pal or ntsc for dvd

[Allan Udy]

Hi all,

>The video signal stored on a DVD platter is the same all over the world.
>The DVD **player** contains circuits to read that one signal and
>convert it into the appropriate national TV signal standards.  So you
>just create a DVD, and it will play anywhere.

Perhaps my knowledge is limited, but my understanding is that this is 
NOT the case at all.

That is, for maximum compatibility, you should be creating NTSC 
format DVDs for NTSC-centric countries, and PAL format DVD's for 
PAL-centric countries.

The underlying signal stored on the DVD platter IS the same world 
over. However, this is the same as saying that a zip compressed 
archive is the same format the world over. It's true, but the content 
stored in one zip archive may be a Macintosh file, while in another 
it may be a Windows file.

The video signal stored on a DVD can be an NTSC signal, or it can be 
a PAL signal.

If you're lucky, your DVD player/TV combination may be able to play 
both with ease, and without requiring any other hardware etc. If 
you're unlucky, your player (and/or TV) may play only ONE of the 
formats -- specific to your country of origin.

For example, we have a Phillips DVD player which plays both PAL and 
NTSC disks. However, our TV set will only correctly play PAL video 
signals. In order to play NTSC DVD's we need to use an additional 
converter box that converts the NTSC signal to PAL, on the fly.

My understanding is that in the PAL world, many VCRs and DVD players 
are capable of handling NTSC video signals. But the converse may not 
be true -- that is, most NTSC native hardware may not be as happy to 
play PAL formats.

If you're shooting in PAL, you can relatively easily convert to NTSC 
by using the software 'DV Atlantis' (http://www.dvfilm.com) -- we've 
had good success using this software to convert our PAL footage to 
NTSC format, and then use DVD Studio Pro to create NTSC versions of 
our titles.

I thinking going from NTSC to PAL is a little more tricky -- not sure 
of what software is available.

Hope this helps,

Cheers,
Allan
Golden Micro Solutions (http://www.golden.co.nz)