PAL DVD?? Any help please!
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Topic: PAL DVD?? Any help please!
Posted By: The Lost Chord
Subject: PAL DVD?? Any help please!
Date Posted: February 06 2007 at 15:21
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I am interested in purchasing a DVD, but it says this:
PLEASE NOTE: THIS DVD COMES IN CODEFREE PAL FORMAT, PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU CAN PLAYBACK THE PAL FORMAT BEFORE BIDDING ON THIS ITEM! IN THE U.S. THIS DVD WILL ONLY PLAYBACK ON MULTI-REGION DVD-PLAYERS!
OK, so what do i do now? I have a Playstation 2, and my PC to play it on, but I dont understand this tech talk at all...can anyone just help me a bit about what PAL is or just simply if it will work on a PS2 or on my PC?
Thanks for any help! -------------  "Only the sun knew why"
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Replies:
Posted By: Snow Dog
Date Posted: February 06 2007 at 15:27
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You will need a multiregion player. Maybe..maybe your PC can do it, I don't know. What is it and where are you buying it from?
------------- http://www.last.fm/user/Snow_Dog" rel="nofollow"> 
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Posted By: progismylife
Date Posted: February 06 2007 at 15:30
| Your PC can switch region codes but only a few times. After that it stays on what you set it on last and you can't change it back! |
Posted By: Snow Dog
Date Posted: February 06 2007 at 15:31
I thought this was the case. Must be some way around that though. Surely?  ------------- http://www.last.fm/user/Snow_Dog" rel="nofollow">
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progismylife wrote:Posted By: The Lost Chord
Date Posted: February 06 2007 at 15:33
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ugh! what a shame, its the Woodstock Diaries DVD, it has great performances not seen on the film...and it is all in PAL, because i think it was originally a spanish documentary.
Damn!
I will have to just suck it up i guess ------------- "Only the sun knew why"
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Posted By: DarioIndjic
Date Posted: February 06 2007 at 15:34
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Welll...Hmh find a multi-regional DVD (NTSC and PAL supported ). Its easy to find in second hand electronic shops. ------------- Ars longa , vita brevis |
Posted By: The Lost Chord
Date Posted: February 06 2007 at 15:38
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the thing is, i am sitting here finding the cheapest copy of this single DVD...and now i have to go load out on a new DVD player just to play 1 DVD! Thats crap[!!! ------------- "Only the sun knew why"
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Posted By: N Ellingworth
Date Posted: February 06 2007 at 17:08
| Is the DVD region 0? if it's region 0 it should play in your PC perfectly I've got NTSC and PAL DVDs and both are fine in my PC, as long as they are the local region (don't know the US region) or region 0 that will be the case for you too. |
Posted By: Snow Dog
Date Posted: February 06 2007 at 17:11
Which is why I bought a multiregion player and hacked the rest of my players to be multiregion. Unfortunately, you can't hack a PS2. ( not easily any way) ------------- http://www.last.fm/user/Snow_Dog" rel="nofollow">
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Posted By: Fitzcarraldo
Date Posted: February 06 2007 at 17:14
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Notice that the text you posted says CODEFREE. This means that it is not region-coded and can be played on a Region 1 (US) DVD player. The problem is that it is PAL (non-US TV standard), not NTSC (the TV standard used in the US) so will not display on a US TV.
By the way, if you ever want to play region-coded DVDs on your PC, you can purchase DVDidle:
http://www.dvdidle.com/dvd-region-free.htm - http://www.dvdidle.com/dvd-region-free.htm
This will enable you to view region-coded DVDs from other regions even if you have used up the 5 or so times you can play other region codes before the DVD firmware 'locks' into one region code.
My guess is that, if you play this codefree DVD on your PC, it will work.
