I’m shopping for DVD’s. I understand the regional coding (I think). But I’m not 100% sure I’ve got the video standards. Am I correct that these standards are part of the TV not the player? In other words even if you get a NTSC/PAL player you still need to have the right TV - you can’t watch a PAL movie on a NTSC televsion and vice versa?
The short answer is that it varies. Most PAL TVs can handle an NTSC signal, but not visa versa. If in doubt, you can buy either a DVD player that converts from one system to another, or an external convertor. I got mine from http://www.regioncodefreedvd.com/index.html , but there are plenty of other sites out there.
PAL, NTSC, and SECAM (the one you forgot) are broadcast TV standards that dictate the design of TVs made within their respective realms. VCRs, Laserdisk players, cable boxes, and everything else that expects to display things on a TV has to fall in line with the local fashion. Here is a detailed technical comparison of the standards. This site breaks down the adoption of the various standards by country.
An interesting non-technical (OK, less technical) summation of the differences between the three encoding schemes. Includes historical context as to why three schemes exist in the first place.
It’s easier for a PAL TV to make up for the less lines used in NTSC, than for an NTSC TV to somehow add lines to playback a PAL signal. But some DVD players have a way to be able to adjust on the fly, so even if you don’t have the right kind of TV, you may be able to locate the right kind of DVD Player.
I was hoping that Digital HD would eliminate PAL and NTSC, by becoming an international standard, but it only partially has done so. The number of lines can now match, but the framerates continue to differ.
Ooh, I’m very glad someone posted this. I have a PAL Elgato EyeTV for my Mac, and I was wondering if I can use this on an American cable system? I’d really like to use it, but will I need a converter? Is it possible at all?
I’d ask Elgato about your particular model. This one does any format. It’s very possible that a simple firmware change can turn a PAL version into an NTSC (which would be what you get from American cable). It may even already be in there. Any software player will be able to handle both, though you might have to change a pref (or does the Elgato use its own player software?)
You can get a converter, but they’re semi-expensive for what they do. (There’s one here, halfway down, for 56 Euro.)
Some of you guys are assuming I have way more technical knowledge then I do. My question basically is “can I play this movie on my TV?” And judging from what you’re saying it appears the answer to the specific situation I’m facing is probably no.
“Probably no” is the correct answer.
Problem 1
If you have a regular DVD player, it will be region 1 (assuming you’re in the US)
A region 1 player will play only region 1 or region 0 discs - they will spit out a European DVD.
Assuming you can get around this, the DVD player will output whatever signal the disc is encoded with (usually PAL).
Problem 2
If the DVD player is outputting PAL, a US TV will not be able to cope with it.
Solution
buy a DVD player that does all the work for you - see the link in post #2
If you ever end up with a disc of the incorrect format for your TV that you really want to watch, you can always put it on your computer. The majority of DVD-playing software won’t have a problem playing NTSC or PAL.
Computer DVD players do have region encoding (most start out able to play any disc, in fact, and then are set by the first disc you insert), and some software even has it built in. It’s fairly easy to disable region encoding on the drive (by loading new firmware), but doing so will probably void the warranty on the drive.
Obviously if you’re shopping, it’s better to buy what will work in the first place.
Now that the question has been answered, a nitpick: strictly speaking, North American DVDs are not in NTSC format, and neither are European DVDs in PAL format. NTSC and PAL, and SECAM, are schemes for adding colour information to an analogue monochrome signal. DVDs use a completely different method of encoding colour. The difference in frame rate and resolution between North American and European DVDs is due to the difference in the underlying monochrome format - System M in much of the Americas and eastern Asia, one of the 625 line systems in the rest of the world.
So, leaving aside region coding, a DVD produced in Brazil, where they use PAL, would work with an American DVD player and TV, because they use the 525 line/~30fps M format.
Okay thanks a lot, that is indeed the model I have. It makes sense too, I’m pretty sure that the bit of hardware is only to convert the cable into something usable by the computer, so any compensation probably goes on in the software part.
But, how do I get the actual physical connectors to meet up? Do they make such a thing? Would a certain NTSC connector work here too?
Actually, I think that model only does PAL, SECAM and DVB. There seems to be a separate model for NTSC and ATSC digital. I would guess that the two models have different processors and/or tuners in them.
You’re right,on Elgato’s page they do say at the bottom there’s a different version for different standards.
I was going by the ‘technical spec’ sheet (link on the side), which does claim to support both standards. Wouldn’t be the first time a spec sheet lied.
You might want to check with Elgato, but now it looks like it won’t work. If it does do both NTSC and PAL, it’s probably only through the side inputs (composite/S-video).
I’ve tried playing US-bought NTSC DVDs on an Australian PAL TV set (on a DVD player which had had the region settings sorted out by one of my tech-savvy kids). It was problematic, with the picture tending to roll at times, and inferior quality most of the time.
I haven’t been able to go the other way, with Australian PAL DVDs on a US NTSC TV set, because of region settings on my DVD player: I play those on a portable DVD player, which I’ve set to region-free, and which doesn’t seem to worry about PAL vs. NTSC (not being attached to a TV set, but having its own screen).
I have a Finnish DVD that plays without probem on my Canadian DVD player, which converts the output from a “PAL” DVD to NTSC… but the DVD is not region coded. Any DVD player is allowed to play it if can handle the standard.
Usually I play them on my computer, which can handle both European and North American frame rates and line encodings, and gives higher quality anyways.