On-board PAL-NTSC converter

[reindeer]

How good are on-board PAL-NTSC converters that some DVD players have? Is there a certain loss in quality associated with them, and is the designation "16MB converter" (or any other value) an indication for quality? Which will offer better quality: An original PAL DVD played through an on-board converter, the same DVD played through a stand-alone converter (are there such animals?) or a commercial NTSC DVD of the same material (if available, of course)?

[Seeker47]

How good are on-board PAL-NTSC converters that some DVD players have? Is there a certain loss in quality associated with them . . . ?

I can only answer part of your question. I have this built in to an approx. 5 year old Malata all-region player (also has built in MV defeat, but this mfr. does not make such models anymore), and in a Lite-On 2001 player of similar vintage. Both offered more than acceptable playback of any PAL dvd, though the loading / transport / playback features (like FF or slo-mo) on the Lite-On were clunky enough to be annoying. That one I'm getting rid of, but the Malata remains a keeper. I think you may be able to get much of this functionality nowadays in models from Phillips, Oppo, JVC, and others.

I think the pq on the two players I have was pretty good with PAL, but I never had a great number of PAL discs (which tend to be for films that just aren't available in this country, and they charge like 30 - 60 bucks for those !), nor do I really have anything to compare my results to. One thing you can run into on some discs is a somewhat cropped image -- most evident on opening / closing credits, or panoramic material. It was never enough of a problem to ruin the viewing for me, though.

[FulciLives]

If you have the money and a TV with the proper type of input then you can't beat the Oppo Digital DV-981HD and the Oppo Digital OPDV971H.

Both use the Faroudja DCDi chipset which does the best PAL to NTSC but the Faroudja DCDi only "kicks in" with the DV-981HD when using the HDMI output or in the case of the OPDV971H you need to use the DVI output.

If you use the other outputs (like component or S-video or composite) then the Mediatek chipset takes over and you get what might be called "acceptable" results but results still lacking in quality.

Please note that the Oppo Digital DV-970HD features HDMI output but uses a Mediatek chipset (no Faroudja DCDi chipset at all) so again not the model for you if quality PAL to NTSC is a concern.

http://www.oppodigital.com/

Good Luck !!!

- John "FulciLives" Coleman