Making DVD with DVDit!

[sswingle]

Ok, so I have made movies before with DVDit! It is a very easy program, just import the video file and design your menus and such.

Well today I import a video file, and it says your source file is PAL and the project is set at NTSC. Please change your project to PAL for this video.

Well, thats not good, because if I make a PAL project, the disk won't play on my set top DVD player. It plays on the computer just fine though.

So could someone please tell me.

1. What IS the difference between PAL and NTSC.
2. Is there a program I can use to convert my video files from PAL to NTSC.
3. Why does my computer not care what the file is, yet the set top box refuses to play PAL.

I guess what really gets me is that I knew there was a difference, here in America we use NTSC, but in other countries, I dunno where though, they use PAL. I had no idea that an AVI file on the computer could be one or the other.

Thanks for any help!

 

[yukichigai]

Oooookay, allow me to 'splain:

PAL and NTSC are two differing television formats. PAL is used primarily in Europe, while NTSC is North America and (I think) Japan. The main difference is the framerates and resolutions: NTSC is 29.976 fps (or 23.976 for NTSC Film), whereas PAL is 25fps. PAL DVD/VCD/SVCD/CVD Video is a higher resolution than NTSC, (e.g. 720x480 NTSC vs. 720x576 PAL) but since it's also at a lower framerate the quality/bitrate ratio is roughly even.

The fact that your standalone player won't play PAL is curious to me, unless it gives you some kind of region error. (Which should be something you can change in DVDit's settings) A significant number of DVD players support NTSC <-> PAL conversion, though perhaps not perfectly. What player do you own?

My suggestion, honestly, is to get a better DVD player. Videohelp.com has a nice list of players that support format conversion, and many are in the area of $20. Sure, that's 2 months worth of ramen, but it's worth it.

If you aren't willing to do that, you could try converting with a program like TMPGEnc or even VirtualDub if DVDit will import non-MPEG files. There's no guarantee that the video won't come out stuttering or somewhat "blurred", but at least you'll be able to play it in your current player.

 

[sswingle]

I actually tried in two players. Mine is an old GE POS so that doesn't surprise me at all, but then I tried my Dad's new Panasonic progressive scan one and it wouldn't play either.

 

[Slick5150]

Oddly enough, with DVD players, it's generally the cheaper no-brand players that are more likely to be able to convert PAL->NTSC, as well as play an region DVD.

But the other poster is correct. Converting a PAL video to NTSC is really time consuming, and the results may not be great. It probably would be easier to just get a new DVD player that can do the conversion on the fly.

 

[glugglug]

Movies on the big screen are only 24FPS, which is closer to PAL than NTSC.

So it almost makes no sense to use NTSC, since all you are doing is reducing the resolution so you can duplicate every 5th frame to bring the frame rate up to 30Hz.

It is surprising that your DVD player would have an issue with a PAL video, I would have thought a lot of videos would have everything recorded at PAL rates even in the U.S. to maintain the best quality.

DVDx should be able to change the rate for you.

 

[yukichigai]

Originally posted by: glugglug
Movies on the big screen are only 24FPS, which is closer to PAL than NTSC.

So it almost makes no sense to use NTSC, since all you are doing is reducing the resolution so you can duplicate every 5th frame to bring the frame rate up to 30Hz.

NTSC Film is 23.976 fps. There is no 24fps format, at least anymore. 24fps is just a rounded-off version of NTSC Film.

However, movies are shot at a framerate such that they can be properly displayed at either 25fps or 23.976fps. How, I have no clue.

 

[VirtualLarry]

"NTSC film"? WTF? NTSC is a television video standard. Film is... film. The resolution is determined by the film-grain and size of stock used. Last time I knew, they were 24FPS, and displayed double-shuttered at 48FPS. If this were not true, then why would there be some special tweaks with PC DVD players to run at 72Hz display refresh rate, when viewing 24fps-encoded film content, so as to avoid the extranous 3:2 pulldown stuff, and be able to view film content at a consistent frame-rate? (This was apparently possible with the MPact-based DVD-playback boards, not sure how many other PC-based DVD playback solutions support this.)

Edit: Interestingly, "NTSC film" does exist, it appears to be a format created to adapt film source material to NTSC VCD format. As for the playback of 24fps film source material on PAL displays, check this out. Seems like a pretty simple and direct solution to me.
Another article, talking both about "PAL speedup" and "NTSC film slowdown". Film, and NTSC film are actually different speeds according to that article. Movie film is indeed 24fps, but the electronic encoding of such intended for playback on NTSC-format video displays apparently is what led them to create the hybrid "NTSC film" standard, in order to facilitate 3:2 pulldown.

 

[Allio]

I don't know how you can stand NTSC. I have NTSC and PAL copies of the Seinfeld DVDs and while my DVD player will play either, it can't convert from NTSC to PAL, so I have to watch it in native NTSC. The lower resolution looks absolutely terrible, you can clearly make out lines. It looks worse than TV.