EDIT: By the way, just to confuse matters, there are several versions of the PAL standard. For example, the UK uses PAL-I whereas the majority of other countries that use PAL have different variants which are non-compatible. Thus a PAL TV from Greece or Germany, for example, will not work in the UK out-of-the-box. I had to have my Sony TV modified to work with PAL-I when I relocated from Greece (PAL-B or PAL-G if I recall correctly) to the UK. My TV would display the image OK but there was no sound, Most modern TVs allow the user to select several different TV standards, and my Sony TV allowed me to select various versions of PAL, SECAM (the French TV standard) and NTSC, but no PAL-I, so it went to the TV repair shop to be modified.
------------- http://www.progarchives.com/Collaborators.asp?id=326" rel="nofollow - Read reviews by Fitzcarraldo |
Posted By: Snow Dog
Date Posted: February 06 2007 at 17:17
You are probably right. ------------- http://www.last.fm/user/Snow_Dog" rel="nofollow">
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Posted By: Fitzcarraldo
Date Posted: February 08 2007 at 10:21
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Even if your PC cannot play PAL DVDs (mine can play both PAL and NTSC DVDs out-of-the-box), you can convert a PAL DVD to a NTSC DVD and vice versa using freeware tools. See the following Web page: http://www.jakeludington.com/dvd_hacks/20061125_convert_pal_dvd_for_pc_playback.html - http://www.jakeludington.com/dvd_hacks/20061125_convert_pal_dvd_for_pc_playback.html (There is a link further down the page to his page with instructions for converting a NTSC DVD to a PAL DVD).------------- http://www.progarchives.com/Collaborators.asp?id=326" rel="nofollow - Read reviews by Fitzcarraldo |
Posted By: E-Dub
Date Posted: February 08 2007 at 10:27
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I ran into the same problem when I got my IQ DVD's, so I bought a region free player from a place out of Chicago. I forget the website, but I can get it.
Also, I've heard that you can take you present DVD player in and they can make it region free for you. E ------------- 
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Posted By: Fitzcarraldo
Date Posted: February 08 2007 at 11:08
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E-Dub, are you sure you can watch PAL DVDs on a US TV set (NTSC standard)?
The problem is not the region coding in The Lost Chord's case, as The Lost Chord mentioned that it is a code-free (a.k.a. Region 0 or Region All) DVD. The problem is that the DVD he wants to buy is a PAL DVD, and would therefore not be displayed on a standard US TV set, as the TV standard in the States is NTSC. Thus, even if TLC had a multi-region or modded DVD player, he would not be able to play the PAL DVD and watch it on his TV set.
For example, I also have a modded DVD player that can play DVDs with any Region Code but I still cannot watch NTSC DVDs on a PAL TV. However, I have a TV set that enables me to use the remote to switch between PAL-I, PAL-B, PAL-G, PAL-D and PAL-K, SECAM (the French standard) and NTSC. So, if I configure my TV set to NTSC, then play a Region 1 NTSC DVD in my modded Region 2 DVD player, I can watch Region 1 (or any other region, come to that) NTSC DVDs on my TV.
If The Lost Chord's US TV set has the facility to enable him to switch to PAL mode -- I'm not sure from which country the DVD is from, so it could be PAL-I (British), or PAL-B/G/D/K -- and he uses his Region 1 DVD player then he could watch the DVD on his TV. This is because 'Region 0' (a.k.a. 'Region All' or 'code-free') DVDs can be played in any DVD player. But, as I say, they will only be watchable if the TV set is compatible with the TV standard of the DVD (PAL. SECAM, NTSC - each of which has several variants to make matters worse).
(Just to confuse matters, in Brazil they use PAL-M which, if I understand correctly, is a sort of hybrid between PAL and NTSC.)
I don't have the same problem on my PC, though, because it can play NTSC and PAL DVDs. However, the firmware of a PC DVD drive locks to a specific region (Region 2 in my case) after having played five region-coded DVDs, so the solution to that problem is to use DVDidle (see my earlier post) which allows you to play DVDs from other regions on a region-locked PC DVD drive.
I even had to buy a multi-standard (PAL, SECAM, NTSC) VCR player so that I could play VCRs from various countries. For example, PAL videos bought in Malaysia won't play correctly on a British PAL VCR - you can watch the picture but not hear anything (well, hear a lot of static). Different variants of PAL: PAL-B/G in Malaysia, PAL-I in the UK.
