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Mac Forum / Applications / Mac Applications / March 2008Please recommend me a (free or cheap) utility to convert NTSC (USA) DVDs to European PAL DVDs
Dear friends: Please recommend me a (free or cheap) utility to convert NTSC (USA) DVDs to European PAL DVDs Thanks a lot !!!!! Thanks Juan I. Cahis Santiago de Chile (South America) Note: Please forgive me for my bad English, I am trying to improve it! > Dear friends: > [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > > Thanks You can do the job with ffmpegX, which is free. Just feed the NTSC source and have your output set to PAL. Be aware, though, that such a conversion will result in quality degradation due to reencoding/compressing. The two formats involve different framerates, framesizes, and color models (as well as more minor differences). And, of course, that only takes care of the "movies" -- you'll also need to reauthor the disk to recreate a converted menu structure.  SignatureSpenser > Dear friends: > [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > Santiago de Chile (South America) > Note: Please forgive me for my bad English, I am trying to improve it! I spent a few weeks attempting to do this. I was successful eventually but it took 8-12 hours or something and then the degradation in quality was not worth the effort. Also in some situations I could not code subtitles in to the final output. My solution? A region-free DVD player that can play either NTSC or PAL. They are really pretty inexpensive: http://www.220-electronics.com/google.htm I am not affiliated with the company in any way except as a customer. SignatureThank you and have a nice day. > > Dear friends: > > [quoted text clipped - 19 lines] > > I am not affiliated with the company in any way except as a customer. The fact is that most modern (i.e. digital) TVs will handle both formats without transcription. I have taken US NTSC DVDs to the UK, and had them play perfectly well on a UK standard DVD player and PAL TV. You probably need to be more concerned about making sure that they are region-compatible. Even with that, most DVD players in the UK (I've never tries one in the US) have simple software hacks, accessible directly from their menus, that render them region-free. Google is your friend for finding these hacks. William Clark > The fact is that most modern (i.e. digital) TVs will handle both formats > without transcription. I have taken US NTSC DVDs to the UK, and had them [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > directly from their menus, that render them region-free. Google is your > friend for finding these hacks. I have been selling commercial videos since 1985 at http://www.mindstorm-inc.com/pages/vid.html When we were selling VHS, I had to stock both NTSC and PAL. Since we switched to DVD, I have only sold the NTSC version. In the roughly 5 years since then, I have not had more than a half dozen European customers say they could not play the DVD we shipped. Initiially, we would offer them a VHS instead. In the past 3 years, we have just said "sorry about that. here is your refund" -- but only had to do that twice in those 3 years. Pretty much any player shipped in the last few years in Europe will play either format. Signature- Burt Johnson MindStorm, Inc. http://www.mindstorm-inc.com/software.html > > The fact is that most modern (i.e. digital) TVs will handle both formats > > without transcription. I have taken US NTSC DVDs to the UK, and had them [quoted text clipped - 20 lines] > Pretty much any player shipped in the last few years in Europe will play > either format. Thank you - I concur. William Clark >>> Dear friends: >>> [quoted text clipped - 30 lines] > > William Clark I understand the DVD players in the UK can do a lot more that the off-the-shelf DVD players in the US. Mac-the-Ripper will strip region codes off commercial DVD's. SignatureThank you and have a nice day. > >>> Dear friends: > >>> [quoted text clipped - 35 lines] > > Mac-the-Ripper will strip region codes off commercial DVD's. Indeed it will; however, that has nothing to do with NTSC vs PAL. Region codes are an "after the fact" copy protection technique and NTSC and PAL are methods of preparing the raw video/audio for presentation (whether via broadcast, film, tape, or optical media), specifying framesize and rate, bitrate, color model, etc. Removing the region code does not require reencoding the video; however, moving between NTSC and PAL does impose such a requirement. SignatureSpenser >>>> I spent a few weeks attempting to do this. I was successful eventually >>>> but it took 8-12 hours or something and then the degradation in quality [quoted text clipped - 25 lines] > > Indeed it will; however, that has nothing to do with NTSC vs PAL. Nor did I say it did. Mr. Clark said region was probably a larger concern for the OP. > Region codes are an "after the fact" copy protection technique and NTSC > and PAL are methods of preparing the raw video/audio for presentation [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > Removing the region code does not require reencoding the video; > however, moving between NTSC and PAL does impose such a requirement. And MTR won't do that. SignatureThank you and have a nice day. > Please recommend me a (free or cheap) utility to convert NTSC (USA) > DVDs to European PAL DVDs Not sure they will do that, but try MacTheRipper http://www.mactheripper.org/ and Handbrake http://handbrake.fr/ - will at least recode to H.264 if you store it on a harddisk to view. HTH Marc Signatureremove bye and from mercial to get valid e-mail <http://www.heusser.com> >> Please recommend me a (free or cheap) utility to convert NTSC (USA) >> DVDs to European PAL DVDs [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > > Marc Neither will convert from NTSC to PAL. SignatureThank you and have a nice day. > Neither will convert from NTSC to PAL. Ok, then Quicktime Pro will - or use any of these methods: http://www.danslagle.com/mac/iMovie/tips_tricks/6017.shtml HTH Marc Signatureremove bye and from mercial to get valid e-mail <http://www.heusser.com> >> Neither will convert from NTSC to PAL. > > Ok, then Quicktime Pro will - or use any of these methods: > http://www.danslagle.com/mac/iMovie/tips_tricks/6017.shtml Does it do subtitles in the process? So how do you do that with Quicktime, Drag a video_ts folder on it and then it simply converts it to PAL? I have my doubts about that. Almost the approaches I took to this problem, and there many over a good long while, proved fruitless. Those that worked took from 8 to 16 hours to perform and the video was significantly degraded. SignatureThank you and have a nice day. > Does it do subtitles in the process? So how do you do that with > Quicktime, Drag a video_ts folder on it and then it simply converts it > to PAL? I have my doubts about that. Almost the approaches I took to > this problem, and there many over a good long while, proved fruitless. > Those that worked took from 8 to 16 hours to perform and the video was > significantly degraded. I think that the best solution for North Americans is to buy a refurbished region-free multi-system DVD player, in some place like XSCargo. They cost about $40. SignatureW. Oates |
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