Capture video from screen to convert PAL to NTSC?

[whoisquilty]

I've got a few PAL DVDs that I would like to convert to NTSC. However, I'm not able to get a good enough quality DVD when I rip the video, convert it to NTSC and then burn a NTSC DVD. It's still jerky.

Is there software that allows you to capture video straight from your screen so that I could open DVD Player, capture the video from that window and have a NTSC file?

[havema-1]

I prefer to use JES Deinterlacer for the standards conversion. The quality is better than via QuickTime/iDVD/iMovie or via MPEG2Works:

http://www.sjoki.uta.fi/~shmhav/SVCD_on_a_Macintosh.html#PAL_NTSC

[whoisquilty]

I tried JES Deinterlacer. It didn't give me what I want. So I'd like to go the capture route but I don't want to lose quality by playing in an external DVD player and capturing as an analog signal.

So, I'd like to try capturing the video from the screen as it plays in my internal DVD player.

SnapzPro captures fuzzy if I encode as NTSC DV.

Any suggestions?

[havema-1]

> SnapzPro captures fuzzy if I encode as NTSC DV

Give JES Deinterlacer, MPEG2Works or some other video standards converter another try

[whoisquilty]

Why would I give them another try when they aren't giving me what I want? Your posts are not answering the question that I asked at all.

[SERBIAN]

The best way to convert from PAL <-> NTSC is to go to some video studio and ask them to do the job on hardware converters...Note that there is a more then few things different between PAL and NTSC system like frame size, FPS, field ordering etc and it is not an easy job to make such conversions, and like with every re-conversion the output file cannot be at the same quality as input especially with MPEG format inputs which are allready heavy compressed...

[pipieye]

There are 2 programs that I have used to my satisfaction and I'll tell you I'm picky on quality.
SO depending on whether your PAL source is interlaced or not, you can try using MPEG Streamclip or FFMPEGX to convert your PAL into DV, make sure to choose NTSC DV. (For FFMPEGX, you will need to create your own profile i.e. 720x480, 29.97 DV, no audio, and check interlaced or uncheck depending on your source).

After your DV is created, which you will need a big HD, you will then be able to encode it back to DVD mpeg2 standard. I use the DVDSP4 compressor as that gives the best quality that is playable on standalone without any jitter.
FFMPEGX using FFMPG codec causes jitter/pauses while its mpgenc codec does not give the best quality results.

If you want to convert including the menus, you will need to also strip out the subs/mask and AC3 tracks and use DVDSP4 to reauthor.

Hope that helps.

[havema-1]

Yes, MPEG Streamclip is a VERY polished and neat app and I always try it first (I haven't yet needed to go further anyway).

MPEG Streamclip can convert PAL MPEG to NTSC DV/MOV but I have got better quality with JES Deinterlacer which can intelligently blend fields to a single frame to compensate for different frame rates, so the movements remain smooth. Other apps may only duplicate or skip frames so the movement gets jerky.

I don't believe that it is possible to get better quality via screen capture. That's why I insisted using JES Deinterlacer or other apps earlier in this thread.

[BernieR]

how about buying a $39 DVD player at wallymart that plays all discs and formats?

[AntnyMD]

You cant beat the Philips DVP 642. Or maybe now that its been awhile since it came out, maybe theres something similar but better.

[rorschach]

What about simply using MTR as a means of duplicating the DVD but stripping out the Region Code setting itself and then playing on a standalone DVD player? Wouldn't that preserve the entire DVD disk and the program but allowing any DVD player to read the disk because it is region-code free?