|
|
 
|
|
Author
|
Topic: PAL to NTSC on a region free player?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Stephen Furley
Film God
Posts: 3059
From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England
Registered: May 2002
|
posted 12-22-2007 03:12 AM
claude,
There are several separate issues here, which should not be confused. I'm afraid that there's no simple answer.
The first is the regional coding; Europe is region 2, and almost all feature film DVDs sold here are restricted to that region, so if you want to play them you will need a player that can play region 2 discs. A disc does not have to be one region or another; each region can be enabled or disabled independantly, so that a disc can be created to play in any combination of regions, or all regions. It would even be possible, though pretty pointless, to make a disc which would not play in any region. When you author a DVD the software presents you with a box for each region, and you just tick the ones where you want your disc to play. Some other types of materal, documentaries, music etc. are oftten enabled for all, regions, sometimes incorrectly described as region 0, or region free. Some discs are actually enabled for more regions than the symbol on the case indicates; I have several discs which claim to be region 2, but are actually 2 and 4.
Secondly, there is the so-called PAL/NTSC issue; more correctly an issue of 620/50 Vs. 525/60 line standards, since the video is stored in component form, and therefore does not use either colour system, but let's call them PAL and NTSC to simplify things. Broadcast TV here is PAL, as are most DVDs sold here, but not all. Some material produced for worldwide use is in NTSC format. For example, I have a couple of IMAX films on DVD, purchased here, which are in NTSC format. As far as I am aware, all players that can play PAL discs can also play NTSC ones (somebody will probably come up with some odd model which can't, but they should all be able to), but the reverse is not the case; not all NTSC players can play PAL discs, so if you have a NTSC player, it may, or may not, play the disc. Cheaper players seem to be more likely to play PAL discs than more expensive ones.
Thirdly, there's the issue of whether your television can accept the signals that the player would produce. The vast majority of players when playing a PAL disc will output 625/50 video; there are a few which contain standards converters, which can convert it to 525/60, but they are rare. Your television may, or may not, be able to handle this standard. Most European sets sold in the last 10-15 years can also handle 525/60, but I'm not sure to what extent the reverse is true.
Lastly, there's the issue of colour standards, and this probably won't be a problem. The video is stored in component form, and if you output component or RGB signals to the television there's no problem. If you need to feed either composite or S-video signals then the player encodes these internally. Most players here will encode 625/50 as PAL, and 525/60 as NTSC, by default, but can be switched to do otherwise. I don't know about your equipment, but as I said, it's only an issue if you're using composite or S-video. My television is about 17 years old; it can take 525/60, but will not handle NTSC colour; no problem, I feed it with RGB via a SCART socket.
There used to be a possible complication with sound; the original intention was that PAL discs would use MPEG sound, and NTSC would use Dolby Digital, but this was changed early on, and almost all discs now use Dolby. If there is any sound on a NTSC disc, then at least one stream has to be in Dolby Digital or PCM format; on a PAL disc the standard allows for a disc to have only MPEG sound, and a few discs were produced like this, I have a couple. All PAL players can handle this, but not all NTSC oes can, though most do. These days the only place you're likely to see a disc with only MPEG audio is something produced with some of the very cheap home DVD authoring programs, but even this is not as common as it used to be.
The regional coding issue will probably be a problem if you want to buy feature films, and may or may not be for other material.
The difference in video standards may be a problem, but will depend on the equipment which you have. A simple way around this is to play the disc on a computer with a DVD-ROM drive; this will have no problem with playing either type. The regional coding issue still remains however. For several yars now all new DVD drives for computers have been supplied not set for any region. The first time you play a disc which is restricted to certain regions it asks if you want to set the drive to that region. If you then try to play a disc from a different region, then it will ask if you want to change the drive to that region. You can only chance it five times, after that it is permanently locked. However, the drives are now very cheap; I have two in the machine I am using at the moment, one set for region 2, and the other for region 1. I also have an external drive, that I can connect via USB or firewire, which is set for region 4. Between them, these will play every disc that I have, though the vast majority are region 2.
The speed-up with PAL affects material transferred to that format from 24 fps film, not television material shot on PAL video, or on film at 25 fps. I don't notice it, though other people do. On the other hand, I do notice the artifacts of 3:2 pulldown on 24 fps film transferred to NTSC video. I think it's probably a matter of getting used to whichever you see most of the time, but noticing the problems with the other.
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
Leo Enticknap
Film God
Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000
|
posted 12-22-2007 07:00 AM
quote: Stephen Furley
Secondly, there is the so-called PAL/NTSC issue; more correctly an issue of 620/50 Vs. 525/60 line standards, since the video is stored in component form, and therefore does not use either colour system...
The colour encoding is the same, but there is a difference in the way the frames are encoded. If I remember correctly:
PAL = 720 x 576 / 25fps
NTSC = 640 x 480 / 30fps
Therefore the slightly lower resolution frame offsets the higher bitrate, meaning that the bandwidth generated by both is pretty much identical.
The issues that Stephen explained boil down, in practice, to whether or not your multi-region player will output a true NTSC signal from a PAL disc, or whether it will just spit out the PAL signal as-is. If the latter, your TV will need to be able to handle a PAL input. If not, any old TV will do.
I wouldn't anticipate your having much problem with the region issue, though. There's a downloadable hack available for just about every player under the sun. Just Google the model number and 'region free' (I'd suggest doing this before buying the player, just to be safe), and something will almost certainly come up. Sometimes you apply the hack by burning it onto a disc and then inserting the disc in the player; on others it's just a case of typing a code into the remote controller.
My theory is that the player manufacturers would cheerfully like to get rid of region coding, but their deal with the Hollywood studios prevents them from doing so. So they obey the letter of the agreement, but deliberately make their players very easy to unlock, and sort of accidentally-on-purpose make sure that the instructions to do it enter the public domain. Given that unlocking the iPhone involves soldering and all sorts of faffing like that, I'm sure the player manufacturers could give us more of a challenge if they wanted to!
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
All times are Central (GMT -6:00)
|
|
Powered by Infopop Corporation
UBB.classicTM
6.3.1.2
The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion
and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.
|
Home
Printer-friendly view of this topic