DVD in black and white

[joelson]

Hello Folks!

I recorded a DVD, and it plays in black and white in my friend's DVD player! However, it plays correctly in my equipment.

His DVD player plays correctly DVD backuped from the original ones, but these made from videos, downloaded from the internet, it plays in black and white! What can this be?

Please, I need your help!

[ghosty6]

NTSC/PAL issue your player and TV can handle both formats his cannot.

Convert to correct format for his player/TV

[Nilfennasion]

Make certain that you have disabled Macrovision in your copies, too. I doubt that the source materials you describe have been encoded with Macrovision, but it never hurts to make sure. What you're describing could also be a symptom of triggering the Macrovision. Aside from that, ghosty is right, it is most likely a PAL/NTSC issue, although such problems also manifest in rolling vertical sync.

[joelson]

I thought it could be a PAL/NTSC issue, but I have recorded the same material in both PAL and NTSC systems and both copies still show in black and white.

I believe now in what Nilfennasion wrote, about Macrovision, as original DVD's play in color, as well as copies from these originals.

Well, I'm authoring with Ulead DVD MovieFactory 3 Trial. Am I doing right? Does it put the Macrovision protection? If not, what should I do?

[Nilfennasion]

DVDShrink has the option to remove Macrovision. I don't know what else does, but maybe the search tool can help. It depends on what else you want to do with the program, of course.

[MikeV]

Take your DVD player over to your friends house and see if the DVD plays back in color or not.

[joelson]

OK. I'll try to do this.

MikeV: I have brought this video to my friend's house, and it doesn't show in colors there. In mine it shows!

I just didn't understand one thing: do I have to disable the Macrovision? How come? The DVD's, as a default, have the Macrovision enabled, isn't it?

[Nilfennasion]

Unfortunately, if you want duplicates to work, the macrovision has to be removed. It is a system in which a part of the player compares a signal from the media to the signal it is supposed to be receiving, or something to that effect. If anything in your configuration isn't to the Macrovision system's liking (connecting to the TV via a VCR, for example), it will screw the picture up.

Ironically, Macrovision themselves advertise with the slogan "Protecting Your Image". Who do they think they are kidding?

[bugster]

Unfortunately, if you want duplicates to work, the macrovision has to be removed.

You are mistaken there I am afraid. On a DVD, macrovision is simply a flag that tells the player to apply Macrovision to it analog outputs. Other than this flag it has no other effect on the contents of the disc. Dupliactes can work fine with Macrovision flag remaining in place, you simply cant recorde from a DVD to a VCR or DVD recorder in this case. Also I have never heard of Macrovision being the cause of a movie playing in black and white, though I am willing to believe this possible.

However, we are talking home made videos here, not DVD backups, si Macrovision should not be an issue (you have to pay a hefty licence fee to incorporate macrovision on your discs and in your authoring SW). Home made DVD's do NOT have macrovision enabled.

I do suspect a PAL/NTSC issue. What is the standard format there in Brazil, has you or your friends DVD player got any sort of menu setting or even switch on the back panel labelled anything like PAL/NTSC or PAL-60/NTSC-50. Take a look and see if you can find anything like that.

[Nilfennasion]

Pardon me for getting carried away. I have never actually heard the procress of Macrovision explained. I have only seen its effects.

One of those effects, however, can be to stop the video output playing in colour. Whether it does this on NTSC televisions, I don't know, but I have certainly seen it with PAL.

You're right, the problem is definitely going to be PAL/NTSC compatibilities. The question is whether its the player or the display, so to speak.

[joelson]

Bugster,

The system in Brazil is PAL-M, but most modern equipments can support NTSC as well.

Well, I've just talked with a friend with the same problem, and he solved by changing the controls on TV to PAL-M (the video was encoded in PAL).

What I don't understand is that I recorded the same video in NTSC format, and it still doesn't work. Are you sure can't be a Macrovision issue? Or how can I record so I won't have this kind of problem, I mean, don't have to worry about changing the TV configuration?

[Nilfennasion]

After rereading the whole subject, I'm afraid it cannot be a macrovision issue.

NTSC countries never used to have any support for PAL, so the idea that a TV in Brazil might not sync to any kind of PAL signal is not inconceivable. You also cannot simply convert PAL to NTSC by running the PAL video through a recorder that records it as PAL. 20% of the resolution has to be discarded from the video signal, and five extra frames per second have to be inserted. A proper PAL to NTSC conversion, be it by the player or during the encoding of the software, is the only way to accomplish this.

[joelson]

Nilfennasion, I have already done so. I've got the MPEG file, which was encoded in PAL, and converted to NTSC through TMPGEnc. And this converted NTSC still show in black and white.

I guess it may be something related to authoring a copy of an original dvd, and authoring a home-made dvd.

Does it help?

[bugster]

One of those effects, however, can be to stop the video output playing in colour. Whether it does this on NTSC televisions, I don't know, but I have certainly seen it with PAL.

I have never seen this caused by macrovision, though I won't say it can't happen.

joelson, you say you have encoded the video in both PAL and NTSC to no effect. Whne you author the DVD, have you checked that the authoring software was set up correctly for PAL or NTSC according to the encoded video? I ask as some authoring SW does not check that the correct standard for the video is supplied that matches the users projects settings, but then uses the users project seetings when writing the IFO files. So you could provide NTSC standard video but author it as PAL.

[joelson]

I don't know the format of my source (MPEG) file. How can I check this?

I'm using Ulead DVD MovieFactory 3 Trial to author. I don't remember whether there is a place to set the author format in it, but I'll check this.

[Nilfennasion]

Honestly, I don't know that much about NTSC to PAL conversion (or vice versa), but I would strongly recommend a careful look at the source material first. NTSC also has two different ways of handling colour if I am not mistaken. If you're encoding in NTSC 3.58 and the display only handles NTSC 4.43 (or vice versa), there may be problems. Or so I've been told.

[joelson]

I've just seen in Ulead DVD MovieFactory that there is in its configuration a selection of the TV system!! And it was set to PAL/SECAM.

As I changed it, a message appeared, telling that it could affect the quality of the video. Well, I'll try it to figure it out! :P

[Nilfennasion]

Ignore that message. NTSC naturally has 20% less resolution than PAL, so the program is kind of pointing out the obvious.

[joelson]

bugster: you are THE BEST!!!

Yeah, the solution was really that: I had to change the system color parameter in the authoring software. I changed to NTSC.

Thank you all guys who helped me! That's the idea: helping solve others' problems, and sharing the knowledge!!!

[Nilfennasion]

Glad we could help. I suspected from the start that this solution would be the one that works, so I'm glad to see I was right.