Page 1 of PAL/NTSC AND DVD`s

Can anyone give me some information or hints about the following (my technical knowledge is limited)? I had an off-air VHS tape of a BBC musical programme which I copied to DVD on my Panasonic E85 (making sure it was `finalized`) in order to send it to a friend in America. I tested my copy on another player before sending it to the US; however my friend has been unable to play it. His player is Region 1 so he took it to where he could use a multi-region player, but without success: he was told it might be because the original was a PAL broadcast.

Of course I knew about NTSC and PAL (my VHS and DVD players could always handle both) but in my naivete I thought this kind of DVD would play anywhere. Any suggestions?

From the Mico FAQ

Can I make discs to send to family in USA or Canada?

It`s not simple the U.S. and Canada use NTSC & Europe PAL (this is not related to region codes) signal formats.

Region 1 discs will be in NTSC whereas all region 2 discs will be in PAL. Where most if not all European models accept a NTSC signal, most North American DVD`s and TV`s are not capable of playing the PAL signal.

All discs you create on the MICO will be region free but it will only record in NTSC if it gets an NTSC source ie Eastenders is in PAL & it will record it in PAL.

You could put a standards converter between the source and the DVD recorder, but the quality would suffer as a result.

The other alternative is to burn to a DVD+RW, then put this in your PC, and do a PAL to DVD conversion on there. This would be a time consuming exercise & you` would need plenty of hard disc space free & a DVD recorder in your PC, but the quality will be better.

Alternatively, next time they are over here they buy a cheap TV & DVD to take back.




I quite like the Helpdesk people in a benevolent (as opposed to malevolent) way as they do some valuable work in preventing us being inundated by every halfwit who can work a phone.

This item was edited on Thursday, 24th November 2005, 11:20

Thanks for that Rassilon. It is disappointing, but at least I know now not to waste my time attempting family videos.

Sliceshot.

Quote:
Alternatively, next time they are over here they buy a cheap TV & DVD to take back

This is exactly what I did for my sister to be able to watch Eastenders without paying the 3$ per episode on `pay-per-view` in Connecticut. I took a TV/video combi and a DVD player last time I went over.

If you do do this though, don`t forget to buy a voltage converter too (about £20 from Maplin).

Enjoy your holiday!!! ;)

Jill

This item was edited on Thursday, 24th November 2005, 15:37

or you could try & re-auther & re-encode it to ntsc & leave the region as 0 ?

this GUIDE may be usefull :D

the dvd`s should definately work then, but it would involve some extra work & cpu time to get it sorted.

Or get your US viewer to buy a dirt cheap player from Cyberhome,as these come with built in NTSC-PAL conversion.
My nephew lives in Las Vegas and bought one to watch his UK dvd`s

I bought a cyberhome portable dvd player, and was able to play PAL region 2 dvds on to an ntsc tv in the states. This player is great and plays EVERYTHING, on its own screen, or you can output to a PAL or NTSC tv. I use it so my parents (who live in the states) can see videos of the kids that are taken using a PAL digital camcorder. Very nifty. 8)

Don`t forget, if all else fails, then it could be played back with no problems on a PC DVD drive

Quote:
I bought a cyberhome portable dvd player, and was able to play PAL region 2 dvds on to an ntsc tv in the states. This player is great and plays EVERYTHING, on its own screen, or you can output to a PAL or NTSC tv.

I couldn`t get mine (MP MAN\CH LDV710) to do this, checked cables, settings & eventually gave up when I was in the US last time but one. :(



I quite like the Helpdesk people in a benevolent (as opposed to malevolent) way as they do some valuable work in preventing us being inundated by every halfwit who can work a phone.

When I bought the player, I used a hack to set the region code to 0. Then I had to change my settings in the Cyberhome menu from PAL to NTSC while in the states - it didn`t recognise whether it was PAL or NTSC automatically. I have the 10.2" version - not sure if that makes a difference. Good luck!