Questions about buying region 2 DVDs / PAL speed up

[michelleny]

Hi! Wasn't sure where else to go to ask these questions, so will hopefully find some luck here. I have some questions about buying region 2 DVDs (I'm in Canada). No matter how much research I do on this stuff it seems I'm just not getting it, so please, speak to me like I'm an idiot. 😄

1. What exactly is it that causes the speed up? Is it just like that on the discs, or is it whatever player and/or TV you use? Is it sped up for people who live in these places too (like the UK), or do their TVs/players prevent that?

2. If so, is their any way that I could prevent that, other than use a computer? If I had to buy a new DVD player, Blu-ray player, and/or TV. I've seen that not all TVs will even play PAL discs? Not an issue for me right now. I was able to make my little DVD player region free from a code I found online, and my TVs pretty basic, but it's all working fine. I already have one region 2 DVD, it plays, looks really good, and that's how I found out about this speed up thing. Could tell the voices were different. I've read stuff about Blu-rays not having this problem. What do people mean by that- that Blu-ray discs don't have this problem, or Blu-ray players? because then maybe I could just get a region free Blu-ray player (since they can also play DVDs) and this wouldn't be a problem? I also read somewhere (maybe it was here on reddit, I don't remember) that someone had a DVD player that they could adjust the speed on, so they could tune it until it sounded the way they wanted? Is that really a thing?

3. If I wanted to get this, which for those who don't know is both a US and UK show, was shot in both places but mainly the UK, and aired in both countries - sometimes a season would premiere earlier in the UK than the US, other times US was first - what could I expect? Like if the way the BBC aired it was sped up, could that be the same way people saw it on Showtime, or would they have had their own versions of the episodes? because if it's the same then I've only ever seen it sped up, and the DVD won't sound different to me. This is all so dumb. (and I know there are American releases of this show, I just like this complete series set, which was only released in region 2)

4. I'm hoping to get some region 4 stuff soon too. Is this also an issue there?

Sorry if these are all stupid questions with obvious answers. Would really appreciate some help.

[DB83]

1. Pal Speed up occurs when a film shot at 24 fps is encoded for a Pal Dvd at 25 fps. So, as you noticed, there can be a detectable change of audio pitch on the Pal disk. No Pal player can correct this but many people over here can not detect the change in audio (or have become accustomed to it)


2. Blu Rays are different since typically they are encoded at 24 fps the same as the film.


3. This series is relatively recent. I would not be surprised to find it was actually shot on video so speed-up would not apply if shot in the UK at 25 fps. The US version might have simply converted from 25 fps to 29.97 fps so there will not be any audio difference.


4. Region 4 is typically for Australia which is also Pal and speed-up can also apply as for answer 1.

[johnmeyer]

To get the PAL video to play at the right speed AND to get it to play on NTSC equipment:

1. Rip the disc to the computer.

2. Change the playback speed of the video from 25 to 23.976 fps. Do this with software that simply re-times the playback speed without adding or deleting any frames.

3. Change the playback speed of the audio to match the video. You will have to decide if the pitch was changed when the video was sped up, or if it was pitched corrected when that speedup was done. Once you figure that out, you either change the pitch, or you don't.

P.S. Most modern North American TV sets are perfectly happy playing 25 fps material. You could put the video onto a thumb drive and then play that directly from the USB port on your TV.

[michelleny]

1. Pal Speed up occurs when a film shot at 24 fps is encoded for a Pal Dvd at 25 fps. So, as you noticed, there can be a detectable change of audio pitch on the Pal disk. No Pal player can correct this but many people over here can not detect the change in audio (or have become accustomed to it)


2. Blu Rays are different since typically they are encoded at 24 fps the same as the film.


3. This series is relatively recent. I would not be surprised to find it was actually shot on video so speed-up would not apply if shot in the UK at 25 fps. The US version might have simply converted from 25 fps to 29.97 fps so there will not be any audio difference.


4. Region 4 is typically for Australia which is also Pal and speed-up can also apply as for answer 1.

Thank you so much!

[johns0]

Best to listen to the audio before you do any conversions,if it sounds right do nothing but just rip and play,if the audio does sound high pitched(any pal dvd i listen to sounds high pitched)then load the file in tsmuxer and change the video from 25 to 23.976 fps,then convert the audio in eac3to from 25 to 23.976 fps then mux the changed video with the converted audio and output to mkv with mkvmerge.