Is this normal for PAL SVCD playback on an NTSC television?

[tastypoison]

I have been using WinDVD on my laptop to play SVCDs on my television, and everything was fine.

Today, I bought a standalone DVD player that will play SVCDs (Magnavox MDV450). The default TV setting on the Magnavox was "Multi" and I had to switch that to NTSC before I could play PAL SVCDs (otherwise I got a rolling black and white picture).

So, now the PAL SVCDs will play on the Magnavox, but the image is stretched out a bit horizontally (Peoples heads are wider than they should be ). I have tried all 3 video settings (Pan&Scan, Letterbox, and Widescreen) but nothing makes a difference. Everything looks normal if I play the same disks through WinDVD connected to the same TV.

So, is this the way all standalone DVD players will show a PAL video on an NTSC television? Or is it just the Magnavox? And if this IS what to expect from a standalone, why does WinDVD size the image properly?

Any info/advice would be appreciated. I have to decide if I am keeping the Magnavox or returning it.

Thanks.

[Psycho_Dad_Rules]

Hi,

This is "Normal". What causes this is, since your tv doesn't support PAL, the DVD-Player outputs a NTSC only signal. Because of the difference in resolution (and framerate) between NTSC and PAL, your are now playing a PAL 480x576 SVCD resized to NTSC 480x480 which means the 96 extra lines that PAL have are sqeezed into the 480 of the NTSC picture causing it to look different since the width is the same for both.

This is something which happens on all the DVD-players. The only solution would be to buy a Multi (PAL and NTSC) TV-set.

Hope this explains it to you.

Greetz,

pSyChO dAd

[tastypoison]

I appreciate the info, and your explanation makes sence, but why then does everything look normal while playing back with WinDVD software on the same television?

If all DVD players will display this way, I may reconsider this purchase. I much prefer the output I get from WinDVD.

It's just a hassle to hook up the laptop every time I want to watch an SVCD.


Edit - I am currently shopping for a new 32 inch television...Any advice on finding TV's that will display both PAL and NTSC ???