Philips DVD724AT PAL to NTSC conversion

[hardwork12]

I am just starting to use my Philips DVD724AT so not ready to rate yet as I need to make sure I know what I am doing so I do not opost in the compatibility area things that are incorrect.

There were a few ther that state that the unit can not handle PAL to NTSC convertion. If this a valid test than my unit Manufactured August 2002 does convert and works perfectly.

I downloaded the PAL SCVD example from the following link (from the tools on the left) http://www.vcdhelp.com/svcd.htm#sample

I burned using the *.CUE file and VCDeasy.

There is a setting in the set-up menu of the philips DVD player for MULTI/NTSC/PAL and is set according to the TV that is hooked up. MULTI for PAL/NTSC compatible. NTSC for mine which is NTSC only and PAL for PAL only.

The NTSC works perfectly for the PAL sample I generated above as well as any DVD I put in or NTSC encoded SVCD, VCD, CVD. So the converter for PAL to NTSC for this unit appears to work just fine. What I did find is that if you use the setting PAL or MULTI for an NTSC only TV then I get mis-converged video amoung other video artifacts like out of focus. As long as the output with this setting is forced to NTSC then it wotks fine PAL or NTSC SCVD's.

[yg1968]

That has also been my experience. The unit can be made to be region free but it squishes PAL DVD if you play it on an NTSC TV.

[SingSing]

Online VCD venders claimed that you cannot notice the "squish" from 625 to 525. I think you are right, I saw actual "NBA" games boardcast on PAL TV and the players were stretched from 7 feet to 8 feet.

I did not see this "squish" with my Japanese made player, so it must be using rescaling instead of squish.

[yg1968]

I was talking about PAL DVDs not VCDs.

I have mentioned this before but most DVD players that can do the PAL to NTSC conversion cannot do the anamorphic 16:9 to 4:3 conversion at the same time. In other words, a PAL DVD image becomes slightly stretched. You will notice it when you see round shapes and people appear somewhat skinnier than they should be. Many DVD players that can do the PAL to the NTSC conversion and that can be region hacked suffer from this problem. For example, the Apex-1500, Apex-1100, Prima-1500, and Philips DVD-724 suffer from this problem. All these models do not have re-scaling capability. I have tested all these models with a PAL DVD and they all had this streched image problem when playing a PAL DVD on an NTSC TV. Apparently, one of the few models that does not have this problem is the Malata.

See this forum for more information on this:

http://www.nerd-out.com/forum/

[SingSing]

Oh, sorry, I was following the thread that hardwork 12 was using PAL SVCD as verification.

So, are you saying "squishing" is mostly a PAL DVD only problem, but not PAL VCD on NTSC players ?

[yg1968]

I meant PAL DVD not VCD or SVCD. I imagine that they do not have this anamorphic conversion issue. So you are right about VCDs and SVCDs.

[SingSing]

Are there any problems playing full screen PAL DVD on these players ?

Most users go "multi-region" because they want to watch movies that are not availabled locally ? or there is enough different in cost of the DVD ?

[yg1968]

Given that most European TVs are widescreen, I don't think that they have full screen versions in Europe (4:3). Anyways, I personally prefer widescreen. See these links for more info:

http://www.area450.com/thesampozone/troubleshooting/anamorphicpal.htm

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/editorial/bz100298.html

http://www.divx.com/support/guides/guide.php?gid=12

http://www.dvdangle.com/articles/dvd_101/050801.html

[SingSing]

Given that most European TVs are widescreen.

I am calling Hotel guide to drop that Holiday Inn's rating in Paris to "one star".