NTSC 2 Pal DVD

[Jester]

Hiya,

I have some DVD's that are in NTSC format. I would like to make a backup of them but have them play in a DVD player that only supports PAL. What's the best wya to do this? I would prefer it if there was no need for encoding but will take what there is. Thank you

[guns1inger]

If you have more than one, go and buy a new player. Seriously.

The process to change just a video from NTSC to PAL is complex enough. To do a whole disc is a pain in the arse. Much simpler to get a cheap multi-format player instead.

[redwudz]

A few framerate conversion guides: https://www.videohelp.com/convert#4;41 And if you wanted to keep the menus, it's a more complex task. If you aren't aware of it, many PAL DVD players can play NTSC discs.

[AlanHK]

a DVD player that only supports PAL.

Are you sure?

Just about all PAL DVD players can also play NTSC.

[jman98]

I really could not agree more with guns1inger. Unless this is something you will only do once or twice, it's not worth it. Note that menus can't easily, if at all, be converted between formats. I have never done a PAL <-> NTSC conversion so I have no idea what kind of effort is involved to convert menus, but others have said that it's not easy at all.

If you are doing this for a friend, girlfriend, family member who lives in a PAL country, you should be aware that almost all PAL DVD players are capable of converting NTSC video to PAL and that the vast majority of TV sets sold in PAL countries are actually multi-standard TV sets that can correctly display NTSC video if the DVD player somehow can't convert it to PAL. Your real problem may not be that you really have to convert the DVDs but that the person receiving the DVDs doesn't know what they are doing and doesn't have their TV, DVD player or both set up correctly. My ex-girlfriend lived in a PAL country and early on I set up her DVD player to send PAL video out for everything so that I could send her NTSC DVDs and they would just play correctly without her having to change any settings on her TV or DVD player. Her TV was multistandard, but it just seemed safer to set up the DVD player to display everything as PAL and that worked fine for everything I sent her to watch. DVD players that can't convert NTSC to PAL display do exist, but they are so rare that it's hard for us to believe that this is really the problem.

[thecrock]

Whenever I play NTSC on my PAL standalone I get flicker, especially in scenes where the camera pans. So I personally would re-encode.

[victoriabears]

I have had philips and now an oppo, no flicker, less heartache.

[guns1inger]

@thecrock - check your player settings. I have one player that produces poor output if it is set to convert the NTSC to PAL on the fly, but works fine if it is set to output native NTSC. I suspect yours is converting NTSC to PAL.

[Nilfennasion]

Exactly. If your display unit is multistandard like the vast majority sold in PAL countries nowadays, then the best way to feed it an NTSC signal is as an NTSC signal. It will sync up on its own. Just be aware that because of the framerate of NTSC, NTSC DVDs of films will always have somewhat jerky, uneven motion. The alternative when making a film run at NTSC's framerate is to have it running 25% faster, which cuts down the running time by 25%, and raises the pitch of the audio by slightly more than three tones (a voice in C becomes a voice in F and so on). So obviously the producers who transfer film to video in NTSC would prefer to just have the jerky motion and be done with it.

Hopefully in another ten years we will all have 24P video devices, and this will become a non-issue.

[fredfillis]

This worked for me to convert ntsc mpg to PAL for my parents in Oz. I have not tried to do an entire DVD. My stuff was all home video.

This script is for use with DGIndex and needs to be located in the DGIndex
folder.

The basic process to convert from 29.97i NTSC to 25i PAL is as follows.

1. Open the file(s) to be converted in DGIndex.

2. Go to Options->AVS Template and select the NTSC2PAL template.

3. Go to Audio->Output Method->Demux All Tracks

4. Go to File->Save Project

5. When finished, close DGIndex.

6. Open Hcenc

7. Click on the Input button and select the AVS script that DGIndex
generated.

8. Click on the Output button and enter a filename for the M2V output file.

9. If you want a log, click on the log button and set that up.

10. Select a profile (Fast, Normal or Best)

11. Select an Aspect Ratio.

12. Select Miscellaneous->Interlaced.

13. I've used AutoGOP but some recommend not using that and using "12-2" for
your GOP settings. See here:
<https://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?p=1614160#1614160>
https://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?p=1614160#1614160

14. Press Encode and come back in about an hour.

15. You should now have a shiny new PAL M2V file to marry up with the MPA
audio created at Step 4. Should try GUI for DVD Author to Author a DVD /
Create ISO etc.

Tada!

#NTSC2PAL 
#Template Script for use with DGIndex / AviSynth where the encoder is going to be HCenc
#Converts 29.97FPS interlaced to 25FPS interlaced and converts to PAL res.
mpeg2source("__vid__",cpu=6)
AssumeTFF() # or AssumeBFF()
LeakKernelBob(order=1) # or order=0
ChangeFPS(50)
LanczosResize(720,576)
SeparateFields()
SelectEvery(4, 0, 3)
Weave()
#ConvertToYUY2(Interlaced=True)#for CCE, change for other encoders

[guns1inger]

Actually, the speed difference between NTSC 23.976 and PAL is 4%. At 25% everyone would sound like chipmunks.