Will VCD NTSC converted to Pal play on Pal system?

[thaiwoo]

I capture movies from my camcorder on to my PC then I make NTSC VCD's to play on my DVD / TV. I would like to buy my parents in Europe (Pal system) a DVD when I'm over there and make them VCD's to play on their system.

Can I just convert the NTSC mpeg to Pal and then burn it onto a CD-R and will it work or how should I proceed?

Thanks

[Greg12]

Encode to MPEG using a pal template then burn and send.

[Shabubu]

It's actually a little more complicated than that. Just do a search for NTSC>PAL and you'll see what I mean. Mose PAL DVD players will play NTSC format (though NOT region 1 DVD's !!!!). So there shouldn't be too much problem doing the vcd in NTSC.

[hamambocegi]

well i am in the same situation. i capture from an NTSC cam corder, but would like my family in Europe to watch them on their system which is PAL.

when you say the DVD player will play it - does it mean a PAL TV Set will display ?

does the DVD player convert NTSC to PAL on the run ? I it is a pain in the ass to encode everything twice. it takes long enough to encode an hour of video as it is ... i would wish DVD players would convert on ...

any advice - insight anyone ?

[SatStorm]

Just load the NTSC avi, mpeg, whatever, to tmpeg, load the Pal VCD or Pal SVCD template and hit encode...
The final mpeg will be PAL, playable on Pal screens.
The picture will be acceptable with SVCD. Not perfect (because the encoder will add vertical lines), but acceptable
With vcd, you will not see any difference...

[emm2005]

Shabubu is right, it is very complicated and it takes precious time to convert an NTSC to PAL or vise versa. Since you are planning to buy your parents a European DVD player, see to it that you buy a CODEFREE one, like I have got. This player has also NTSC or PAL output. I will not mention what brand of DVD player I have, but there are several choices.

I hope this helps!

emm

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: emm2005 on 2001-11-28 07:32:10 ]</font>

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: emm2005 on 2001-11-28 07:34:20 ]</font>

[Shabubu]

The problem with PAL>NTSC or NTSC>PAL, is that you need to change the framerate... if you think about it carefully it proves to be a lot harder than it seems and no-one has got a foolproof method yet. Most PAL DVD players are capable of reading and outputting a NTSC signal (just like nost VCR's), the only requirement being that a scart lead is used from player>TV. This is NOT the same as region coding mind. The best bet is to check the manufacturer of the player to see what it can do. Also send them a small test VCD.

[thaiwoo]

Well I actually converted some NTSC movies to Pal and burned them to VCD. I'm going over to Europe next week and actually would like to buy the DVD player for them so I would take those cd's with me and try them on the different players to see which one works.

I inserted the Pal Vcd into my NTSC DVD player and it played just fine, so I wasn't sure if I did something wrong and it wasn't really Pal.

Is there an easy way to tell weather a home made Vcd is NTSC or Pal?

[hamambocegi]

<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font size=-1>Quote:</font><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT SIZE=-1><BLOCKQUOTE>
On 2001-11-28 19:03:04, thaiwoo wrote:
Well I actually converted some NTSC movies to Pal and burned them to VCD. I'm going over to Europe next week and actually would like to buy the DVD player for them so I would take those cd's with me and try them on the different players to see which one works.

I inserted the Pal Vcd into my NTSC DVD player and it played just fine, so I wasn't sure if I did something wrong and it wasn't really Pal.

Is there an easy way to tell weather a home made Vcd is NTSC or Pal?
</BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>

i would be very intrested to know if NTSC encoded VCD's play on PAL DVD player. can you please post if it works. thanks

- i am not sure but you might wanna check media player, and while playing the vcd hiright click and select "Properties" -> "Advanced" and "Video decoder" and there it should show you the frame rate and size. if they they are PAL specs then i would guess you encoded PAL ...
for example NTSC VCD shows:

Picture Size: 352 x 240
Bit rate: 1150000 bits/sec
Frame rate: 29.97 frames/sec

[schwinn]

My GE 1101p DVD player $139.00 at Walmart plays Pal or NTSC VCD's and SVCD's and you can set it for type of TV you are using Pal or NTSC.In other words it converts on the fly to which ever type of TV you are using with it! Picture is good and no problems in 6months or so...
This machine is basicly an Apex 703 single disk player. GE also makes a 3 disk model which is just like the APEX 703 it's a maybe 5803??? Apex machines are famous for playing any disks and also maybe poor quality control. My friend who works at Walmart told me buy the GE it's the same machine but I've gotten 0 returns and the APEX come back all the time. You either get a bad one or a good one...
I'm told it's even more common in Europe for DVD players to play both type of disks and I'm sure there are other brands in the USA that do as well! So you don't have to re-encode your disks. I trade freely and don't have to worry about type as they all play! I don't think homemade disks have region encoding on them...anyone? Schwinn

[emm2005]

<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font size=-1>Quote:</font><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT SIZE=-1><BLOCKQUOTE>
On 2001-11-28 19:03:04, thaiwoo wrote:
Well I actually converted some NTSC movies to Pal and burned them to VCD. I'm going over to Europe next week and actually would like to buy the DVD player for them so I would take those cd's with me and try them on the different players to see which one works.

I inserted the Pal Vcd into my NTSC DVD player and it played just fine, so I wasn't sure if I did something wrong and it wasn't really Pal.

