NTSC DVD => PAL VCD

[newbie]

Hello all,
I don't know if this being asked before or not but I don't seem to find any direct answer to it. Sorry if it's being asked before.

Basically, is there a DIRECT way of converting ripped VOB files (from NTSC DVD) after being frameserved from DVD2AVI to PAL VCD?

I've got a NTSC DVD which I ripped, frameserved it with DVD2AVI but could not convert it to PAL VCD directly without IVTC business. What I've been doing is IVTC it with NTSCFilm TMPGEnc template and then convert it to PAL (with PAL template). The whole process is a pain in the butt since it takes tooooo long. Any quicker way?

DVD Info (from DVD2AVI)

Aspect Ratio = 4:3
Frame Rate = 29.97
Video Type = NTSC
Frame Type = Interlaced

Thanks in advance

[bugster]

I can't actually answer your question but I can ask another one. Why do you want to do this. It seems that many people are not aware of the fact that the vast majority of TV's sold in Europe in the last 10 years will handle NTSC fine. Also, most European DVD players will play NTSC disks and many will output them as Pal-60 (60 fielsd per second Pal).

Basically what I am saying is that for most people, NTSC->PAL conversion is not really necessary, and as it is a complex and time consuming process, make sure you need to do it before committing your time to it.

[newbie]

You're right, the majority of TV/DVD players nowadays are capable of playing both NTSC and PAL. So for most people NTSC or PAL wouldn't be a problem.

The main reason I want to convert NTSC movies to PAL is its crappy color and resolution. As you know NTSC has lower resolution than PAL and its color looks very pale compare to PAL. Some Engineers call NTSC as Never Twice Same Color

I didn't realise NTSC -> PAL conversion is so time consuming and complicated. Now I get use to it and willing to continue on doing it.

Now I've learnt that:

NTSC DivX -> PAL is one step process
NTSC DVDs (29.97 fps) -> PAL is two steps process (and easy)
NTSC DVDs (Film) -> PAL is two steps process (very complicate)

No other way

[browner]

go to www.dup-dvd.com and buy dupdvd.
this will copy, sorry back-up the dvd to (s)vcd, avi or mpeg with just 1 click.
I convert all my NTSC dvd's to Pal vcd using this software.

[newbie]

I've tried DUP-DVD before, it seems to be quite buggy (with the old version). Thanks for that, I'll give it a try again.

BTW how's the quality produced by DUP-DVD?

[browner]

Yes the older versions of Dupdvd were buggy. They have a great team always working on ways to improve it.
I have the current version, and soon they are releasing another version.
The quality is great, I've had no problems.

[ralfbeckers]

The main reason I want to convert NTSC movies to PAL is its crappy color and resolution. As you know NTSC has lower resolution than PAL and its color looks very pale compare to PAL. Some Engineers call NTSC as Never Twice Same Color

You know, its funny that you mention the system parameters of the PAL and NTSC broadcast versions while you want to encode VCDs that don't even carry a quarter of the information either TV system can hold. I challange you to tell the difference btween a PAL and NTSC DVD of the same movie played on a properly calibrated display device (certainly not a PC monitor). Chosing between the POTENTIAL color problems of NTSC during over the air broadcast and PAL objectionable flicker due to its low refresh rate ist like chosing between two boy groups.

As for spectral resolution remember that PAL VCD has 288 lines of vertical resolution (minus overscan which you probably have not taken care of on your display, too) and an NTSC movie DVD is capable of delivering 480 lines. Don't fool yourself and make yourself some nice 24fps FilmSVCDs.

IVTC will be your biggest problem. The temporal resolution of a properly authored NTSC movie on DVD is 24fps. As you probably know, for PAL countries movies are telecined at 25fps to match the 625/50/i standard. And so is PAL SVCD, well, it really is 288/25/i to be precise. I could tell you how to set the 10010 cadence for 24fps but the fact remains that you have to feed TMPGEnc 25 frames per second to encode a PAL disc. Otherwise TMPGEnc will "make something up" and you are not going to like it. Even if TMPGEnc coudl "speed up the film" to 25fps in the digital domain you would likely have audio sync problems.

Get over VCD. See it this way: You need two CD-Rs (at least) anyway to back-up your movie. So you might as well back it up on SVCD using lovingly tuned settings for video and audio bitrate and encoding. You know, you CAN produce a pair of discs that is
1) progressively authored
2) properly IVTCed
3) anamorphic
4) chaptered
5) and (tataaa) has discrete 5.1 audio.
And SVCD will maintain two thirds of the horizontal resolution of DVD, too.