Playing PAL DVD-R in the US (NTSC)?

[dust12]

Hi all,

I'm living in Switzerland and I'm also authoring my own DVD-Rs, of course in PAL (and of course regionfree).

Now I sent a DVD-R to a friend in the USA. He seems to have problems, but he's no computer wiz, so I can't say for sure if this is a PAL/NTSC problem or not. He said he also tried it in a PC, and the PC didn't recognize it but instead rebooted and went into safe mode.

One question is about standalone players. In Europe, DVD-players usually just transcode NTSC-DVDs for PAL TVs. Is this the same in the USA? Do Us DVD-players transcode PAL-DVDs on the fly to NTSC as well, or do they just refuse (regionfree) PAL-DVDs?

Then about DVD-drives in PCs, how do US DVD-drives react upon PAL DVD-Rs? Is it possible they just reboot (which seems strange to me)?

Thanks for any help, Andy

[E-Male]

US players and/or TVs might not work with pal discs
pal is by far not as much supported in ntsc-land than vice versa

computers are not pal or ntsc, so a region free disc shoudl work without problems (if the disc is ok and the computer works fine with other dvds)

anybody feel free to corect me

[Imperial Zeppelin]

Having lived in Europe for 3 years, I was amazed when I discovered that all European mid to high end VCRs (It WAS 10 years ago) and TVs could handle PAL, SECAM & NTFS materials. Sadly, that is not the case in the US and only VERY high-end, special order items can handle anything other than NTFS.

Now I just purchased a real cheapo DVD player ($40 at Sam's Club) that claims PAL compatibility, but I have yet to test since I haven't got any PAL discs, but it's something that's a bit intriguing, especially considering the Region issues. IF the player is Region 1, then who figured that there would be Region 1 PAL materials? Another future experiment here...

I also assume that computers can handle PAL DVDs as long as they're region free, but I cannot talk from experience.

My $0.02...
Zep

[Joergen]

Technically, PAL supports NTSC on DVD cause the DVD is not infact NTSC but RGB (MPEG2). PAL TVs use the SCART (EUROAV) connector that introduced true RGB signaling and PAL60 (60Hz) way back in the 80s (where NTSC region has received RGB only now with component connectors).

So when you insert an Region1 60Hz disc into a PAL DVD player, it will be shown via PAL60 RGB (unless the DVD player of course refuses to play the R1 disc, which is another story).

This also applies to modern console games, where Dreamcast, PS2, Xbox etc. have many games with 60/50 option for PAL users so they can either enjoy a sharper picture (50) or more frames per second (60).

Not all PAL tv's however support the NTSC colour signal (that you get from an NTSC VHS tape or other NTSC device).. but most do.

[andyg]

There are many DVD players that will play PAL DVD on NTSC TV in states.
It's not expensive, for around $60 - $70 he can pick up something like Daewoo DVD player in States.
It's the easiest and cheapest way to go.

[MysticE]

As was noted a PAL region free DVD should play properly on the computer. With PowerDVD you can look under Configuration-> Information. I think that there may be a problem with your DVD's and or authoring if it's causing the computer to reboot. Your friend should see if it plays on another computer as a test to eliminate that variable first.