Will a homemade NTSC dvd play on a PAL player?

[thedarkness]

Will my homemade NTSC family dvd play on a relatives PAL dvd player, as opposed to playing movies (retail dvds), which do usually have problems? I thought since my NTSC dvd with family photos and videos has no protection as such, that it might work on their player after all ..or would the PAL player still need to be unlocked to play it?

thanks for any help

[lowellriggsiam]

It depends on the dvd player. I have dvd players that will play NTSC and PAL, and I have one that does not. The best advice is to look up that specific dvd player.

[victoriabears]

some info first, but generally yes a region free NTSC dvd should play in a Pal dvd player, does not work the other way round as often. & just FYI, if you back up a commercial DVD the backup would be region free.

so what brand of blanks are you using and are they +R or -R, -R would probbably be better

what brand & model of dvd player do your uk relatives have?

[hech54]

Your DVD will have no region code or copy protection issues....and most PAL countries can easily play NTSC stuff(including VHS tapes) so chances are very good that it will play....as long as their player and television are not antiques...

[thedarkness]

Im not sure on the brand, Ill have to find that one out. Unfortunately the blanks I have here are +R, but I think Ill send it out anyway, if it doesnt work then Im sure theyll have more luck playing it on their computer.

I wasnt sure if a region free NTSC disc would play in their player, but Im guessing the newer the player then the more chance theyll have of it working. thanks for your replies

ps their tv definately not an antique, flat widescreen ive been told, so Im hoping the player is at least from the same century, lol

[victoriabears]

The thing about +R is it is best to ensure they are set to booktyping when burning, not all burners do this and if you use a dvd recorder make sure you finalise it when finished, many say +R do not need this, that is not univerally true, if the dvd recorder does not offer finalise on the blank then it does not need it. Some auto finalise.

https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/290114-Booktyping-help!

[jman98]

I wasnt sure if a region free NTSC disc would play in their player, but Im guessing the newer the player then the more chance theyll have of it working. thanks for your replies

One website I saw suggested that about 95% of people in PAL countries can play NTSC DVDs without problems. The odds really are quite high that this will work fine. This is why when people post here asking about converting NTSC DVD to PAL we ask them if are absolutely sure that this is necessary.

DVD players made in the past few years don't really care about +R or -R and no extra steps are necessary, although you could follow victoriabears advice about booktyping if your burner supports that and you are burning +R discs. For best results we recommend using high quality blanks, which in the USA means Taiyo Yuden or Verbatim (anything but their low quality Life Series discs).

[thedarkness]

the +Rs I have here are all verbatim, hopefully they will play ok. I have ashampoo burner on here, but I couldnt see a booktyping setting. thanks

[johns0]

Use imgburn,much better than ashampoo and has book type settings.

[Chopmeister]

Unless it is an early model DVD player, it should work fine. Some of the early ones were a bit fussy about format, but pretty much every PAL player bought in the in the last 5 years, from brand name to the supermarket cheapies, should also cope with NTSC.