PAL region 2 to NTSC region 1

[miltie]

i'd like to convert a pal/region 2 dvd to ntsc/region 1..

the few message boards i've read suggest that conversion don't have great image quality and that it's better to just get a region free pal player for cheap. thing is, the threads were 2 or 3 years old, so i'm posting here to see if the technology for these conversions have improved.

thanks all,,,much appreciated

[TheSkiller]

TV standards (625/25 a.k.a. PAL and 525/30 a.k.a. NTSC, although PAL and NTSC are actually just the way the color is modulated) and DVD region code are not related to each other. For example, a region 2 disc can be either PAL or NTSC since Japan is also region 2 but uses NTSC.
If you live in an NTSC country getting a region free player that supports PAL should give you the ability to play those discs, however if you don't let the DVD player output the PAL DVD's picture in it's native format - maybe because the TV can't display that - then the quality you get will be, usually, crappy because of the on-the-fly norm conversion.

In other words, if a norm conversion (PAL->NTSC) is needed, I would recommend doing it with AviSynth. Keep in mind though that it's a lot of work if you want to keep all the menus and stuff.

[manono]

Converting the video from PAL to NTSC is easy enough with some basic AviSynth knowledge. Don't expect to keep the menus, though. Converting them is exponentially harder.

the few message boards i've read suggest that conversion don't have great image quality

There's no reason it shouldn't have nearly the same image quality as the source, taking into account NTSC's lower resolution.

Just decrypting the DVD to the hard drive makes it all region, so that's not a problem.

[2Bdecided]

Quality depends on whether the source is 25p (easy to convert to 24p or even 25p-in-60i; no chance of artefacts other than the inevitable extra stutter) or 50i (difficult to convert to 60i, great chance of artefacts: choose horrible increase in stutter from field repetition, or potentially nasty artefacts from faulty motion compensation).

Cheers,
David.

[miltie]

though this is not about decrypting per se,,,would it just be easier for me to buy this player? http://www.regioncodefreedvd.com/toshibahd.html

[2Bdecided]

Yes!

Cheers,
David.