DVDs and DVD players/drives

[wiggins]

Hi! Does anyone know whether PAL DVDs can play on NTSC DVD players? Can someone tell me what DVD formats and regions can play on what DVD players/drives? Thanks!

[shooraijin]

If you have your DVD player connected to an NTSC television, you can only play NTSC DVDs; likewise, connected to a PAL TV, only PAL DVDs. Your computer, however, doesn't care.

There are tables of DVD region codes out there. I don't know/remember where you live, but Region 1 is USA and Canada, Region 2 (NTSC) is Japan, ... Some DVDs may be multiple regions or may be 'open' and playable on any region. Other DVDs may have PAL and NTSC streams on the same disc which allows you to play one disc anywhere if it's open, which are nice (but unfortunately rare). The label will state the region code.

[wiggins]

so... a pal dvd can play in a ntsc computer drive?

[shooraijin]

Computer DVD drives are neither inherently NTSC nor PAL -- that's just a television standard. They're just data drives. As long as your computer's DVD player is in the same region as the DVD disk, or either the DVD itself or the DVD player is region zero, it doesn't matter what the television standard on the DVD is.

[Fsiphskilm]

i posted up a guide

[madphilb]

DVDs are region coded, most of them anyway. With most/all DVD drives in PCs, they coding is usually written to the drive/software after playing a few disks. Least, that's how I understand it.

I did some reading on it a while back, I was interested in getting the original "Italian Job," but at the time it was only available from over-seas. There are ways of getting around the region coding limits depending on your drive and software, but I didn't feel it was worth the hastle, and in the end they released it at the same time as the remake made it to DVD in this country, so I got it that way.

PHIL

[shooraijin]

If you play a PAL vcd or dvd (non-existant LOL) then it'll come up black and white, because of the color standards, i think you can play NTSC on PAL dvd player though, but i know that Comp DRIVES can play both as long as you have the software for it, some can't and some can.

This isn't quite true, either.

Actually, the NTSC vs PAL distinction *for DVDs* is based on resolution and framerate, not colour signal (for television, it *is* based on colour). The MPEG-2 encoding uses its own colour space for colour encoding (YCbCr), not the carrier signals of either video standard.

However, NTSC has a screen refresh rate at 60Hz, not PAL's 50Hz, and the number of TV lines is different (525 and 625 for NTSC and PAL respectively). For this reason, there are multiple different resolutions of MPEG-2 encoding for each video standard: MPEG-2, 525/60 (NTSC): 720x480, 704x480, 352x480, 352x240
MPEG-2, 625/50 (PAL): 720x576, 704x576, 352x576, 352x288

However, the output of a PAL DVD *player* is going to obviously have the PAL colour signal in it to display on your television set, and *that* will appear in black and white on an NTSC television set, if it appears at all.

Few NTSC players can play PAL discs or do the conversion. However, many PAL players can play NTSC discs using a "pseudo PAL" format that preserves the 525/60Hz signal, which many PAL televisions will accept, but uses the 4.43MHz colour subcarrier signal that PAL televisions require for colour display.

Most modern PC and Macintosh DVD player programs understand either video signal without difficulty, and draw the screen at the appropriate size, resolution and refresh rate automatically. Obviously there are no colour encoding problems on a computer monitor.

For more information, look at the DVD FAQ at http://www.dvddemystified.com.

[Fsiphskilm]

So NTSC is 60hz

[shooraijin]

It depends on how the refresh rate is related to the system clock, but in a lot of consoles and many older computers, the answer is yes. To take an example, the Commodore 64 could run in NTSC and PAL configurations. Because of the method in which the clock speed was generated (using a single "NTSC" or "PAL" crystal and generating all system and video carrier frequencies from it), the NTSC Commodore 64 ran roughly four percent faster than the PAL C64, which is definitely enough to be noticed. I think the NES and SNES are similarly designed, although I don't have system schematics to tell you for certain.

[otaku]

if you want to play import dvds there is software for free or some cash$$
also try some places online that can help you crack the hardware to do it.

[The Silence]

my sisters comp doesn't accept out-of-region dvds at first but within5 to 10 trys of reapetedly re-inserting the disc, it accepts it... O_O

[LorentzForce]

NTFC & PAL cannot be altered in anyway, unless you have some hardware that allows changes between the two on the spot, and those hardware are rare. (i'm proud to own a VHS player that can play both!)

Regions on DVDs on the other hand are just 'coded' onto the DVD. if you make your hardware's firmware unable to locate it or disregard it, it'll read all the region coded DVDs. (i'm also proud to own both DVD-ROM and a player that are region free!)

remember, there are DVDs that don't have region codes on them. that's right, i own a DVD that has its region set as region 0, as it was ordered to be manufactured as, not some factory fault. so if you can't find out how to disable your DVD readers to read different region codes, although it'll be near impossible, look for region code free DVDs.

[Orange Kitten]

that's right, i own a DVD that has its region set as region 0, as it was ordered to be manufactured as, not some factory fault.

I'd be willing to be that your dvd is a Hong Kong pirated dvd, especially if it's an anime dvd. All pirated dvds are region 0. Does it have Chinese/English subtitles? That's the biggest giveaway.

[shooraijin]

There are some legit anime DVDs that are region 0, though. My Urusei Yatsura Movie #2 CD from US Manga Corps is a region 0, though I think it's NTSC-only.

[Kisa]

PAL and PAL, NTSC and NTSC . . . I lived in Australia where they use PAL, you can only use them on their own systems, unless you have a multi-system like we had to get . . .