Is there an easy way to tell weather a home made Vcd is NTSC or Pal?
</BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>

[emm2005]

<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font size=-1>Quote:</font><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT SIZE=-1><BLOCKQUOTE>
On 2001-11-28 19:03:04, thaiwoo wrote:
Well I actually converted some NTSC movies to Pal and burned them to VCD. I'm going over to Europe next week and actually would like to buy the DVD player for them so I would take those cd's with me and try them on the different players to see which one works.

I inserted the Pal Vcd into my NTSC DVD player and it played just fine, so I wasn't sure if I did something wrong and it wasn't really Pal.

Is there an easy way to tell weather a home made Vcd is NTSC or Pal?
</BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>
Hi Thaiwoo,

As far as I have read, PAL and NTSC have defferent frame rates. If you need a PAL output, you should select 25fps and approx. 29.5fps for NTSC during the Mpeg conversion.

Cheers
Emm

[emm2005]

<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font size=-1>Quote:</font><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT SIZE=-1><BLOCKQUOTE>
On 2001-11-29 00:10:43, emm2005 wrote:
<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font size=-1>Quote:</font><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT SIZE=-1><BLOCKQUOTE>
On 2001-11-28 19:03:04, thaiwoo wrote:
Well I actually converted some NTSC movies to Pal and burned them to VCD. I'm going over to Europe next week and actually would like to buy the DVD player for them so I would take those cd's with me and try them on the different players to see which one works.

I inserted the Pal Vcd into my NTSC DVD player and it played just fine, so I wasn't sure if I did something wrong and it wasn't really Pal.

Is there an easy way to tell weather a home made Vcd is NTSC or Pal?
</BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>
Hi Thaiwoo,

As far as I have read, PAL and NTSC have defferent frame rates. If you need a PAL output, you should select 25fps and approx. 29.5fps for NTSC during the Mpeg conversion.

I live here in Germany and I use to have some copies of "NTSC" Films coming from the Philippines and the USA, no problem playing them with my DVD player. I converted a DVD (Shania Twain´s Concert..just to experiment)into PAL CD-R with 25fps, I got no problem.

Cheers
Emm
</BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>

[thaiwoo]

Ok here is a late follow up and a new question about NTSC & Pal.

I burned diffierent videos I made in some of the standards (PAL, NTSC, SVCD & VCD) and took them to Switzerland. Purchased my parents a Roadstar DVD player and a new TV (badly needed 16 channels only!) The sales guy ensured me it would play anything I threw at it. An it did.

Now I can send my videos on VCD and it doesn't matter if they are in NTSC format.

My new question is, just ordered a Pioneer A04 DVD Burner. Do these critters burn Region free DVD's or do I have to convert the video file into PAL and then burn it PAL?

Any insight?

[Dauid]

Just wanted to clear this up.

I live in europe and here ALL dvd players play both Pal and Ntsc.
Ive made several ntsc vcds and they all play fine on my system.

Almost all new pal vcrs can play ntsc material too.

[Diggedy]

Don't worry about converting to PAL, as long as your parents have NTSC playback on their TV. All dvd players will output ntsc or pal, you just need a tv that can handle the signal. 90% of recent PAL tvs (5-10years old) will have ntsc playback.

[raunso]

If a TV doesn't have the ability to play NTSC (I live in europe) what will the result be, when you try to play som NTSC material. Will it be watchable or complete gibberish?

Raunsø

[Diggedy]

It will be one of 2 things: In B&W but stable picture (this can be remedied by a ntsc>pal convertor box which will give a full colour signal & cost about $100 here so it should be pretty cheap in Europe). Or if your TV is a bit older not only will it be in B&W but the v-hold may be all screwed up (rolling picture). This can only be fixed if the tv has v-hold adjustment, and if it doesn't the money for the convertor box would be better spent on a new TV anway.

[bartman]

You have to be careful when converting NTSC to PAL ( not so much the other way around it seems :-? ). The quick and dirty ways are to either speed up or slow down the video ( depending what NTSC framerate you are using ) to 25fps, but then your audio will sound weird. the other is to drop complete frames or insert an extra frames ( again, depending on what framerate ), both will result in jerky movement but the audio will be fine.

basically....it's a pain in the arse to convert from NTSC to PAL or vice-versa, which is why movie studio's tend to convert to PAL or NTSC straight from the film ( 24fps ).

I'll give you a hint though.....it all has to do with what you do with the interlaced frames. Think of an interlaced frame as having a part A and a pard B. It is all how these parts are arranged....which get duplicated and which get skipped....that holds the key....

Have fun 8)

[afwasborstel]

A lot of european players are capable of playing NTSC video.....

[BTIP]

VHS cassette is played back in NTSC, so I dont see why a VCD shouldn't do the same.
One thing I have found, worst that will happen is that it will be in
black and white....lol

[vitualis]

Most newer. PAL TVs will be able to play back both NTSC and PAL video.

In any case, most PAL DVD players are able to convert NTSC to PAL or at least to PAL-60 -- which should be playable on just about any PAL TV (even if they don't support NTSC) sold in the last 10 years.

NTSC --> PAL conversion shouldn't be necessary for the majority of PAL systems.

Regards.

[raunso]

Yeah. But my problem is pretty strange.

When I encode NTSC SVCDs and play them on my Pioneer 535 DVD-player on my old Sony TV the picture is flattened! As if the TV does a conversion to 16:9-material, except that I'm pretty sure that the TV can't do this.

Any ideas?

Raunso

[Diggedy]

This is to do with the fact that your television cannot handle a 60hz signal and instead displays it in 50hz, which results in the squeezed image. This is similar to console games that aren't optimized for PAL and result in black borders and 15% slower gameplay.