NTSC. NTSC is just telecined, so the playback speed is not affected.
136min * 24fps / 25fps = 130.56min
And yes -- you can hear the half-semitone octave shift in some cases.
That's the single most important reason for comparing running times of concert recordings from different regions. If the same release is shorter in PAL, it most definitely means that the concert was shot on film and the PAL version is ruined.
My 0.02?.
Edit:
Oh, and to the original question. Unfortunately the only method for PAL 2 NTSC (or vice versa) conversion for a consumer is to re-encode the material. As far as I know, that is.
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 19. June 2003 @ 17:06
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AfterDawn Addict
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19. June 2003 @ 17:12 |
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Not too sound like i dont trust you dRD, because i do and u always know what your talking about, but my dad runs a TV station, im gonna ask him bout it in the morning.
Thats a very interesting topic you've brought up. So in PAL regions, Mike Tysons voice is high, but its not in real life> lol
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AfterDawn Addict
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19. June 2003 @ 17:15 |
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Thats a really interesting point both of you have got across. I honestly never knew that. I was aware of the difference in frames per second, but put that down to NTSC having slightly higher quality than PAL, ie: there were more recorded frames each second.
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Moderator
3 product reviews
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19. June 2003 @ 17:23 |
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Whats that about smokin' weed ?
I live in UK & have no problem with either PAL or NTSC formats on playback whatsoever..although a friend of mine has a Toshiba DVD Player that is meant to play DVD-R(RW) (+R/RW) and PAL/NTSC - I've been on at him to take it back to the shop because some films play in black & white only. It may be either of the 2 TV's in the house...
Ask him Orphius mate - I am curious too [ although it is an irrelevance to my back up procedure ]
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AfterDawn Addict
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19. June 2003 @ 17:26 |
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Im going to say to him in the morning. But i dont think there is any chance that the boss and Ketola could be wrong.
After all they control the parallel and the horizontal on this network, so we dont wanna pi*s them off! ;-)
Where's that bloody dog of mine, here rex....
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micetrap
Newbie
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19. June 2003 @ 17:46 |
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Ok.... any suggestions on what I would need to do? Is there a way to take a NTSC DVD and convert it to PAL on my computer?
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Moderator
3 product reviews
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19. June 2003 @ 17:56 |
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I'd give the whole process a wide berth personally , as dRD [da boss] stated I've not seen in all the threads a proper/clear/precise... or successful way of doing it.
Just some claims that 'oh,I think i did that but cant remember how I did it'...only to come back after questioning further to announce 'okay i was wrong' LOL
It is a totally professional process u wish to undertake in PAL to NTSC & accordingly I'd imagine some serious software could be needed.
My 0.05? worth (everything is rounded up in euros eh)
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AfterDawn Addict
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20. June 2003 @ 09:14 |
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OK...I checked it out and i have some bad news! dRD and Ketola were right all along. ;-)
Never doubt da Boss and Admin (i never doubted you fellas) Honest!!
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