how can I find out if it's PAL ... ?

[zwalex]

I created a photo slide show with iDVD. I set the Video Standard to PAL in preferences before I created the project as I want to send the DVD to Europe as a gift.
I 'only' have an external LaCie drive (no Superdrive) so I have to use the Hurz/Pfurz hack in iDVD. I created a disk image and then Toast the image. The image mounted and played fine on my Mac, as did the DVD-RW that I toasted.
Then I put the DVD in my DVD player (Samsung HT DS610)and was kind of expecting to not be able to watch the DVD or at least get a garbled image - kind of as a proof that it is really PAL.
To my surprise the DVD works perfectly fine - now I am concerned that it's reallt PAL (and not NTSC). Either my DVD player (and TV, which is a 4-year old Panasonic) can handle PAL (??!) or the DVD is NTSC for whatever reason.
Is there a way to check the VOB files and/or VIDEO_TS folder for some indication of the video format?
Thanks in advance and Best Regards,
alex

[TugBoat]

Is there a way to check the VOB files and/or VIDEO_TS folder for some indication of the video format?

Very simple. Since it's not encrypted, open one of the main VOBs in ffmpegX, or QT/MPEG Streamclip (with the MPEG2 playback component) and check the framerate. 25fps is PAL, 29.97fps is NTSC. I don't think iDVD does 23.98, but if it did, it would be NTSC.

[WiseWeasel]

You can also use VLC to play them, and then use the 'Get Info' (or whatever similar, sorry, don't have my computer handy to check) option in one of the menus farthest to the right. It should include a bunch of info on the movie, hopefully including color format and/or framerate.

[mhar4]

PAL DVD players can usually convert NTSC disks to a PAL signal, so it wouldn't be suprising if NTSC players can do the same from PAL-NTSC.

This feature might also mean that you don't need worry too much about the disk format, as long as there is no region coding.

The mandated specs of NTSC and PAL DVD players are slightly different, though, so it's worth checking out.

[lupin]

That's interesting -- when I was living in France (PAL) my NTSC DVDs (region 2: Japan) played just fine on my French market PAL DVD-player. Yet back in America, my all-region DVD player has no problem playing region-2 Japanese NTSC DVDs but flickers like crazy when I insert a region-2 PAL European DVD. So perhaps NTSC discs can work in a PAL machine but not vice versa?

[WiseWeasel]

Many TV sets in the States (namely Sony ones) won't play back PAL content. I believe some DVD players might convert video to NTSC format on-the-fly, but not all do. TV sets in Europe will usually play back PAL, SECAM and NTSC.

[Zapod]

In the UK, many DVD players will offer the choice of pure NTSC if your TV supports it, or Quasi-PAL, where the signal is PAL, but 60Hz, or pure PAL where the player drops the extra frames and puts out a 50Hz picture. This last option means that R1 discs can be viewed on older scart equipped TVs - provided you don't mind the slight judder every second.