PAL/NTSC

[meehow]

Im not completely sure what these are but I'm pretty sure they're different dvd formats??? Correct me if im wrong.
Also how do I know which my dvds are in?

[vitualis]

These are different TV formats rather than different DVD formats per se.

If you live in North America or Japan, you will be using the NTSC system and thus your local DVDs will most likely be in NTSC.

If you live anywhere else, you will be using the PAL system and your local DVDs will most likely be in PAL.

Regards.

[Paulo Elias]

In addition, there are variations of the PAL system used in some countries. PAL-M, for instance, is the PAL equivalent of NTSC (i.e., 525 lines @ 60 Hz). Argentine uses PAL-N which uses 50 Hz instead. Ideally all TV sets should use a single internal chip to convert formats, at least for viewing different program sources.

With DVD and VCD one can circumvent signal formats by using the component video output.

Paulo Elias.

[ogremike]

I've encoded movies both NTSC and PAL, just by observation, PAL has a better quality picture, but their aren't as many frames per second as NTSC, so to me it looks a little choppy. NTSC is what I use when encoding

[vitualis]

PAL should look no more choppy than NTSC. Indeed, anything over 24fps (film) should look smooth.

Choppiness may be an artifact from a framerate conversion (PAL <--> NTSC) rather than due to the framerate per se.

As far as I can remember, PAL everywhere in the world runs at 50 Hz except Brazil with their PAL-M. There are different colours systems used in PAL though, but this doesn't affect the VCD you are trying to make.

Regards.