PAL / NTSC DVD Conversion (patch method)

[dpasin]

I have answered my own question. Someone had mentioned about changing the ratio of some ifo files from 4:3 to 16:9. This is what kept givinbg me the error message in Nero. Some of the files were 16:9 and some were 4:3. I just left them at their default Nero was happy and burnt the DVD.

[RDS1955]

Just tried this , converted a PAL Disc I received, and it works... Plays ok on my Panasonic E80H, but it's somewhat jerky. The PAL played great on my Cyberhome 300..Leaves me two options to convert it to a Non Jerky NTSC.. Play it through my Cyberhome into my Set Top Panny unit and record each individual chapter to a DVD Ram disc and re-author a whole new Disc or Use VOB2MPG to change all the VOB to MPG's and re-author with TMPGenc and a menu builder after all is done... WHeww, thats alot of work...

WHO?!?!? Me?!?!

[jugsy99]

I know you gave someone a link to guides but Im having a lot of trouble finding any guides that help someone go from PAL to NTCS when having DVD files (.vts/.vob/.bup). All the guides I seem to have found involve PAL mpegs or avis. Is there another method (encoding?) other than the patch method to change these PAL Dvd files to NTCS? Is there a method that can keep all the chapters and other sub menus?
Please steer me in the right direction, Im having a real hard time with this.

Thank you,
Amber

Im a newbie so Im sorry about my computer lingo, hope you know what I mean

[RDS1955]

If you're not to keen on the "patch" method (which will give you questionable results) the only other options you have are to rip the PAL disc to either Mpeg or AVI (Xvid/Divx) formats and re-author it back to a NTSC ratio movie..If you want to keep all the original menu's, I suggest you use Power DVD to take snap shots of each menu, save them for later work once everything has been readied for re-authoring..Of course, you'll have to do some study on your part to learn how to make those Snapshots into workable menu's with a Photo/Picture program like Adobe Photoshop or something of your preference, and save them for work in your re-authoring program....Or you can just convert them to the above mentioned formats then re-author them back to a NTSC DVD and just use the built in menu's that come with your re-authoring program.....It's not an easy 1.2.3 process... will take some time for you to do it... I have a 7 DVD series I received from overseas, and luckily I have a Cyberhome 300 DVD Player and it plays it great..But I'm going to go through the long process of changing them all over to NTSC because that's what I want them at...

[jugsy99]

Thank you RDS1955. Wasn't sure even where to begin and your response was very helpful to me and has definetly steered me in the right direction. Thank you again.
Amber

[Spudboy]

I tried this "patch" method and it worked for me. In addition, I used DVDShrink with the "patched" files (along with Nero Burning ROM) and produced a DVD-R that plays fine in my Sharp DV-RW340U. To go from Region 2 PAL to Region 1 NTSC without a lot of trouble was great. Thank you, DJRumpy, for the information.

[yezhang78]

works on mine Toshiba SD-3950
however I ripped the PAL to harddrive using Magic DVD Ripper, which has NTSC ouput function
not sure if this plays a role also

[tchouli]

i then tried vob blocker in conjunction with my burning sw and i have successfully converted and can play the dvds thru my set player.

i need to make a correction: the program i used is vobblanker

[Joachim2311]

I just found this IFOedit patch method on a PAL DVD I bought overseas. Patched DVD worked fine on my Mitsubishi DVD player. Thanks for posting this

[Glennius]

Thanks DJRumpy!

This method worked great for me! Using IFO edit and 10 mins. of my time editing the PAL code lines in the file just like in the tutorial....put the disc in my Samsung player....fooled it. It is now playing. YeeHaw!

PS....I did bring it back into Shrink to re-author.

Works great!

Thanks again,
Glenn.

[quote="DJRumpy"]This Guide gives a quick overview of the 'Patch' method, used to make a PAL disc appear as if it was NTSC or an NTSC disk appear as PAL. This method requires no re-encoding, and takes only a few seconds.

