PAL & NTSC

[JohnIrish]

I picked up a Thai DVD while traveling in Thailand. I am learning the language and appreciate the fact that I can have Thai Audio and English Subtitles. I expect to be traveling there again this spring and I would like more of these DVD's.

However.. my new Blu Ray Pan BD-35 will not play the DVD... wrong region. I put the DVD into my computer.. no problem. So it seems my nice new Blu Ray is not as good as my computer!

So.. I have been looking at modifying my Blu-Ray to play all region DVD's and even Blu Ray's.. but... after this modification... my TV may not display it correctly since the US is NTSC. How Confusing! This is a complicated modification with a new chip that must be wired inside the unit. I have also seen some programmable remotes that will make it all region DVD (but not blu Ray). At this time I am not concerned about Blu Ray. I could also buy an all region DVD player.

I am confused on the difference between PAL and NTSC for the US. If I place a PAL DVD in a modified player... it still may not display correctly? I see there are some All Region DVD players that can be bough but I am still not sure they would display correctly. My TV is a Samsung 52LNA650 (specs say the tuner is NTSC).

Another option is to use my TV as a monitor and us my Laptop to display the DVD on the TV.

Is there a recommended All Region DVD player that would work with my TV?

Any thoughts?

thanks

 

[bruceb]

You can try this:

ccording to the site Video Help, here's what you need to do with your remote control to make your player region free:

1. Turn on the player
2. Open the tray.
3. Press the following sequence on the remote: 7 8 9 OK 0
4. The number 0 will appear on the lower left side of your screen.
5. Your player is now region free! Put in a DVD and enjoy!

The site also adds this note: "The 0 in the sequence above represents the region code. 0 = region free. If you want to change your player to just a specific region code, replace the 0 with the region number you want. "

Try that, see if it works. Please note that any time you mess with these sort of devices, there's a chance things will get messed up. If that happens, cycle power or even unplug it overnight to reset it.

Or also check out videohelp.com

I have a Sony DV-NS715P that was sold as modded for Region Free, am in the US with NTSC Sony TV set.
I have not been able to try it with a European PAL DVD as I don't have any to test it with. If all else fails, you
can get ConvertXtoDVD put the dvd in a computer (use a utility to allow unlimited region changes on the pc drive)
and it will Convert your PAL DVD to NTSC format. Then just burn it to a new DVD and watch it on the regular
DVD player / TV .. Also look into this program: http://www.slysoft.com/en/anydvd.html

 

[LikeLinus]

NTSC is 720 x 480 and PAL 768x576. PAL also uses a 25 frame rate, while NTSC uses 29.97. NTSC video is lower in resolution than PAL video, but because the screen updates more frequently, motion is rendered better in NTSC video than it is in PAL video.

Most PAL DVD players will play NTSC content just fine. On the other hand, most all NTSC DVD players will not play PAL content. There are quite a few region free DVD players that can support PAL content. But, it's probably going to look a little odd because they image will need to be squished to fit within the NTSC format.

 

[techwanabe]

Can Sony PS3 be made to play PAL DVDs?

 

[Eug]

Originally posted by: LikeLinus
NTSC is 720 x 480 and PAL 768x576. PAL also uses a 25 frame rate, while NTSC uses 29.97. NTSC video is lower in resolution than PAL video, but because the screen updates more frequently, motion is rendered better in NTSC video than it is in PAL video.

Most PAL DVD players will play NTSC content just fine. On the other hand, most all NTSC DVD players will not play PAL content. There are quite a few region free DVD players that can support PAL content. But, it's probably going to look a little odd because they image will need to be squished to fit within the NTSC format.

A properly designed PAL-compatible NTSC DVD player will display PAL content with the proper aspect ratio for NTSC output. However, one has to make sure first it does actually do PAL --> NTSC conversion. Several region free players do both PAL and NTSC just fine, but won't convert back and forth.

 

[Oyeve]

Can't dvdshrink reauthor pal to ntsc?

 

[Eug]

Originally posted by: Oyeve
Can't dvdshrink reauthor pal to ntsc?

Lots of programs can do the conversion, but who wants to waste the time? With the appropriate DVD player, all you have to do is stick the disc in the player and press play.

 

[Oyeve]

Originally posted by: Eug

Originally posted by: Oyeve
Can't dvdshrink reauthor pal to ntsc?

Lots of programs can do the conversion, but who wants to waste the time? With the appropriate DVD player, all you have to do is stick the disc in the player and press play.

Cuz a blank cost pennies as opposed to the cost of HW?

 

[jacc1234]

What is the cost of your time worth? Re-encoding a dvd to the correct framerate and resolution can take hours which might or might not be worth it to you. It all depends on how many of these dvd's you will be watching.

 

[Oyeve]

Originally posted by: jacc1234
What is the cost of your time worth? Re-encoding a dvd to the correct framerate and resolution can take hours which might or might not be worth it to you. It all depends on how many of these dvd's you will be watching.

I guess, really depends on how many. I have done it a few times because the foreign movies played at a different framerate, but the conversion took about 20mins or so. Not that long, at elast to me. But I guess if you are talking a tons of discs then yeah, time it worth it.

 

[JohnIrish]

Thanks for the ideas..

I am going to first try DVDSHRINK... see what that program can do. Especially since I only have a couple of DVD's I want to play at this time.

I did see on another site where they used a Harmony One Remote to reprogram the player to accept all areas... I dont have that remote but I will be asking around to borrow one.

The method by bruceb, using the standard remote, did not work at all for me.

thanks!

 

[mpjkraak]

Why not get an internal (PC) BD reader (or R/W). Easy to make region free. You might have to reset region in some OS's (like XP) but that's minor once you know where to find it in the register. Within PC (videoplayer [not mediaplayer]) programs you can select either NTSC or PAL output.