help needed

[mmoalem]

hi there all and sorry about the generic subject title...
hope i got into the right forum...
I am a video editor and embarking on creating a showreel on DVD. Almost all the footage comes from PAL DV converted through cinemacraft. However there is one piece of video, few minutes long which i only have on a commercial, non-copy protected, DVD. I'm not sure but i think that although the original video was PAL it is now NTSC coded (DVD made in the US). I would like to include this video in my DVD but not sure how to get about doing it. I ripped it but now need to detarmain if it is PAl or NTSC. If it is NTSC than i need a way of converting it to PAL. It is a VOB file which i think i need to turn into an .mpv file with the same coding as the rest of the DVD so it can be taken into ReelDVD and i also need to cut this video short (cut out few shots).
All i could do myself with confidance is rip. for the rest i need some guidance if anyone is kind enough to help
thanks in advance
michel

[influenza]

Well the first step is for sure to find out is it's NTSC or not, since PAl and NTSC cannot (at least following the standard) be on one disc. If it's Pal you're lucky. You can just rip the video and demux it to elementary streams (video mpv and audio ac3?). Then you can just author everything.

If it's NTSC you need to convert it to PAL. Surely you can find info on this, but from what I've heard there are a lot of obstacles on your way :mad:

[oddyseus]

If it is ntsc, u can follow the thread by easy2bcheesy that deals with this problem in depth.

pls I am sure that u can specify a more descriptive title for this thread. U r violating r9.

[mpucoder]

Yes, please use a better title. Most people decide whether or not to read the thread based on the title, and ignore titles such as this. You can change a thread title by editing the first post subject.

Determining NTSC or PAL is very simple, and there are many ways to do it. Open any ifo on the DVD with IfoEdit, and it will tell you in the disk summary.

If it is NTSC and was converted from PAL, as you suspect, converting it back to PAL should be your last choice. Try to get the original PAL video. I'm not sure, but it sounded like you are working on a commercial project, in that case you will need permission from the copyright holder anyway, so asking for the PAL material should be no problem.

[neverever]

appologies again for the subject title - will try harder next time...
It is NTSC indeed and i have found out that mainconcept encoder converts the file to PAL MPG without much trouble. I have to edit it with frame accurate precision into the rest of the showreel in XpressDV so i figured if i take it into VD through AviSynth and save it as uncompressed AVI than I should keep the lose of quality to minimum
thanks for the replies

[neverever]

and it seems i made a mistake and sent the previous reply under my friend's name (his PC's cookies in action)
so to make it clear i'll sign my naame here
MMOALEM