Conversion of NTSC VCD's to PAL/SECAM DVD's or PAL/SECAM VCD

[petec]

I have old 8mm home movies (1950's/1960's) which I converted to NTSC VCDs back in 1999. I would like to give copies of these to my cousins in France for Christmas so that they can play them on their DVD Players. First to make sure I believe that France uses PAL as a standard. What what I need to do to these to convert them to PAL? Would it be better to just convert the NTSC VCDs to PAL leaving them as VCDs (and will their DVD players play them) or would I be better off converting them to PAL DVD's and what would be the best methodology. Questions are:

1 - what is the standard that France uses for it's DVD's/VCDs (PAL or SECAM?)?
2 - would I be better off converting the VCD's to PAL/SECAM VCD's?
3 - would I be better off converting the VCD's to PAL/SECAM DVD's?

In so far as video editing tools I believe I have right software to do the job.

Any recommendations, suggestions or help would be sincerely appreciated.

[bugster]

There is a very good chance that they will be able to play NTSC material with no problems. Ask them if they know if they can, or if they have ever played imported US DVD's. If the answer is yes, you have no problems.

[petec]

<bugster>

Thank you for your input.

It would be much easier for me to convert these VCD's to DVD's NTSC.

My assumption is from your response is that "off the shelf" DVD players currently being sold there in Europe (and UK) will play both NTSC and PAL? (like here in the US?).

What I have done so far:

1 - split the sound to MP3. Then to WAV and finally to AC3.
2 - Video? I was going to convert it to a DVD compliant 1/2 frame. Is this the best method? As the video was originally old 8MM not going
3 - finally count number of frames and add chapters.

[bugster]

<bugster>

Thank you for your input.

It would be much easier for me to convert these VCD's to DVD's NTSC.

My assumption is from your response is that "off the shelf" DVD players currently being sold there in Europe (and UK) will play both NTSC and PAL? (like here in the US?).

Thats right. In fact its normally the TV thats the problem, in that it may not accept NTSC (or PAL-60 which is a sort of halfway house) signals. The vast majority do though, so why not try.

The other possible problem of course is media compatibility. Different DVD players react differently to various media. Both the + and - type and even different brands/quality.

[petec]

I have decided to create both formats on DVD -R and send them to one 40 year old cousin (only technical cousin out of 4) to test and for Christmas as my 75 year old aunt would not be able to deal with a non compatibility issue. These are 1962 8MM movies of my uncle/their father/husband (who passed on in the 1970's) and my parents.