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New Guide:PAL video to NTSC video conversion

16 March 2009 12:53 by Rich "vurbal" Fiscus | 10 comments

If you happen to live in the land of NTSC television, primarily North and Central America, you may have experience the frustration of trying to play video from other parts of the world. Maybe you got a black and white picture that seemed to "roll," or perhaps you didn't get any picture at all.

HDTVs are able to handle both NTSC and PAL video, regardless of where they are sold. But that doesn't mean there isn't still a need for good PAL to NTSC conversions.

A lot of HDTV owners still have analog TVs in use for one purpose or another. And of course some people still don't have a HDTV at all.

If you are one of the millions of people who have one of these NTSC TVs and want to watch PAL video you should take a look at our new guide on the subject.

The guide, titled Convert PAL Video to NTSC describes several methods for converting between the two standards. If you use Nero Recode or TMPGenc Xpress you'll find a section on each. If you don't use (or want to use) either one check out the instructions for using AviSynth.

There's also a section on using pulldown flags, much like the way standard film-based DVDs are authored for NTSC.

You can find this, and many other articles in our Guides section.

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Discuss this article!
72morgan (Senior Member) 16 March 2009 13:29
Is this really necessary??? Most DVD players are coming from China. They are not advertised as being able to play NTSC and Pal discs but they do. Even the old Apex`s played both. They made one player for both markets , just labelled them differently. I have an Inoi HV-670 that plays everything , and their latest Argosy MH720 supports Pal. Why Bother converting, why waste your time?????? http://www.inoi.com/English/MH720.asp [ + quote] This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 16 March 2009 13:30
attar (AfterDawn Addict) 16 March 2009 13:41
It's not just the PAL/NTSC thing - it's also Region coding. Unless the PAL disk is ripped and burned - it has the region coding and three of my players honour Region coding - so I can't play the original. The Philips is the only one that I can hack to be Region free and play the original disk. [ + quote]
Fiji5555 (Junior Member) 16 March 2009 20:36
I used ConvertXtoDVD to convert from PAL to NTSC and it worked great. It reads the IFO and VOB files with no problems and does the job fast. Note that is doesn't open Image files so you'll have to extract the files using a program like POWER ISO. [ + quote]
domie (Member) 17 March 2009 8:20
It's been at least 15 years since I had an issue with PAL or NTSC playback issues - I think every concievable player and TV on the larket supports both now. Region coding on the other hand, is an entirely different kettle of fish and depends more on the actual manufacturer rather than the age of the player. Sony ( at times ) JVC (always) and others still play the stupid region lock the player game... I consider this more idiotic than any DRM measure because it prevents yo from watching legally purchased discs on certain players and kind of undermines the idea of a global market - more like reinforces protectionism ! Thankfully AnyDVD etc puts those silly companies to bed and renders their region code enforcement policy as pointless anyway. [ + quote]
bsnizzle (Newbie) 17 March 2009 16:26
I would make it region free, go to dvdidle.com, free stuff and download freedvd only 43k and removes all region content and uops protection.(Navigation lockups like making you watch FBI warnings and not being able to access the menu when you press the button) [ + quote] This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 25 March 2009 23:07
ranosb (Junior Member) 21 March 2009 22:16
The problem with most DVD players that can handle both Pal & NTSC is playing Pal on at ntsc system will render playback with noticable flicker, esp in scences with a white/lite color background. ConvertXtoDvd does convert Pal to Ntsc but I noticed CHOPPY playback of the dvd... [ + quote]
pmshah (Newbie) 22 March 2009 1:37
*Originally posted by attar:* It's not just the PAL/NTSC thing - it's also Region coding. Unless the PAL disk is ripped and burned - it has the region coding and three of my players honour Region coding - so I can't play the original. The Philips is the only one that I can hack to be Region free and play the original disk. Here in India we have such brands as Sony, Panasonic, Philips, Samsung and LG along with a host of other Chinese brand being sold. Supposedly they are region coded but every piece sold is hacked ( a very simple procedure) to be region free and plays everything under the sky. These are also Dual voltage 120/240 v - 50/69 Hz compatible. BTW for over 10 years now all the TVs sold are both NTSC and PAL compatible, automatically. [ + quote]
pmshah (Newbie) 22 March 2009 1:58
*Originally posted by ranosb:* The problem with most DVD players that can handle both Pal & NTSC is playing Pal on at ntsc system will render playback with noticable flicker, esp in scences with a white/lite color background. ConvertXtoDvd does convert Pal to Ntsc but I noticed CHOPPY playback of the dvd... The whole idea of Pal and NTSC was originally based on interlaced analog TVs which derived their vertical scan triggers from the mains power supply - 50 Hz for most countries and 60 Hz for north America. What one must have is what we have here in India. TVs and region free DVD players which can handle both formats natively. Adding 5 extra frames every second can never be a very smooth watching experience. [ + quote]
LionelS (Junior Member) 24 March 2009 23:02
Do you mean they have colour tv there. I saw a documentary that showed most population are rural areas and have old bulky square black and white tv's. If you have all these big brand dvds I guess must be a big market for the Bollywood movies on dvd. [ + quote]
Arniceous (Newbie) 8 August 2009 16:54
DVD Decrypter & ConvertXtoDVD problem solved. [ + quote]