Is PAL v. NTSC the same as "Region Encoding"?

[habermehl]

A guy on rec.music.artists.springsteen is saying that NTSC DVD players can easily be hacked to also play PAL.

It is usually quite simple and involves just hitting a number of numbers on your remote.

I and some others say that he's confusing region encoding with video format, but he's adamant that NTSC players can be hacked to play PAL.

What don't you understand about the term "Region free hack"? See, the reason that it is a "region free hack" is because it enables the player to play discs from ANY region.

So I figure that either I and my buddies are full of it, or the other guy is. He says that this videohelp.com post is an example of such a hack.

What say you, experts? Thanks.

[edDV]

You are right. He is wrong.

Region is geographic.
Video standard is a separate issue. Some NTSC players play PAL. Most won't.

[yoda313]

check out the glossary link above:

https://www.videohelp.com/glossary

Short for Phase Alternating Line, the dominant television standard in Europe. The United States uses a different standard, NTSC. PAL delivers 625 lines at 50 fields (half-frames interlaced) per second. The resolution of a PAL VCD is 352x288 pixels, a PAL SVCD is 480x576, and a PAL full D1 DVD is 704 or 720 x 576.


Abbreviation of National Television Standards Committee. The NTSC is responsible for setting television and video standards in the United States (in Europe and other parts of the world, the dominant television standards are PAL and SECAM). The NTSC standard for television defines a composite video signal with a refresh rate of 60 fields (half-frames interlaced) per second. Each frame contains 525 lines and can contain 16 million different colors. The resolution of an NTSC VCD is 352x240 pixels, an NTSC SVCD is 480x480, and an NTSC full D1 DVD is 704 or 720 x 480.


pal and ntsc are the frame rate sequence used for different parts of the world. Region coding simply locks out a dvd from being played on a certain dvd.

YOU CAN GET A REGION FREE DVD PLAYER THAT WILL PLAY ANY REGION DVDS AND PAL DVDS. So in a sense the distinction doesn't matter anymore as long as your player can play both. And you can play any disc on a pc player (but there are restrictions on how many times you switch regions unless you hack the drive or use the right player - plus you can simply rip the dvd to the harddrive and then make it region free.

[turk690]

So if a player which, say, was only Region 2, and was successfully hacked and now played Region 1 as well, is the output bonafide NTSC when a Region 1 DVD is inserted? Will a player intended to be used only for Region 2 modulate the video as it's taken from the DACs so that it becomes PAL analogue only (which means it will output Region 1 DVDs only as PAL60)? Or is there some dormant NTSC modulator as well so that when a 720x480 29.97fps DVD is inserted (Region 1 or otherwise. like homemade ones) it will duly be output as true NTSC??

[yoda313]

From what I'm told here pal players can play ntsc discs (ie us dvds) IF it is region free. (if it is region locked it won't play them).

BUT ntsc players (ie us dvd players) can't play pal dvds even if they are region free. ONLY the ones that are able to play pal discs specifically and are also region free can play pal dvds.

[turk690]

Lastly, is anyone here aware whether or not HD-DVD and Blue-ray wretchedly region-coded? Another is, I assume that, for example, an HD-DVD movie released in the US will be 1080i. What is its framerate? 29.97fps?? 30fps?? 24fps?? And if the same movie is released in the UK will the particular HD-DVD still be 1080i? What will its framerate be now? 25fps? 24fps? Will it in fact still be speeded up from 24 to 25fps? Like either 720p and 1080i, is there a standard framerate for HD-DVD and Blue-ray?? Or is it still dependent on locality? If it's still dependent on locality, then isn't this another artificial barrier to a universal format? On top of the HD-DVD versus Blue-ray drama, can we then expect a high-def version of the PAL versus NTSC riff-raff??

[edDV]

Lastly, is anyone here aware whether or not HD-DVD and Blue-ray wretchedly region-coded? Another is, I assume that, for example, an HD-DVD movie released in the US will be 1080i. What is its framerate? 29.97fps?? 30fps?? 24fps?? And if the same movie is released in the UK will the particular HD-DVD still be 1080i? What will its framerate be now? 25fps? 24fps? Will it in fact still be speeded up from 24 to 25fps? Like either 720p and 1080i, is there a standard framerate for HD-DVD and Blue-ray?? Or is it still dependent on locality? If it's still dependent on locality, then isn't this another artificial barrier to a universal format? On top of the HD-DVD versus Blue-ray drama, can we then expect a high-def version of the PAL versus NTSC riff-raff??

HD and BD DVD are region encoded but the regions are different. Try Google. The USA and Pacific Rim are now in the same HD/BD region.

HD/BD DVD movies are typically encoded 1920x1080p/24. The local player (limited by region) sorts out the output frame rate (e.g. 25, 29.97, 50 or 59.94fps) and/or downscales to other local formats (e.g 720p, 480i, 480p, NTSC, PAL).

The HD/BD standards allow other than 1080p/24 encoding. Read the box.

[guns1inger]

Just to clarify an earlier question (or add to your confusion), Region 2 might be PAL or NTSC, depending on where in region 2 the player came from. Region 2 covers the UK (PAL) and Japan (NTSC). Assuming the UK for the sake of this example, hacking it to play region 1 discs will give one of the following results

1. The player now plays NTSC as true NTSC. In this case, the display it is connected to must be able to accept NTSC signals.

2. The player outputs the NTSC signal as true PAL. Can result in jerky playback.

3. The player outputs NTSC as Pseudo-PAL or PAL60. This is a PAL carrier at 60 fields per second (or near as dammnit). The display must be able to accept PAL60.

Which of these occurs is down to the player hardware. As with most PAL players, most PAL displays are multi-format, and will accept true NTSC, PAL60 or PAL, either out of the box, or with a little coaxing.

[edDV]

Unlike DVD regions, BD DVD splits regions three ways

- North and South America and Asia (but not China)
- Europe and Africa
- Russia, China and everywhere else.

DVD forum is still deciding for HD DVD
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/05/26/hd_dvd_to_get_region_coding/


SD DVD
Region Countries
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0 No Region Coding
1 United States of America, Canada
2 Europe, including France, Greece, Turkey, Egypt, Arabia, Japan and South Africa
3 Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo and Indonesia
4 Australia and New Zealand, Mexico, the Caribbean, and South America
5 India, Africa, Russia and former USSR countries
6 Peoples Republic of China
7 Unused
8 Airlines/Cruise Ships
9 Expansion (often used as region free)