NOTE: This method may not be supported by your player.
( Your mileage may vary )
If this method does not work in your player, then it simply means "It does not work in your player". Please don't PM me asking for a fix. I didn't invent this method, and I claim no responsiblity if it does't work

[jforce]

It worked for me as well! I had three DVD's that were PAL and I thought I'd have to only watch them on my PC, but with IFOedit, I followed your instructions and it totally worked! I was so pumped. Thanks alot. I have a Samsung VCR/DVD player (DVD V3500). Thanks DJRumpy!

[tchouli]

new issue - i have a pal dvd using multiangle - vob blanker will not recognize the cells and ifoedit will not let me change from pal to ntsc after decryption.

thoughts? advice?

what i have noticed are that the french dvds in pal are the ones i have the most issues.

any help is appreciated.

[robertazimmerman]

Outstanding post, Rumpy! Thanks a thousand times. This method allowed me to burn a disc that played on my Toshiba SD-6200. Believe me, that is no small feat as this player will not play DVD-RWs, DVD+Rs, DVD+RWs and any disc other than DVD-Rs and commercial discs.

roberta

[2manytapes]

Just another success story. I bought a PAL DVD that was released only in Europe and I really wanted it, but could not play it. I managed to use DVD Fab to rip and then burn individual episodes to disc. Without the patch method, my player (Samsung P241) would not play the discs I had burned. Then I tried the patch method, and it plays back PERFECTLY. Thanks so much for this method, it's a lifesaver! I could not figure out how to convert frame rate and resolution without a crippling loss of quality, then I remembered seeing a patch method somewhere. Quick, easy AND no conversion involved. As Homer Simpson says, "Woohoo!"
And the TV on which the player plays through should _definitely_ not matter. My TV is a 15+ year old Sharp Linytron, so if it works on that old piece of vintage electronics it should work on anything else.

[NiteLite]

And another thanks for the guide.
I tried a pal to ntsc. 4 times after closing IFOEdit and checking the files they had not changed to ntsc but remained pal. After the fifth time I checked they were correct so I quickly closed the program and burned the movie. (movie only ripped with shrink).
The interesting part was the redo played in an old sony without the jerking and blur that appears when playing it on a cyberhome 300 that I bought for pal viewing. So the edit is better than the original. Why it took 5 times for the changed settings to take is a mystery. Thanks again for the info.
NL

[methos_de]

Hi,

does anybody actually need to convert pal-> ntsc or vice versa? I've had four tvs and about 10 players in the past 5 years, from all price ranges and all of them supported just about every system thats out there.
I find it hard to believe that this conversion is needed these days. With the proper settings and cable this surely cannot be necessary anymore or?

Methos.

[robertazimmerman]

Hi,

I find it hard to believe that this conversion is needed these days. With the proper settings and cable this surely cannot be necessary anymore or?

Methos.

You have obviously never owned a Toshiba DVD player!

roberta

[DJRumpy]

For non-NTSC folks, their players tend to be more global in thought and design. They are usually far more forgiving and more often region free than their NTSC neighbors. Many NTSC players are not region free, but the internal chipsets and hardware are still the same as those used overseas. Lie to the player and the internals know what to do, which is why this works for so many. For some players, it simply tries to compensate (albeit poorly) so that it works, but with noticable jerkiness or jaggies. There are some though, that are simply NTSC only, and as a result they do not work.

It appears that with the growing acceptance of the internet, and it's ability to distribute digital media, that most players are becoming more NTSC/PAL friendly even when they don't state it directly in their specs.

[SCARCHISQ]

it works but there is a problem: I converted a DVD from PAL to NTSC and now my NTSC DVD player can play it. But ... a gap has been inserted between the cursor and the menu items (the cursor is not any more on the items). And my subtitle is displayed out of the screen (I can see only the top of the sub), as if the picture's vertical dimension is too big. I don't know what to do, I can't experiment and thow away DVDs. Can anybody tell me what settings would be OK in IfoEdit to make the picture fit well?

