What is NTSC and PAL when talking about DVDS?

[thotholicious]

I am buying a dvd from someone in the UK and they told me the format is PAL and I have to convert it myself. He is new to dvd's so he might not have any idea what he is talking aout. If it is PAL and I need to convert it to NTSC how do I do that? Thanks

[sacajaweeda]

https://www.videohelp.com/glossary?P#PAL
https://www.videohelp.com/glossary?N#NTSC

[thotholicious]

Thanks, but that didn't help at all. Those are just defintions of PAL and NSTC. I need to know what they mean in terms of DVDrs and if a PAL will play on an american DVD player and if not how to convert it....

But thanks

[hech54]

It all depends on the equipment of the recipient of the DVDR. There is no clear cut answer to your question. My parents can watch the region free PAL DVD's I send to them in America....the very same DVD's sent to a friend AND to my brother in America....No Go.
You'll notice the mention of "region free" above also. Region coding is another hurdle in your way along with the PAL and NTSC formatting.
Most DVDR's we create on our computers are however Region Free.

[sacajaweeda]

Ok, let me dumb it down for you.

Square pegs. Round holes.

[andydd]

Ok. Im in the UK and if I buy from the states a NTSC (Region1) DVD it will not play on a standard DVD player due to region restrictions (nothing to do with NTSC or PAL).

BUT if I have a multi-region player it will play my region 1 disc AND (THIS BIT IS IMPORTANT!) it will convert the NTSC signal into a PAL signal so i can watch it on my TV.

Nearly all european DVD players have this NTSC/PAL conversion (wether or not they can play mult-region or not.)

It is possible that even if you have a multi-region player or a region free disc your US player wont convert the PAL to NTSC. This has happened to me, I made a region free copy on a NTSC disc and played it on my friends PS2, it played BUT still outputted a NTSC signal (which looks crap and b & w).

If you have a PAL/NTSC TV then this doesnt apply.

[glockjs]

ntsc(me) trying to speak french(i hate the french). see, doesnt work so well does it.

[andkiich]

You know, we should just take all the guides and links to the left and get rid of all of them. Since no one wants to use them to look anything up anymore, lets give Baldrick some more of his server space back.

This is like the 5th post I've read this morning where the information is right there and no one looks at it.

[bugster]

I am buying a dvd from someone in the UK and they told me the format is PAL and I have to convert it myself. He is new to dvd's so he might not have any idea what he is talking aout. If it is PAL and I need to convert it to NTSC how do I do that? Thanks

Ignoring region coding.

PAL DVD: Frame rate 25fps. Resolution 720 * 576
NTSC DVD Frame rate 29.976fps. Resolution 720 * 480

Strictly speaking PAL and NTSC doesn't exist as such on a DVD as they are analog standards and a DVD is digital. However, a DVD player converts the digital data on a DVD into an analog signal suitable for a TV or other display device.

Most DVD players will play both PAL and NTSC format disks.

Most European DVD players output PAL as PAL (obviously!) and NTSC as either NTSC or PAL-60. (PAL colour sugnals but 60 fields (or 30 frames) per second frame rate). Most european TV's can accept at least one of these input signals.

From comments on this forum it appears most US DVD players output PAL format disks as PAL and NTSC format disks as NTSC (obviously). It seems relativley few US DVD players will output PAL format Disks as NTSC (be that true NTSC at 29.97fps or NTSC-50). It also appears even less US TV's will accept a PAL signal.

So, check what your playback equipment is capable of. Read the manuals and/or go through all the setup menus. When the disk arrives, stick it in your player and see what happens, you might get lucky.

If you do need to do a format conversion, there are several guides and loads of threads on various ways to achieve this, do some reading.

BTW, PAL/NTSC doesn't matter for PC playback, so you can always watch the movie that way!