Converting PAL Region 2 to NTSC region 1

[bevluvsrats]

Hi there, I'm hoping this is the right place for my question, my apologies if not.

Basically I'm in the UK and I have family and friends in the US whom I'd like to share home movie DVDs with.

My video camera is Hi8 and I dump it all to my standalone DVD recorder with hard drive (the type not on the PC, attached to my TV) and burn a DVD from there. (I have no way of dumping straight to my PC's hard drive so I have to do it this way).

From there I've tried all sorts of things to rip from the PAL region 2 dvd that my recorder burned and to convert it and burn an NTSC Region 1 copy for my friends. Each time I've tried, with various programs, I've sent them across to the US and none have worked.

I'm now thinking I need to do two things seperately after ripping the DVD to my pc, I need to convert to NTSC, and *then* convert to Region 1, would that sound right?

Can anyone suggest some programs which will do this, preferably as inexpensive as possible.

Also, is there any program which will tell me what display and region the DVD is, just so I can check it before I post it out.

My burning drives and software will automatically be set to PAL region 2 as I'm in the UK.

I've been trying unsuccessfully to do this for the best part of 2 years, and most of the forums I've visited haven't got a clue what to do, so I'm really hoping someone here can help.

Many thanks in advance.

Bev x

[RowMan]

Knee-jerk reaction...

If there is just one or just a few friends you're sending your home-made DVDs to, buy them a cheapie DVD player that will convert your PAL DVDs to play on their NTSC equipment. They might already posses DVD players capable of doing so. If not, these kinds of players can be had for as little as $30 US. This is a much simpler solution than creating a converted DVD yourself with your computer.

As far as I know, DVD recorders do not insert a region code on to DVDs made on them. The discs produced should be region free so you only have to worry about the PAL / NTSC issue.

I had a friend in the UK sending me his home made DVDs of his parties and events he had been to and shot. I could view them on my TV in the US because my DVD player converts PAL to NTSC on the fly. For copies to our mutual friends in the US that didn't have the conversion capability, I just re-recorded his disc from my DVD player into an NTSC DVD recorder and distributed those converted copies. For the type on material it was, the conversion quality was fine.

[bevluvsrats]

Hmm, it's interesting what you said about DVD recorders not making them with regions, I hadn't thought of that. Should I maybe try to just convert the display rate rather than the region? I can't remember what sort of errors the DVDs were throwing up for my friends when they tried to play them, or what their player was doing or not doing, but surely if it were just a PAL/NTSC incompatibility, the DVD should run but just not display on the TV?

Bev x

[guns1inger]

It varies from player to player. Sony players, for instance, give vague error messages that certainly imply that the issue is region related, when in fact it is format related.

There are a couple of simple ways to do it, however the cost is that the results may be of lower quality than the more complex methods.

I would start with ConvertXtoDVD. Not the old freeware version, but the current version. It is not free, but it is relatively cheap.

Another alternative you be to use VOB2MPG to extract the video and audio from the DVD into an mpg container, then use FAVC. The quality will be higher than that provided by ConvertXtoDVD, and it is free, however it will take longer, and on older machines that may mean several hours. You haven't put your PC specs in your profile, so I can't give you an estimate at this time.

[RowMan]

There are a few different things a DVD player in the US will do with a PAL DVD...

1. Play, automatically convert, and output NTSC.

2. Play without conversion and output PAL which the TV will not display properly.

3. Refuse to play with an error message like "wrong disc".

I have seen some players give an inaccurate error message like "wrong region" on a disc that we knew was 100% region free. This is usually just an error in terminology that the manufacturers of the players use and is not actually referring to the region CODE, but to the inability of the player to play PAL.

The complete error message that your friends got and what their players did would be very helpful here.

I should point out that some DVD players that can do an on the fly conversion can be set to output in different ways. I have a player that when set to NTSC will only output NTSC regardless of the type of disc and when set to PAL will only output PAL regardless of the disc. When set on AUTO (which most usually are if this feature is available), the player will output the native system format of the disc it is playing.

[CDan]

I agree with the notion of just buying a PAL-converting region-free player. The Phillips models are as low as $80 in the USA.

That said, I get very good results with TMPGEnc-Author. It does the conversion very well with the default settings, and is very hard to distinguish from the same PAL video played-converted on my Oppo player.

[jman98]

In my opinion, PAL <-> NTSC conversions aren't worth doing unless it's only 1 or 2. They take time and the results are often not that great. For not a lot more than you'd spend on TMPGenc DVD Author or some similar program, you could just send the money to your relatives and tell them to buy a cheap Philips DVD player so you could send them them DVDs as they are without conversion. It would save you a LOT of time in not having to convert everything.

[jonas more]

alternative you be to use VOB2MPG to extract the video and audio from the DVD into an mpg container, then use FAVC.

I can't open mpg files with FAVC. Do you have to use scripting?

Anthony

[guns1inger]

You can use either a simple avisynth script, or even frameserve from vritualdub. I do wish it would load them natively.

Looking at the specs on your PC though, you would be looking at an overnight run for a 90 - 120 minute movie.

[jonas more]

Looking at the specs on your PC though, you would be looking at an overnight run for a 90 - 120 minute movie.

I knew I should have updated those specs... over 4 years ago

Finally got around to it this am.

Anthony

[guns1inger]

if you install FFDShow, then a very simple Avisynth script that uses DirectShowSource() to load the mpg might be enough. Otherwise you will have to use DGIndex.