PAL to NTSC-How do I start?

[jb830]

I've read much of what I could find on this and other forums. Many of the programs mentioned are no longer available and others are pricey But the one that is touted as the best is SVCD2DVD, so I downloaded the latest registered version with the intention of converting a very nice DVD from PAL to NTSC for play here in the US. [Let say up front that the DVD is not copy protected and I have permission from the producer to try the conversion.] My problem is where to begin? I have viewed the online help films but they don't seem to address the conversion. I've tried to "add assets",but what files to add?

Here's what I've done. I copied the DVD VIDEO_TS folder to my harddrive. On opening the folder I find 17 files consisting of VIDEO_TS.BUP, VIDEO_TS.IFO, VIDEO_TS.VOB, and multiple VTS files labeled VTS_xx_y.BUP, .IFO, and .VOB where the xx's are 01, 02 03, etc. and the y's are1, 2, 3, etc. When I click on either the VIDEO_TS.BUP or the VIDEO_TS.IFO file using Nero ShowTime, the whole DVD plays on my computer. Clicking on any one of the VTS files won't cause all odf the program to play, so it seems that the VIDEO_TS.BUP or .IFO file must be in the final group to be written to the final DVD. I tried using VOB2MPG, but that created three .mpg files VTS_01.mpg, VTS_02.mpg, and VTS_03.mpg. None of the three contained the full program.

Back to SVCD2DVD. Which of the files, if any, should I add as "Assets"? Do I drag and drop the folder (the program told me it was empty, my computer says it contains 3.13G), drag each file individually, only some of them (which ones?), or do something else entirely. And at what point does the program convert to NTSC and how do I get to that point?

I'm sorry for the long-winded question and I'm obviously new to the DVD technology world but I haven't been able to find any info that gets down to the level of basics I need to proceed to use this program. I will appreciate any help.

[redwudz]

You might want to take a look at 'What is' DVD to the upper left. The VOB files are the ones you want to take out for conversion. I'm not sure about using SVCD2DVD for this type of operation.

The methods in our guides work fairly well after you have extracted the MPEGs from the VOBs. You can also use DGPulldown and it will make things a lot easier for dealing with the framerate conversion. Then just convert the frame size to NTSC format with an encoder, author and burn. I'm assuming you are just wanting the main movie and no extras or menus from the PAL disc. These type of conversions can get fairly complicated to get the best results. Many will just recommend playing the DVD on a PAL capable player is the best method and not do a conversion.

PAL<>NTSC conversions: https://www.videohelp.com/guides.php?howtoselect=4;41#4;41

[ChrissyBoy]

Well SVCD2DVD will do PAL to NTSC using a similar techinque to DGPulldown: i.e it will use the RFF/TFF flags over repeating the actual frames, resulting in a smooth playback... But you need to give it Assets upon which it can work.

So VOB2MPG should be the tool to use to produce mpegs from the TitleSets of the DVD. These should be fine for SVCD2DVD assets... If after you use VOB2MPG you don't have the Assets then could you post the log from that program?

[Cool Breeze]

If all your wishing to accomplish is to make your PAL DVD playable on an NTSC (US) based standalone DVD player, you might want to <Try This> first.

It's easy, and it only takes only a few minutes. It does NOT perform true PAL to NTSC conversion, but it will make it possible for your NTSC player to play PAL DVD's. It works on most (but not all) standalones. This method uses IFOedit, which is a free program. This just may be the solution for you.

[jb830]

The PAL DVD I'm trying to convert has an opening scene with a movie scene on one half of the screen and a menu for selecting the preferred language (English, Spanish, German) for the narration. When I start the DVD program on my computer using the VIDEO_TS.IFO file, everything plays as it should.
I input the VIDEO_TS file to VOB2MPG and input the three VTS files that resulted as "Assets" to SVCD2DVD. When I previewed these files, I found that the output files did not contain the opening scene, the menu for language select, and play the main movie with a German narration. It seems that important information from the .IFO files was missing from the three VTS files created by VOB2MPG. Ignoring that apparent problem, I clicked on Make DVD in SVCD2DVD and selected PAL to NTSC. The process stopped when I received the following: "Warning: dwwin.exe" and then, "The application failed to initialize properly (0xc000012d). Click on OK to terminate the application." Which I did. I was never able to create a suitable file for burning that contained all the information of the original PAL DVD. Did I miss some steps?

Next, I tried using INFOedit as suggested by Cool Breeze. After modifying the .IFO files, I was able to burn a satisfactory DVD using Nero Burning ROM (not Nero VisionExpress, which crashed). There are some scenes where the video is a bit jerky and some where the English subtitles when a person is speaking do not appear on my TV, although they do when the same DVD is played on my computer. I think it might be possible to cure the slight jerkiness using DGPulldown but I find the instructions for use a bit confusing because I'm not intimately familiar with some of the jargon used. Retrieving the subtitles is another mystery.