Why can't I find a cheap PAL to NTSC converter?

[Gideon30]

Just curious why I can't find a simple cheap converter from PAL to NTSC for Like $40-50. I would think that if some cheaper model DVD players have the feature, and you can find some NTSC to PAL models for $50, that you could find the reverse, but all I see are ones for $300+. Any ideas?

[Gideon30]

On a related note, how much time is involved for the process of converting the .dat file to .mpg, and then converting the file to ntsc format with software?

[vanillabox]

I just converted JP3 from PAL by converting the *.dat to *.MPG (10min for 2 disks) and then converted the MPEG to ntsc MPEG (highest motion estimation) 4hours total.

[patrickm]

PAL VCDs work well in many NTSC DVD players outputting to NTSC TV. or are you doing something more complicated? the time for PAL-NTSC conversion isn't a big deal as much as the quality loss of re-encoding the already heavily compressed video.

[Gideon30]

I have a Philips DVD player that won't run the PAL VCD's at all. I can run them fine through my Geforce 3 video out since PowerDVD/WinDVD converts to NTSC, but if I want to watch out in the living room on the Philips, I can't. 4 hrs seems too to be too much trouble as I might as well just watch them through the pc dvd, and save the time.