Re NTSC TV's and hacked DVD player

[Katiemay]

Either his player wasn't really region free, or it was one of the few European players that couldn't play NTSC. Or maybe his player could play NTSC but it was set output an NTSC signal, or a PAL 60 signal, which his TV couldn't sinc to.

jagabo probably hit the nail on the head. The DVD player is almost certainly region free and will be able to play both PAL and NTSC discs. However, you remember ealier in the thread there was mention of setting the output from the DVD player to PAL, NTSC or AUTO? By default they are usually set to AUTO. In this case they output whatever format the disc is. In AUTO, play a PAL DVD nad it outputs PAL, play an NTSC DVD and it outputs NTSC. Now with most TVs this wouldn't be a problem but......

We are talking about a Goodmans here. Goodmans is a brand that used to be a traditional British owned company, now it is a name applied to the cheapest, nastiest, bottom of the pile TVs in production and only made for the UK market. Consequently, they are, or at least were, about the only brand of TV you could buy that couldn't deal with NTSC. I mean, to be able to cope with an NTSC input might have involved an additional 3 or 4 components and would have increased production cost by 10p or so. Just not worth the extra expenditure!

Had he changed the output setting on his DVD player to PAL, it would have worked!

Jagabo gave a few possibilities, which part hit the nail on the head?

I remembered it was a Goodman TV when visiting their house when in Scotland 3 years ago. I stayed with them for a week and watched the TV every evening. It was a widescreen TV. I thought it was a pretty nice TV with a nice clear, sharp picture with good colours. Maybe it was a high end Goodman, LOL. But you describe the TV make quite differently.

So you are saying that if my friend had set his DVD player to PAL it would have played the Region 1 disc OK? But if the TV was any other make except a Goodman, setting it to AUTO would have worked with a Region 1 disc?. If it was me, I would have tried all the settings in the menu -PAL/NTSC/AUTO or maybe he did. I wasn't there when he tried the Region 1 disc.

[guns1inger]

If the DVD player is set to Auto it will output PAL from a PAL disc, and NTSC from an NTSC disc. If the TV is capable of playing an NTSC signal, this is not a problem. If the TV is not capable of playing an NTSC signal then the DVD player must be set to PAL so that it outputs a PAL (or pseudo-PAL) signal when playing NTSC discs.

[Katiemay]

If the DVD player is set to Auto it will output PAL from a PAL disc, and NTSC from an NTSC disc. If the TV is capable of playing an NTSC signal, this is not a problem. If the TV is not capable of playing an NTSC signal then the DVD player must be set to PAL so that it outputs a PAL (or pseudo-PAL) signal when playing NTSC discs.

Several things need to be taken into account it seems. Thanks.

[Richard_G]

I remembered it was a Goodman TV when visiting their house when in Scotland 3 years ago. I stayed with them for a week and watched the TV every evening. It was a widescreen TV. I thought it was a pretty nice TV with a nice clear, sharp picture with good colours. Maybe it was a high end Goodman, LOL. But you describe the TV make quite differently.

There is no such thing as a high end Goodmans. It has not been possible to buy a non-widescreen TV over here for a number of years and what you saw was a standard PAL picture. Most people who are used to watching NTSC are astounded at the quality when they see standard definition PAL. For us, that is normal.

[Katiemay]

There is no such thing as a high end Goodmans. It has not been possible to buy a non-widescreen TV over here for a number of years and what you saw was a standard PAL picture. Most people who are used to watching NTSC are astounded at the quality when they see standard definition PAL. For us, that is normal.

I really can't say I saw any difference between the PAL picture on the Goodmans TV compared to my own 6 year old 27" NTSC Hitachi TV (not widescreen). Of course, I wasn't looking for differences. I liked the look of the LCD WS though. They are popular where I live, so are plasma. LCD's have come down in price. I've heard and read that PAL has more lines of resolution than NTSC making it better picture quality than NTSC. Maybe my friends TV was not the best PAL picture because of the TV make, though I thought it was a good picture, but compared to my Hitachi, which is good quality, they looked much the same.The PAL DVD's I played would be converted to NTSC when I used the hack, so they would look the same as my NTSC DVD's.When I write to my friend, I till tell him if he wants to play a Region 1 DVD, to set his DVD player to PAL if he's still interested.

[Katiemay]

Thanks to everyone for the help and input. I learned a lot.