Pal/ntsc

[H & M Video]

Recently I have viewed 2 DVD's which are advertised as being compatible with both PAL & NTSC systems. My DVD's have separate PAL and NTSC DVD's and sometimes can cause a bit of a problem when a tourist takes a PAL version back to the USA or Canada.

I have seen a double sided DVD with PAL on one side and NTSC on the other but how can both systems exist on the same single sided disk?

Harry

[mooblie]

My money's on this: it's an NTSC disc, which is playable in:

- all computers, and
- all set-top players (NTSC or PAL) (assuming the set-top PAL player is connected to a relatively recent "PAL" set which will display an NTSC signal - i.e. post 2000?).

Can you drop a VOB file into a media-descriptor application, like Media Info Mac, or a Windows equivalent - see what it says?

[Rob James]

Originally Posted by mooblie

My money's on this: it's an NTSC disc, which is playable in:

- all computers, and
- all set-top players (NTSC or PAL) (assuming the set-top PAL player is connected to a relatively recent "PAL" set which will display an NTSC signal - i.e. post 2000?).

Can you drop a VOB file into a media-descriptor application, like Media Info Mac, or a Windows equivalent - see what it says?

Windows equivalent is G-Spot.

[colinb]

I have seen a double sided DVD with PAL on one side and NTSC on the other but how can both systems exist on the same single sided disk?

PAL and NTSC can exist on the same disk provided they are in different VTS's, although strictly speaking this probably isn't exactly to the DVD specs. I've made a couple of DVDs in the past which play consecutive PAL clips, then an NTSC clip, then PAL clips again. The player just switches the output field rate and provided the TV can handle it it looks fine.

[H & M Video]

I would agree with Martin that the DVD is probably a NTSC one and it plays on our system. A good bit of marketing by the USA producers knowing that our hardware is usually built to be compatible with NTSC. Now if the boot was on the other foot

Harry

[steve]

Originally Posted by colinb

PAL and NTSC can exist on the same disk provided they are in different VTS's, although strictly speaking this probably isn't exactly to the DVD specs. I've made a couple of DVDs in the past which play consecutive PAL clips, then an NTSC clip, then PAL clips again. The player just switches the output field rate and provided the TV can handle it it looks fine.

So how do you display the menu to allow the user to select the right standard?

Steve

[mooblie]

Originally Posted by steve

So how do you display the menu to allow the user to select the right standard?

You don't offer such a menu. When I made an (illegal!) DVD with both PAL and NTSC chapters, I think the home menus were specified as being PAL (although I could have chosen NTSC), and there was a sync-bounce onscreen if you selected an NTSC chapter, and another bounce if you switched back to a PAL menu or PAL chapter.

The DVD player doesn't need to be told whether it's PAL or NTSC, and the TV will just bounce on switchover.

(If you're a Mac user, DVDSP 1.5 and earlier will allow you to mix PAL+NTSC on one disc. Later versions of DVDSP throw a foul if you try (to comply with the DVD spec: strictly, it's illegal to mix formats).

[H & M Video]

So will it be possible to have a Play PAL or NTSC selection link? This would mean have two formats on the same disk. I use Encore so I don't think that software would allow a "mix & match".

Harry

[mooblie]

Not necessary, surely? Just make a wholly NTSC disc, and claim it's "compatible with both systems" like your American producer did?

[colinb]

Not necessary, surely? Just make a wholly NTSC disc, and claim it's "compatible with both systems" like your American producer did?

Probably the best approach.

I've encountered a couple of popular commercial DVDs sold un UK shops which were NTSC, but they play OK.

I guess you could produce a disk with the same material encoded twice - once in PAL and once in NTSC - but I doubt it's necessary. (Not sure which you would choose for the root menu anyway).

If for any reason you do need to have NTSC and PAL on the same disk, I would strongly recommend that they be put into separate VTS's. It's simple in DVD Lab Pro to link across VTS's so that playback can continue back and forth between each VTS with just a second or two gap at the junction. If you put PAL and NTSC in the same VTS it can confuse some players which assume that all of the material in a VTS has the same video and audio properties, resulting in scrambled video or silent audio for clips whose properties differ.