Reagon 2 Movie

[Kevinh]

There is a movie that I saw back in 1971. I think I just figured out what it was and would like to buy it, but it doesn't seem to be very available. I did find a DVD of it on eBay. Someone in England is selling it. It says that it is region 2. Will I be able to play it in my computer? I replaced the DVD drive in my computer and I never set a region. I also have DVDFab Platinum and DVDRegion free so I think I might be able to play it, but I just wanted to check. And does region 2 mean that it is in pal. That probably means that I won't be able to play it on my television? (I'm in the US.) And if I copy it with DVDFab, if it is in pal, is there a way to convert it to the NTSC. (Not sure if I have the letters on NTSC right, but you know what I mean.)

I'll probably go through all this and it won't be the movie or it will be the movie and I won't think it was so great any more.

[jggimi]

Region 2 can be either NTSC or PAL, as Region 2 is Japan (NTSC), Europe, South Africa, and Middle East (PAL). From Europe, you should expect PAL.

Once region code restrictions are eliminated, you can play it on your PC, since your PC is neither NTSC nor PAL. As to playing it on your TV, that will depend on your TV and your standalone player, but in the vast majority of cases, the general answer is "No." Most PAL TVs can deal with NTSC, but not the other way 'round. If you have an HDTV, it might handle PAL input -- look to your owner's manuals for your TV .... and your standalone player. The latter is likely NTSC only.

Conversion to NTSC is complicated, and not for the newbie.

(Each video stream framerate changes from 25 to 23.976, and the resolution has to change from 720x576 to 720x480. If the content is interlaced, it must be both deinterlaced and resized, or if not deinterlaced, each field (two per frame) must be resized separately and the framerate changed to 29.97. The audio and subtitle tracks must have timings changed to match the new length of the video, both start delay and length of each track must be adjusted. For audio, this may involve a change in pitch. Since DVDs can have a wide variety of audio formats, this complicates things further. If 23.976 progressive is used, pulldown flags must be added to the video streams to support 29.97 interlaced output.)

[jggimi]

Additionally: If your standalone player can handle CD-R or DVD+/-R data discs with AVI files -- converting the content to DivX or XviD -- MPEG-4 -- might be a way to play the content on your TV. That stated, I've never tried this with PAL framerate content in an NTSC standalone player, so I don't know if you'd get acceptable results or not.

[Kevinh]

Thanks for the help jggimi. I won the movie in the auction, so now I just have to wait for it to arrive. I do have that TMPGenc Express program and the author program. I know that it has an option to convert from pal to NTSC, or the reverse. Would I be able to run the movie through it? And if I can, would I have to do the whole thing at once? It's almost 2 hrs and I know that each 1/2 hour takes about 1 hour to process. Could you do each vob file individually and then re-unite them at the end. I just afraid if I run it for four hours that it will almost finish and the computer will hick up or the power will go out, etc.

Thanks again.

[Kevinh]

Hey, I just noticed that your signature says that your location is the NW corner of Lake Erie. I live near Lake Erie too!

[jggimi]

Could you do each vob file individually ... I doubt it, since timings for all streams have to be adjusted.

My location: here's a recent post discussing it: http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=802605#post802605

Disclaimer: I've not used any of the modern TMPGEnc software, so I have no experience to draw on for it. When I've done conversions, its been a) by hand, and b) going the other way.

[Bird Brain]

There is a movie that I saw back in 1971. I think I just figured out what it was and would like to buy it, but it doesn't seem to be very available. I did find a DVD of it on eBay. Someone in England is selling it. It says that it is region 2. Will I be able to play it in my computer? I replaced the DVD drive in my computer and I never set a region. I also have DVDFab Platinum and DVDRegion free so I think I might be able to play it, but I just wanted to check. And does region 2 mean that it is in pal. That probably means that I won't be able to play it on my television? (I'm in the US.) And if I copy it with DVDFab, if it is in pal, is there a way to convert it to the NTSC. (Not sure if I have the letters on NTSC right, but you know what I mean.)

I'll probably go through all this and it won't be the movie or it will be the movie and I won't think it was so great any more.

kevinh, if the process of conversion seems to much for you, you can save yourself lots of potential headache and trouble by simply getting a dvd player that support both PAL and NTSC.

[Kevinh]

Thanks for the response. So what are some brands/models that support both pal and NTSC? I've looked at the ones I have, but I don't see any indication that they support both. I just bought a Sony player last month.