ntsc to pal

[walkistalki]

Hi,

I'm trying to back up an NTSC dvd to a PAL divx.

What is the easiest way to do this?

Kind regards

[jggimi]

:confused: Why convert? If your output is to DivX, then the framerate doesn't matter: If it will be played back on a PC, framerate doesn't matter.

If played on a DivX Certified standalone, it shouldn't matter either. Home Theater Profile supports all sorts of framerates, up to 25fps at 720x576, or up to 30fps at 720x480.

[DigitAl56K]

walkistalki: Are you really asking about de-interlacing or inverse telecine?

[walkistalki]

jggimi, it is indeed to play on a Divx certified player. My television is PAL, are you saying now i should not convert it and the divx will play without a problem?

DigitAl56K, I'm not sure what i want. I've backed up some Pal dvd's to divx before, but I'd consider myself very divx newbie and realise it might not be relevant for Divx (for DVD-> DVD backup it is a difference). The idea is to backup an NTSC DVD to divx so I play them on the standalone player on a Pal television. If that can only be done by deinterlacing and inverse telecining, then yes, if it works as jggimi suggest then I guess I'm not talking about that :confused:

I guess i should first try one or 2 to see what the results are?

Thx for the responses!

[jggimi]

Let me do a very quick level set: NTSC content at 29.97 is usually either interlaced source from a video camera, or Telecined source from 24 fps film. Telecining looks partially interlaced when you examine a sequence of frames. That's because the original frames are broken up into individual fields, and then spread between multiple frames. (This process is also called Pulldown). Inverse Telecining reverses that process, and recreates progressive frames at almost, but not quite 24 fps. The technique known as "Force FILM" may be usable, if the MPEG-2 stream has the appropriate flags in the metadata.

If you use AutoGK, it will examine the metadata, and do a frame analysis, and make the proper determination for you, all automatically. If you use GK, you'll have to do it yourself. Doom9's GK guides give general suggestions, but for more information, see www.doom9.org/ivtc-tut.htm.

[jshumate]

Walkistalki - are you unaware that almost all PAL DVD players can convert a NTSC signal to PAL? If your player supports DivX, this is a non-issue for you. Everything I've ever seen that supports DivX can output both PAL and NTSC output. Make sure you set the video output of your DVD player to PAL and don't worry about this conversion.

You might be interested to know that some PAL countries such as Brazil and Hong Kong (OK Hong Kong isn't a country, but you know what I mean) make NTSC DVDs rather than PAL simply because almost every DVD player in the world can play a NTSC DVD.

[GrofLuigi]

Originally posted by jshumate
almost every DVD player in the world can play a NTSC DVD.

But not every TV set can show that "converted" signal (or I would say "bastardized"). It is a hack and you can not do much with it (for example, record it to a VCR, broadcast it or play it on a TV older than, let's say, 10 years).

GL

[Zhnujm]

If the player really converts to PAL you have a REAL pal signal that every tv can show an every vcr can record.
But you have to live with a non-smooth playback because of the framrate conversion.

[jggimi]

You can certainly try leaving the MPEG-4 at an NTSC framerate (23.976 or 29.97), and see if it looks acceptable to you in your player with your PAL TV.

If you'd like to convert to PAL during the MPEG-4 encoding process, conversion of film content (23.976) is significantly less complex than interlaced video (29.97).

Here is a 3 step process using 23.976 source and Gordian Knot: Encode the audio separately. You'll probably want to transcode from Dolby Digital (.ac3) to .mp3 using BeSweetGUI, included with the GK suite. BeSweetGUI can shorten or lengthen the audio based on video fps.

Keeping the .d2v file's frame count, adjust the framerate to 25 in GK's GUI. This will allow the bitrate calculator to adjust to the new length.

Add an AssumeFPS(25) to the AviSynth script before compressiblity testing or encoding.If your content must remain 29.97 due to interlacing ... solutions are significantly more complex.

[Inventive Software]

Most televisions will accept a PAL and an NTSC signal. You just have to try it. Mostly it depends how old your television is, ie more than 20 or 30 years old and you may have problems. If the TV definitely does not support NTSC it should state it in the user manual. (Look for something like "Supported signal inputs" or something like that.)

Otherwise, you shouldn't be able to damage your TV by trying an NTSC source. If it's a newer TV, it's most likely to come up with a "source signal error" or something along those lines.


As a case study, my Grandad has a vcr that supports NTSC videos. He has had no signal problems with his TVs to date.

I hope this helps. If not, I don't know what else to suggest.

[pieroxy]

Most televisions will accept a PAL and an NTSC signal
How wrong can you get... Blind statements like that are really scary. You should read:

Most televisions in the PAL zone and that are manufactured today will accept a PAL and an NTSC signal.

Because as recently as 5 years back, only a handful of TV accepted NTSC signal. And in the US, they don't even know PAL exists. Even $1000 TVs will take only NTSC. Might not be true for HDTV though.