PAL DVD to NTSC ?

[Mike99]

I was looking at this link
http://www.michaeldvd.com.au/articles/palvsntsc/palvsntsc.asp

According to the web site a 16x9 PAL DVD has a higher resolution than an NTSC version. But what happens when a multi-region DVD player converts it? IOW playing a PAL DVD and viewing on a USA HDTV.

From what I understand some multi-region players convert PAL to NTSC. It appears if a composite connection is used between the player & TV, then the player will convert the 720x576 PAL resolution to 720x480 NTSC. And then the HDTV will have to up-convert this to 720 or 1080 in order to display it.

But what happens if a component or HDMI connection is used and the player up-converts the output to either 720p or 1080i?
1) Does it up-convert the 576 PAL pixels to 720 or 1080?
2) Or does it first convert to 480 NTSC and then up-convert to 720p or 1080i?

IOW if you have a choice of buying an NTSC or PAL DVD for USA playback, are you better off getting the PAL version because the player starts out with more pixels to up-convert, hopefully providing a better picture?

Or should you get the USA DVD because the studio would have done the conversion to a NTSC DVD using expensive equipment that can do the job much better than a cheap DVD player?

[hech54]

Not worth worrying about. In a side-by-side blind comparison you could not tell the difference between the two.

[manono]

If there are NTSC and PAL versions of the same movie, and if I were willing to pay the higher cost of the PAL DVD (given that I'm also in the US and the shipping would be more, not to mention the usually higher price of the PAL DVD when converted to dollars), I think I'd try to find a comparison of the 2 DVDs from a site such as the DVDBeaver before making a decision:

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/

[victoriabears]

I wish to de bunk the myth that dvd's are more expensive from PAL lands, :-

I have taken a DVD completely at random, as am not úp"on the latest blockbuster, Alice in Wonderland starring Johnny Depp would cost me 11.58 UK pounds including shipping to get to canada, suspect shipping is similiar to USA, so thats 17.78 US$, the same movie on Amazon.com is US$19.95 ! Not wishing to advertise but Amazon are very good in my experience. Be careful about their marketplace sellers though I recently paid C$12 shipping , for an item from the USA and the item arrived with US$3.47 postage clearly paid.

Some aspects to bear in mind though, you are unlikely to get dinged for import duties under $50, and taxes are not payable to the UK for exported items, I have bought many difficult to find items cheaper from the UK.

[lordsmurf]

DVDs from Australia are pretty pricey, but not Europe.
We can thank improvements in mailing service agreements in the past decade.
And the Euro.

[Seeker47]

Some aspects to bear in mind though, you are unlikely to get dinged for import duties under $50, and taxes are not payable to the UK for exported items, I have bought many difficult to find items cheaper from the UK.

Don't you Canadians get some special consideration on that, by virtue of being a member of the Commonwealth ?

DVDs from Australia are pretty pricey, but not Europe.

I heard they were pretty cheap, if you bought them in Australia. (But that could be old news, by now.) Not sure what Europe sourced DVDs you're referring to. The ones I used to see in one of the very few brick & mortar stores that had them tended to run from $30. to $60. ! But these were foreign region discs for titles not otherwise available in the U.S., and of course you needed an any-region player that also converts PAL in order to watch them.

[victoriabears]

No we do not get any leeway just because of the Queen.

[lordsmurf]

I buy almost all of my European DVDs from

• Amazon.co.uk (UK) or
• Amazon.de (Germany) or
• Amazon.fr (France)

I think many people would be surprised at how many DVDs are released in Germany, with English as the main or secondary audio track. And there is a ton of stuff released there, not found anywhere else. The complete run (near-complete?) of all Power Rangers shows, for example, if there's any MMPR fans out there.

Amazon UK is pretty good on prices, lots of DVDs are cheaper there than they are in North America. And right now, exchange rates aren't bad.

www.xe.com to convert currencies.

Probably half of my DVD collection is PAL, for this reason.