What is the correct NTSC format for USA DVD players

[beammeup]

Hi.

I live in Australia so most of my DVDs are in PAL format.

I'm creating a DVD for people in the US, so which way is best

Seperate video + wave file
Program stream video & audio
Seperate video + AC3 audio

If anybody who can let me know because I don't have a NTSC DVD player
and I heard that some NTSC DVD players will reject the disk if it's not in strict NTSC compliance.

thanks
Scott

[guns1inger]

See 'What is DVD ?" in the top left corner of this page. NTSC is a resolution and a framerate and not much more as far as DVD is concerned. It doesn't matter how you author so long as you meet NTSC DVD compliance in those two areas. How your source streams are structured doesn't matter as it will all end up in the VOBs at the end of the day.

[beammeup]

Thanks - I took a look

[solarfox]

Well, there is a bit more to it than that, unfortunately.

Strictly speaking, the "DVD standard" for NTSC is MPEG-2 video (of course), and either PCM 48KHz stereo or 2-channel AC3 audio. Support for MPEG audio is "optional." Conversely, in PAL-land, the "standard" is either PCM 48KHz stereo or MPEG audio, with support for 2-channel AC3 being "optional." Therefore, theoretically, the DVD manufacturers don't have to include support for MPEG audio in an NTSC-market player if they don't want to.

That being said, I've done loads of NTSC discs with MPEG audio and never had them fail to play correctly, so it probably won't be a problem for you either... but if you want to be absolutely sure, I'd go with 2-channel AC3.

[Capt.Video]

FWIW, Im US with NTSC... I encode everything either D1 or 1/2 D1 MPEG2, with MP2 audio, I never use PCM, and I dont have any need for AC3. ALL DVDs Ive created plays on all DVD set top units Ive put them in, or others have played in there home.

720X480 or 352X240 MPEG2
MP2 audio with 48kh, I use 128 sampling.

Just use TMPGEnc, load an NTSC template and your set.

HTH,
Andrew

[lordsmurf]

AC3 and WAV are required in the spec worldwide. MP2 is optional, but probably 99% support it. I've only seen ONE DVD PLAYER to date out of hundreds that rejected an MPEG Layer II audio.

Spec includes:
GOP length
sequence headers
bitrate for video
bitrate for audio
MP@ML
4:2:0
resolutions
framerates
progressive/interlace
MPEG1/MPEG2
audio types AC3/WAV/MP2/DTS
stereo and surround
amount of "junk" in the MPEG stream
compression matrices

dvddemystified.com has lot of good info (although don't be fooled into thinking it's 100% perfect, there are a few mistakes and some things do get overlooked, or are outdated)

Good luck.

[Ennio]

Beammeup,

If you want to convert PAL dvd or 25 fps avi to NTSC dvd maybe you should try the DGPulldown method.

I'm now in the learning process of this cause I have to do some conversion for US people too. It works like a charm, I must say. You can use whatever original audiostream you like, without having to convert it. The whole idea behind this is clever, imo.

cheers

[SLK001]

720X480 or 352X240 MPEG2

352x240 is an MPEG1 resolution. 352x480 is the other MPEG2 resolution (also, 704x480).

If you can encode your audio to .AC3, then use that.

If you can encode your video to film rate (23.976 or 24fps) then use that, then apply a 2:3 pulldown using PULLDOWN.EXE.

GOP length: 18 frames is the spec max, but 12 frames is "better".

Color space: ITU-R BT.470 M or SMPTE 170 M.

Everything else is the same between PAL and NTSC (assuming that I haven't missed something big!).

[guns1inger]

352x240 can also be encoded with mpeg 2 if used on a DVD, with the full range of bitrates available. If you use mpeg1 you are restricted to a maximum bitrate of 1856kbps (including audio)

[edDV]

A background issue here is audio decoder-encoder licencing. Dolby Digital (AC-3) requires somebody to pay a license to Dolby. Older software versions relied on PCM or MP2 with AC-3 as an optional extra.

Since the introduction of standalone DVD recorders and DVD camcorders (both paid a AC-3 encoder license in NTSC markets), most DVD editing and authoring apps are beginning to include DD (AC-3) licenses in their latest upgrades without the customer needing to pay more.

If you insist on using older software, you will continue to run into these issues.