NTSC DVDs on PAL TV

[dave_griff]

Hi folks. First of all, this is not the usual 'my DVD plays in black and white, what is wrong?' question. This is a bit stranger.

Basically, I am trying to replace my old DVD Player (a Limit JDV300a) with a relatively new Goodmans GDVD134. I'm playing these DVDs on an old Mitsubishi TV. Thing is, the old Limit plays Region 1 and NTSC discs fine, but the Goodmans (in fact, every other new DVD player I've tried) plays them in black and white. Does anyone know of any reason why the old DVD Player would play these discs normally but the new players won't?

Thanks in advance for any help

[lenti_75]

the only thing I can think of, is that your old player does NTSC->PAL conversion.

if your tv does not support NTSC (most european does), then you have to buy a new one, to wathc them on new player

[wonderuss]

Mabee your old dvd player had a PAL output?, my Pacific DVD player outputs PAL as default (the main way you can tell when playing back an NTSC disc would be jerky playback on slow panning etc). It's switchable through the menu but if yours is outputting NTSC directley (without converting it to PAL) then your tv must not be able to accept NTSC. Do you have more than one scart socket on your tv? if so also you could try different sockets.
Failing that.................if you live in the uk go to ASDA and buy a Pacific 1002 for £35, it's a great little player that can be easiliy made multi region via the remote.

[wonderuss]

obviousley i started typing my other post before the last post was made

[Richard_G]

You say that every new DVD player you've tried plays in black and white, is this still using the same TV? I'm assuming you're in the UK (I don't think any other country has the Goodmans brand name inflicted on them), or at least a PAL country and your TV is a PAL TV. Every DVD player I've come across recently will play NTSC disks (in fact, I think all PAL DVD players have always been able to play NTSC disks) but what will differ is what they output to the TV.

In the setup menu on the DVD player there will be a setting to tell it what to output. It may well be set to Auto, in which case it will output whatever format the disk is. If it is outputting a PAL signal, it will probably give PAL60 from an NTSC source (instead of the standard PAL50 that a PAL DVD would give) and your elderly TV can't figure out what to do with PAL60.

See if you can find anything in the settings on the player and if that doesn't help, try your player with a more modern TV.

[wonderuss]

by the way, the Pacific dvd player does a true digital Pal to NTSC conversion that can be recorded onto a Pal video recorder.....not a conversion to just be watched without black and white happening.
Not that anyone would want to record onto video tape these days it's just an example.

[dave_griff]

Mabee your old dvd player had a PAL output?, my Pacific DVD player outputs PAL as default (the main way you can tell when playing back an NTSC disc would be jerky playback on slow panning etc)

By the way, this is all on the same TV for those who asked.

Yes, the old player (Limit) is a bit jerky when playing NTSC discs back. The other players (new ones) play em in black and white. They work fine on other TVs. I presume it's my TV, but I don't understand why the old DVD will play them but the new ones won't.

[wonderuss]

because your old dvd player was converting the NTSC signal to true PAL before sending it to your TV (as the Pacific 1002 does), this is obvious now as you've mentioned the jerky playback. You would be better off really with a TV that can handle NTSC so the playback isn't jerky.

[wonderuss]

There is one bonus to a DVD player from ASDA which i don't think they realise. I bought mine 14 months ago when they were doing a 3 year warranty with them (now they only do the 12month one), anyway my 2 year old son has been watchin a copy of toy story some days for upto 6 hours non stop so my Pacific started to get a bit faulty, the other day i took it back and they gave me my money back (no questions asked i just had to sign the old reciept) then i walked up to the dvd players in ASDA and bought the newer version of the one i had (mk2 version). I bought it with a 12 month "in shop" warranty (not the crappy manufactures warranty you get everywhere else), so mabee this one will be getting faulty in say.......11 months time! and who will be getting a new player with another 12 month warranty?????.
The mk2 version was also £10 cheaper that the £45 i spent on the other one so ASDA basically paid me £10 for owning it for 14 months!!

[dave_griff]

because your old dvd player was converting the NTSC signal to true PAL before sending it to your TV (as the Pacific 1002 does), this is obvious now as you've mentioned the jerky playback. You would be better off really with a TV that can handle NTSC so the playback isn't jerky.

Aha! So a new TV is my answer then?

Thanks for your help. Greatly appreciated.