NTSC or PAL?

[lordsmurf]

Nothing to do with analog PAL or analog NTSC

My comment was about the burning of a disc -- which applies regardless of NTSC or PAL content.
Burned discs are less playable than pressed ones.

[VenusAndMars]

Gad am I glad I don't do video editing for a living. Way back there on page 1 I, fool, posted what I then thought was a pretty straightforward question.

Now, 32 posts and 3 1/2 days later, I have yet to get a simple, unequivocal answer... Oh, well.

[lordsmurf]

That's because there isn't a simple answer.
Video is complex.

Like women. (i.e. Women are From Venus, Men are From Mars)

[jagabo]

maybe a player made for the US market can play PAL-coded DVD's?... I have yet to get a simple, unequivocal answer

Yes you have. Some USA NTSC players play PAL, some don't. Even Smurf, who suggested making a PAL DVD, admits some players won't play PAL. Making an NTSC DVD is the safest option.

[VenusAndMars]

You're right, I lost track among all the ifs, buts, howevers and therefores. I will still make several DVD's differently coded though, as the price of postage to the U.S. one way is probably several times the price of the discs and my time (I get 35¢ an hour).

[edDV]

You're right, I lost track among all the ifs, buts, howevers and therefores. I will still make several DVD's differently coded though, as the price of postage to the U.S. one way is probably several times the price of the discs and my time (I get 35¢ an hour).

What I do in business situations (mostly the other direction NTSC->PAL) is send both.

In your case, ask them to try the PAL disc first for better quality. If that doesn't work, try the NTSC disc.

[VenusAndMars]

Yes, I will send two, maybe three discs coded differently to cover all possibilities. This is no business situation - I'm making the DVD for my brother. Trying PAL first seems like a good idea since, if it works, I won't have to keep track of settings this way and that; I just put together a DVD, standard procedure.

I can do that. I learned it here, on videohelp.com

[lordsmurf]

PAL for quality. NTSC for compatibility. See which works.
Use good discs, to address burn issues.

Hopefully you're using good software, too. Those details appear to be missing.

[jagabo]

PAL for quality. NTSC for compatibility.

This isn't necessarily true on the screen of an NTSC TV. A PAL disc may have more resolution but the DVD player will convert to NTSC specs for SD analog transmission. It may do a poorer job of downscaling and frame rate conversion than one can do in software. An upscaling player may avoid the downscaling problem but may still do a poor frame rate conversion.

[VenusAndMars]

Hopefully you're using good software, too. Those details appear to be missing.

No, I said in the first post that I use AVStoDVD, and that's for DVD authoring. Also, I use DVDFlick for that. For any video editing I use AVIDemux and AVStoDVD.
I'm open to suggestions though. But the software's gotta be menu-driven, easy to use and yield excellent results without my really trying because I'm a lazy, lazy guy...