Attention TV Engineers - NTSC / PAL Question

[Turntable]

I have recently sent a DVD I recorded and produced to my girlfriend who is currently in England. However, while in the shower this evening it suddenly dawned on me that her region of the world uses PAL, NOT NTSC! Ouch!

Will she be able to view my DVD? I know that some sets in the UK do support both, but what about the DVD players? If it can't be viewed on a TV with a standard DVD player, then will she at least be able to view it on her computer?

Thanks for any answers or suggestions you can give...

-A

 

[Andy_Brown]

I have recently sent a DVD I recorded and produced to my girlfriend who is currently in England. However, while in the shower this evening it suddenly dawned on me that her region of the world uses PAL, NOT NTSC! Ouch!

Will she be able to view my DVD? I know that some sets in the UK do support both, but what about the DVD players? If it can't be viewed on a TV with a standard DVD player, then will she at least be able to view it on her computer?

Thanks for any answers or suggestions you can give...

-A

Two issues. PAL being the first, but even with NTSC compatible players, the region code may prevent playback.

DVD players and DVDs are labeled for operation on within a specific geographical region in the world. For example, the U.S. is in region 1. This means that all DVD players sold in the U.S. are made to region 1 specifications. As a result, region 1 players can only play region 1 discs. That's right, the DVDs themselves are encoded for a specific region. On the back of each DVD package, you will a find a region number (1 thru 6).

The geographical regions are as follows:

REGION 1 -- USA, Canada
REGION 2 -- Japan, Europe, South Africa, Middle East, Greenland
REGION 3 -- S.Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Parts of South East Asia
REGION 4 -- Australia, New Zealand, Latin America (including Mexico)
REGION 5 -- Eastern Europe, Russia, India, Africa
REGION 6 -- China
REGION 7 -- Reserved for Unspecified Special Use
REGION 8 -- Resevered for Cruise Ships, Airlines, etc...
REGION 0 or REGION ALL -- Discs are uncoded and can be played Worldwide, however, PAL discs must be played in a PAL-compatible unit and NTSC discs must be played in an NTSC-compatible unit.

The end result is that DVDs encoded for regions other than Region 1 cannot be played on a region 1 DVD player, also, players marketed for other regions cannot play region 1-stamped DVDs.


http://hometheater.about.com/cs/dvdlaserdisc/a/aaregioncodesa.htm

 

[Turntable]

The disc is a DVD-R that I burned. It would not be region encoded. The real question in this case is, what is the likelihood she will be able to play the disc on the standard consumer equipment for that country? Or can it be played on a computer?

Thanks,

-A

 

[Andy_Brown]

The disc is a DVD-R that I burned. It would not be region encoded. The real question in this case is, what is the likelihood she will be able to play the disc on the standard consumer equipment for that country? Or can it be played on a computer?

Thanks,

-A

The standard consumer equipment in the United Kingdom is PAL. However, almost all DVD players sold in PAL countries play both kinds of discs, so the answer to question 2 is probably yes. The answer to question 1 is yes if it is a multi-standard player.

http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html#1.19

 

[HD_Ready]

perhaps she can watch it in a computer?

 

[SirRoxalot]

Digital vs. Analog

PAL and NTSC are analog standards that the TV set must adhere to. The data on the DVD is digital. The digital formats are usually 720P or 1080i. The DVD player must convert the digital data to an analog standard IF you use the analog output and plug it into an analog TV.

The DVD player should play any properly-encoded DVD, as should the computer. As explained above, there are region codes for pre-packaged DVDs, but any that you burned yourself should be in a standard format - DVD+R, DVD-R, DVD-ROM, DVD-RAM, etc.

As long as her player can play the standard DVD format that you used to encode the data, the DVD player should convert the output to either PAL or NTSC correctly.

 

[Turntable]

Awesome! That's what I wanted to know.

I'll know for sure if the package ever gets there!!! Takes about 2 weeks unless you want to plunk down 80 bucks for fast shipping...

Thanks.

-A

 

[jesseg]

80 bucks? holy crap that's expensive. i've overnighted letters to London, through DHL, for less than 30 bucks. a few days sould be even cheaper. of course, that could be because we have an account that's used a lot, not sure.