[AMIA-L] Reply: DVD Conversion issues

[Leo Enticknap <ldge@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

As Eric Wenocur points out, there are three separate hurdles involved in
playing a PAL DVD in NTSC territory.

1.  The region code (if any).

2.  The broadcast standard (i.e. PAL or NTSC)

3.  CSS copy protection, if you're trying to copy the content rather
than just play it (if any - not applicable to consumer-burnt discs, only
factory pressed ones).

You've got to get over all three in order to copy the disc, and the first
two in order to play it.

1 and 3 can be circumvented by lots of readily available software
programs (e.g. DVD Fab Decrypter).  However, using them is illegal
in some jurisdictions, even if you have the copyright owner's permission
to copy the disc.  I don't know if this is the case in US Federal
and/or California law.  2 is less easy, because you're not just
stripping a relatively small amount of data out or decrypting it, but
decoding and then re-encoding the entire video signal.  I don't know
of any software that will take a PAL DVD and automatically just re-encode
the whole thing - video streams, menus, the lot - as an NTSC one, or
vice-versa, though such software may exist.

However, with the region 2 code removed, any PAL DVD should play without
any problem on a PC or a Mac in the US.

As a general rule, playing NTSC discs in PAL parts of the world is a lot
easier than vice-versa.  Almost all TVs here can display an NTSC
input signal, and for the few that can't, almost all DVD players can take
an NTSC disc and output a picture which a PAL TV will accept; even the
dirt cheap, fallen off the back of a container ship ones.  The
reverse does not hold true in the US, though, from my understanding of
feedback I've had from people I've sent or given PAL DVDs to.  They
all report that they'll play on computers without any worries, but many
have told me that either their set-top DVD player would not accept them,
or if it did, that the TV it was connected to wouldn't display the
signal.  I gather that set-top players which will convert a PAL
signal to something an NTSC-only TV can display, and TVs which can accept
a true PAL input signal are available, but that they're considerably more
expensive and difficult to get hold of than NTSC-only kit.

Leo

Leo Enticknap
Lecturer in Cinema
Institute of Communications Studies, University of Leeds
Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK
Work contact details here
Personal website here