ntsc DVD in europe?

[sharktacos]

question:
If author a region 0 NTSC DVD and have replicated, will it play in European (PAL) dvd players? My understadning is that it would for what I've read since appratently most PAL DVD players can play NTSC (as opposed to NTSC players which mostly cannot play PAL), but I wanted to confirm this before selling it to people.

thanks!

[waheed]

Most European players support both. Please try searching next time as this question has been asked several times before.

[lordsmurf]

No harm in letting him verify waheed.

To answer the question ... probably.
I would stick to PAL if I could.

[garryheather]

I think you'll find the DVD player doesn't care if the video is of PAL or NTSC - an American player for example should be able to play a PAL disc if the typical region is ignored. The DVD Video format in itself isn't tied to video format, the issue is usually whether or not your TV / Projector / Plasma / Magic Lantern can handle the different format to that of it's target sales region in the world.

In Europe most modern TV's can play either without difficulty, although be aware if it has more than one SCART socket it's still not uncommon for NTSC to be viewed correctly on SCART 1 only. It is not the same in America, where TV's that can play PAL are something of a rarity - mind you, while people are happy to buy standards convertors why put them in your TV ?

[Richard_G]

It's been said before but I'll say it again, ALL European DVD players will play NTSC discs. Europe is Region 2 and uses PAL, Japan is Region 2 and uses NTSC, therefore EVERY Region 2 DVD player MUST be able to play both formats.

The opposite isn't true, most US spec NTSC DVD players will NOT play a PAL disc, no matter what the Region coding is set for.

[sharktacos]

It's been said before but I'll say it again, ALL European DVD players will play NTSC discs. Europe is Region 2 and uses PAL, Japan is Region 2 and uses NTSC, therefore EVERY Region 2 DVD player MUST be able to play both formats.

The opposite isn't true, most US spec NTSC DVD players will NOT play a PAL disc, no matter what the Region coding is set for.

Right. From what I understood the problem was that older Eurpean TVs cannot parse the converted NTSC signal from their DVD player when it converts the NTSC to PAL internally.

[lordsmurf]

It's been said before but I'll say it again, ALL European DVD players will play NTSC discs. Europe is Region 2 and uses PAL, Japan is Region 2 and uses NTSC, therefore EVERY Region 2 DVD player MUST be able to play both formats.

The opposite isn't true, most US spec NTSC DVD players will NOT play a PAL disc, no matter what the Region coding is set for.

That's not necessarily true. European-made players not made for export have no need to "require" this feature. But you're right, it's generally correct.

[dvd3500]

an American player for example should be able to play a PAL disc if the typical region is ignored.

90% of my American friends DVD players can't play region 0 PAL DVDs.
The only issue with NTSC DVDs in Europe is if they are interlaced, an older PAL TV might show bbad combing effects.
I have yet to see a DVD player here in Germany NOT support NTSC.

[guns1inger]

The link between region and format is fairly arbitrary. As pointed out, region 2 covers Europe (PAL) and Japan (NTSC). Region 4 covers Australia (PAL) and South America (NTSC). However, sometimes the issue is not so much whether or not a player can handle the opposite format, but how. Some PAL players convert the NTSC signal to PAL60 - effectively PAL at 60 field per second, to match NTSC frame rate. Not all televisions can handle this output, and roll or have other display issues. Some PAL players will only output native NTSC, so a multi-format television is required to display NTSC signals. So the answer isn't always as straight forward as 'All european players play NTSC'