Page 1 of Should I choose PAL disks over NTSC?

I know that, as far as TV`s are concerend, PAL is a much better format than NTSC because it has more horizontal lines. Is this the same with DVDs? Are the PAL ones in greater detail than NTSC ones?

I know our TV broadcasts resolve more lines than NTSC (625 to their 575), but video horizontal line resolution used to test vcrs and DVDs is different. I think (and I could be wrong on this !) that they are probably the same, about 500 lines of res. Although there are factors to consider like frame rate etc and content (extras). Also the political angle...If we all carry on buying R1 disks then the R2 market will suffer...badly, so the best way to support it is to chose R2 over R1.

I think actual resolution is misleading on this subject, as although PAL has more vertical lines, NTSC runs at a higher frame rate. Thats why if you watch TV in the states the picture looks just as sharp as ours does over here, yet American imported shows often look softer due to the conversion between the two.

However, NTSC does have a poorer colour space which is prone to all sorts of problems with regard to transmission. But, since DVD is a digital format its very hard for signal degredation or distortion to effect this too much, so basically even this isn`t much of a difference in the R1 vs R2 argument.

But there is one thing that NTSC DVDs are forced to do which PAL ones are not that DOES genuinley give you a noticeable difference in image quality, and that`s 3:2 pulldown.

Film runs at 24 frames per second, PAL runs at 50 fields per second and NTSC runs at 60 fields per second. On PAL, each film frame is displayed across two concurrent fields, yeilding a 4% speed up but very little interlacing problems.

On NTSC, if you did the same thing you`d end up with a 20% speed up which is clearly not acceptable unless its Benny Hill. So your DVD player interlaces 3 frames across 10 fields, often meaning that sometimes you are watching a picture with one field from a preceeding frame and one field from a later frame, this causes picture shearing.

I really ought to write this up for our website, heh, with nice pictures to demonstrate.

Thanks for this description Robert, it was really interesting.

However, being a bit overawed by these scientific pros and cons, I`m left with one burning question - Should I choose PAL disks over NTSC?

Are you saying that, taking everything into account, NTSC disks are noticably worse than PAL disks? Am I right to be waiting for the PAL version of my favourite film if I want the very best picture (Braveheart, incidentally)?

By the way, I am consistently impressed by this site. Thanks for putting so much effort into it.

Personally I feel the cut of the film is more of a deciding factor over which version of a film to buy. If the US and UK versions are the same then I go for PAL. If however, the UK version has had scenes cut by the BBFC then I go for the NTSC version.

For example, your favourite film Braveheart has got the alternate throat cutting scene in the UK version, rather than the orginial cinema scene which is maintained in the US release.

Thanks for the replies guys, some interesting things to think about. So where exactly would I go to find out the differences (in cut) between R1 and R2 DVD releases?

Check out those region differences at Rewind before you buy.

http://www.rewind.org.uk/digitalera/

Region 4 (Australia, PAL) are usually cut less that UK versions. Don`t know about price though, or where you get them!

You can read a bit more about region 4 in one of my earlier columns :-

http://www.dvd.reviewer.co.uk/news/columns.asp?Index=2711&Section=140&Columnist=203

The prices have changed slightly since the time of writing, and in our favour. There are currently 2.71 Australian dollars to the pound, and the shipped price example for an average disc that I gave in the column is now 14.17 pounds (about 50p cheaper than before). Bear in mind that this is an average cost - some discs may be cheaper, some may be more expensive, and shipping costs may vary depending on supplier.

Rich