My Answer to PAL to NTSC conversion.

[baboo21_1979]

Well, after reading ridiculous amount of material on this subject and eventually faced with looking at a process that required too much time and too many programs I found a reliable way to convert PAL to NTSC. Keep in mind this is for those folks who are going to be doing this alot, but either way it was interesting.

First, the X-box, otherwise known as the best gaming console since intellevison ANyway, the xbox will play a PAL DVD in my experience bu the PS2 and just about any DVD player othere than a Apex would onle play NTSC. So, I bought one of these Go-Video VR4940 DVD REcorder VCR thangs and plugged my X-Box and proceeded to record the PAL played out of the XBox onto the DVD in the VR4940. SInce the Xbox is converting the PAL to NTSC to play it going out then the recorder receives and records in NTSC thus circumventing the PAL and avoiding that painstaking process of PC based conversion.

I am aware that not everyone can for out 400 bucks for a DVD recorder unit but I think that on ebay some older models are in the $200's and this is definitly a sweet way and the only catch is that the DVD unit has to record in real time, so you have to let it play out, but it is something to think about anyway.

[Matteo693]

My AUS$75 Viewmaster DVD player can do this too. With the remote control, you just choose PAL or NTSC and it'll convert the output, crystal clear. I've done this to dub NTSC VHS from a PAL DVD, and send over to the U.S., & the results are AS GOOD AS THE PAL ORIGINAL!

(PS: I was screwing around with avisynth etc before I realized this perfect solution!)

(PPS: Of course, I think Viewmaster is only around Australasian parts of the world!?)

(PPPS: How come U.S. is the only country with NO choice in these "pal/ntsc" matters? Call yourselves a DEMOCRACY?)

[baboo21_1979]

THe reason we are one of only, lts say three, countries that use this NTSC format is probably the same reason we don't use Metric, the answer I was told is "Becuase we can." A bit arrogant and self centered but hey who am I to judge, the U.S. has been this way forever and I can't see it changing any time soon and until then PAL conversion will remain pain in our asses.

[ofbarea]

I’m doing the opposite conversion but the idea is basically the same.

It happens that I have an Apex AD-5131 that supports NTSC to PAL conversion. I also own an ADS PYRO A/V Link that can capture in NTSC or PAL.

I found that this process takes some time to complete, but I got very good results with it.

1. Transfer the NTSC DV movie to my PC.
2. Render the NTSC movie using TMPGEnc, following Lordsmurf recommended MPEG2 settings (fast). The audio is kept in PCM.
3. Author a DVD. I use TMGPEnc DVD Author because it’s simple and fast.
4. Burn the movie in a DVD+RW.
5. Play the movie in my Apex with PAL output,
6. Capture the PAL movie with the ADS A/V Link.
7. Render the NTSC movie using TMPGEnc. This time the compress the audio.
8. Author the PAL movie

I rather do this, rather than digitally convert the movie because the playback at the end is not smooth.

This is what I was doing before:

Start with Inverse telecine conversion. Even though this process drops some frames, the final result is not that bad. Changing the frame rate from 24 to 25 is no brainier and I have no problem modifying the WAV file so the audio and video maintain synchronization.

But resizing the frame is a pain. If I resize without deinterlacing, the new frame will have lots of very ugly artifacts. If I add a few black lines around the frame to reach PAL resolution, the aspect ratio sometimes will be odd. If I deinterlace the frame, some portions of the movie will be blurry and because of the number of previously dropped frames the movie will not play smooth enough.

I came to the conclusion that the best way of doing this step would be separate both fields, resize both fields to PAL resolution and interlace them again. But I was never able to do this. Sugerstions?

[pyrohydra]

THe reason we are one of only, lts say three, countries that use this NTSC format is probably the same reason we don't use Metric, the answer I was told is "Becuase we can." A bit arrogant and self centered but hey who am I to judge, the U.S. has been this way forever and I can't see it changing any time soon and until then PAL conversion will remain pain in our asses.

And it is still happening even with the newer technologies. Why are we using ATSC for terrestrial digital TV transmissions, while the rest of the world uses DVB-T? Why is most of the cellular network in the USA using CDMA, while the rest of the world is GSM? etc...etc.

[jimmalenko]

I am quite impressed by your methods. I guess if all you want is movie only then job's right. Wouldn't it be easier to buy the NTSC version of the DVD ?

[baboo21_1979]

As usual, Lordsmurf's methods are very reliable. The way I do my conversion works nicely as well, it is just a matter of how we choose to go at it. The comment about the buying the NTSC version fo the dvd. I was speaking in reference to either home movies or net movies that come in a PAL VCD/SVCD format or dvd's that are not released in the states.

I would use SVCD2DVDMPG to conver the PAL MPG and then burn it to a DVD-RW and play it int he xbox and then reord to the stand alone dvd burner. THat process is fairly quick in comparison to the PC method which some have found takes all day. I also use DVD LAB to author and add menus if needed. I would recommend my method if you have access to the stand alone recorder and x-box or apex dvd player otherwise stick with methods usual suggested by LORDSMURF.

[Arky]

Canopus ProCoder Express does Pal<=>NTSC standards conversion, and pretty well, I am told. ...and it only costs $59. I reckon that's something of a bargain...


Arky ;o)