Thank you

[DJRumpy]

As far as I know there is no workaround for that sort of flaw, other than doing a proper conversion. This is the price your pay for a shortcut

[csloane@nwnexus.com]

The patch method works on the Sony NS-315, but with a major issue. Can someone explain this?

I made 2 DVDs, with 2 different edits of the IFO files. In both cases, I used Nero Recode 2 to squeeze it into a single layer disc, and chose the "High Quality (slow)" setting.

First time, I checked "Automatic letterbox" for every entry, as per DJRumpy's directions.
Second time, I only changed from PAL to NTSC and left all other values as they were.
The results were identical. The image is 4:3 (the original is definitely 16:9) and the image has a colored stripe at the top, and a flickering colored stripe on the bottom. It is still viewable, but those colored stripes are distracting. The colors are bright green, sometimes becoming magenta.

Is there a patch-type fix for this? At the very least, I'd like to understand what is happening here.

[DJRumpy]

What is happening is your player does not work with this method. There is no fix. This method is a hack, not a proper conversion. Your basically lying to your player in the hopes that it will scale the image properly and play them back in some semblence of decent output.

As I explained at the very beginning of the guide, it will either work, or it won't. In your case, you will have to use a proper conversion method to convert you output to NTSC/PAL.

[csloane@nwnexus.com]

I managed to re-code two of my PAL discs from Thailand successfully using a combination of this patch method and Nero Vision Express. BUT....

First I copied all the files from the DVD to the hard drive.
Then I edited the IFO files according to this method.
Then I ran Nero Vision Express by adding the video files.
I selected higher compression to fit on the disc and did not choose titles or menus, just a single playable title.
After 3+ hours, it was burned and fully playable.

BUT

on one of those PAL discs, there were subtitles in 2 languages. After burning this way, the subtitles disappeared. There were no *.sub or *.txt files on the original, so I figured that the subtitles were part of the VOB files.

So I ask any of you who may know, where did the subtitles go?

[DJRumpy]

You should check out a few of the subtitle guides. You should also know that the patch method isn't necessary if your doing a full conversion

[focuspuller]

Stupid question mabe but using this method, as well as changing and PAL to NTSC does it also change the framrate? The frmerate is my main concern. I was told there was a way to make the dvd player actually change the framemate for you. Also, what the best way to re encode PAL to NTSC? I'm sure it's a long process.

[DJRumpy]

It is a long process unless you use one of the 1-click type software packages. Check the guides section. It has tons of guides for converting NTSC to PAL and vice versa. If you do a full conversion, then the IFO's generated after the conversion will already have the desired values in them, so it's not necessary to use IFOEdit.

[spiritgumm]

My ntsc Pioneer dvd player plays PAL dvds but things in motion don't quite move smoothly - it's a very subtle, like stop-motion animation. Also the audio on one is noticeably faster - is that from my player "converting" the PAL too? Will this patch help with the unsmoothness or does it only help major jumpiness? Should I be grateful the Pioneer plays them as well as it does?

[DJRumpy]

I'm guessing your player doesn't officially support pal if you notice jumpiness. It's possible the patch method could help with some of those issues. You can only try and see. If your player supports RW media, I'd suggest you try it with a DVD RW first so you're not out of a disk without reason.

[magnus33]

Actually some tv's do affect the dvd but only becuase they can't display the correct size.

I have personaly only run into one sony that had this issue.

The tv in question would probly have had issues with some normal dvd's too and only because of its age.

Time to buy a plasma...lol.

[spiritgumm]

Hi DJRumpy,
I did try the patch method but it didn't change the problem I see. The problem resembles a dvd recorded in 6-hour mode - if you've ever seen one, any motion looks alittle choppy. I showed a friend the problem but he didn't seem to perceive it - again, maybe because the Pioneer does a very good job, and/or I'm crazy.