With so many different TV standards, then DVD Region Coding on top, it's very confusing. The following article is quite a good introduction to DVD region coding.
http://hometheater.about.com/cs/dvdlaserdisc/a/aaregioncodesa.htm - http://hometheater.about.com/cs/dvdlaserdisc/a/aaregioncodesa.htm
For TV standards (NTSC, PAL, SECAM etc.), which are nothing to do with DVD Region Codes, the following site has a comprehensive guide:
http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Contrib/WorldTV/ - http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Contrib/WorldTV/ ------------- http://www.progarchives.com/Collaborators.asp?id=326" rel="nofollow - Read reviews by Fitzcarraldo |
Posted By: Easy Livin
Date Posted: February 08 2007 at 12:05
I have tried using such converters without success. I believe going from NTSC to PAL is more straight forward than the other way round. The software usually has to add or drop frames along the way, which can lead to the sound going out of synch too.
I found that a region free PAL DVD will play OK in most US and Canadian PCs.
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Posted By: Fitzcarraldo
Date Posted: February 08 2007 at 12:09
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Out of interest, Easy Livin, have you tried the specific software mentioned on that Web page? If not, which software did you find was no good? ------------- http://www.progarchives.com/Collaborators.asp?id=326" rel="nofollow - Read reviews by Fitzcarraldo |
Posted By: Easy Livin
Date Posted: February 08 2007 at 14:21
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It was about a year ago Fitz, I was trying to convert some video I had taken of a family gathering for some Canadian relatives. I remember trying Adobe After Effects, and another free one which was designed just for the conversion. Part of the problem was the memory demands, especially with longer films. I'm sure I did not try any of the software mentioned in the thread.
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Posted By: NotAProghead
Date Posted: February 10 2007 at 14:36
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US DVDs and TV sets playing only NTSC format is quite an idiotic invention! Why manufacturers think that people don't need everything that comes outside US?
For example, all DVD players and all TVs in Russian stores play both formats. ------------- Who are you and who am I to say we know the reason why... (D. Gilmour) |
Posted By: Tony R
Date Posted: February 10 2007 at 14:40
its the same in UK,both seem to come as standard...
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Posted By: andu
Date Posted: February 10 2007 at 14:52
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it's marketing: you invent a new "need" for the potential customer, and then you create a new tool for satisfying it - and this new tool needs to be bought. so there you have it: sales increase.
------------- "PA's own GI Joe!" 
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Posted By: Fitzcarraldo
Date Posted: February 10 2007 at 23:22
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It's more complicated than that, andu. See the following potted history of the three main TV standards:
http://hometheater.about.com/cs/consumerresources/a/aawhosyourpala.htm - http://hometheater.about.com/cs/consumerresources/a/aawhosyourpala.htm
Engineers trying to improve technology (PAL has higher resolution than NTSC, for example), differences between existing earlier technologies in the different countries and the need to maintain certain backward compatibility, different frequencies (60 Hz in USA, 50 Hz in Europe), and even politics played a part in the creation of these different TV standards.
There's one thing wrong in the above article, though, He gives the impression that PAL is a uniform standard. Well, it ain't. There are several different variants of PAL used throughout the world and they are not compatible. As I mentioned in previous posts, my PAL TV set bought in Greece had to be modded to work in the UK, and my PAL videocassettes from Malaysia won't play on a UK VCR (and vice versa). You can see a list of the different variants of PAL on the following page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PAL - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PAL
which also has an error: It says all PAL systems are interoperable except for PAL-M. Well, from personal experience with TV sets, DVD players and VCRs I can say this is not the case.
------------- http://www.progarchives.com/Collaborators.asp?id=326" rel="nofollow - Read reviews by Fitzcarraldo |
Posted By: goose
Date Posted: February 14 2007 at 20:38
| I don't know, but I think you can play it on a PC using software like VLC or mplayer without bothering about the region. I don't know, we use PAL here anyhow! |