A question about DVD's

I had a question about DVD's. I live in the US and go to the store and get DVD's to put videos on from time to watch on my Playstation 2. I know that there are NTSC and PAL formats for DVD's, but I don't know much about them. Are the DVD's you purchase at the store considered NTSC in the US? Or are they just considered format free or whatever? I really don't know, but would like to know. And when you go to the store and purchase blank discs in the UK are they considered PAL or are they just regular blank discs that can be played on any player? I was wondering because someone in the UK has some footage that on a VHS tape that they were going to put on a DVD for me and I wasn't sure if the discs they had over there (meaning blank discs) were PAL and had to be converted to NTSC before being viewed. Can someone please clear this up for me? Thanks.

uk=pal us=ntsc they are just different standards to display pictures on your tv, biggest difference i think, is how many lines each uses to make up that picture. dvd blank discs are just that blank, and can be used to record either pal or ntsc video. if he's using a pc to record the vhs footage before putting it onto the dvd then he could re-encode it to ntsc and burn it to the dvd so you'd have no problems watching it with any hardware, playstation, dvd player, pc, etc. if he's copying it using just a dvd recorder the chances are it's going to be in pal only, so it depends on what formats your hardware can read if any besides the ntsc. now pc's can read any format but not sure on the playstation, would think ntsc only. so when you get the dvd and it's in pal, you'll be able to watch it on a pc, copy it and then re-encode it to ntsc and burn it to your own blank disc, then you'll have a dvd that you can watch with any hardware in the us. hope that explains what your wanting to know.

uk=pal
us=ntsc
they are just different standards to display pictures on your tv, biggest difference i think, is how many lines each uses to make up that picture.

dvd blank discs are just that blank, and can be used to record either pal or ntsc video.

if he's using a pc to record the vhs footage before putting it onto the dvd then he could re-encode it to ntsc and burn it to the dvd so you'd have no problems watching it with any hardware, playstation, dvd player, pc, etc.

if he's copying it using just a dvd recorder the chances are it's going to be in pal only, so it depends on what formats your hardware can read if any besides the ntsc. now pc's can read any format but not sure on the playstation, would think ntsc only.

so when you get the dvd and it's in pal, you'll be able to watch it on a pc, copy it and then re-encode it to ntsc and burn it to your own blank disc, then you'll have a dvd that you can watch with any hardware in the us.

hope that explains what your wanting to know.

Thank you for explaining terry. I have an HP pavillion computer. Actually it's a p6140f to exact. You are sure it will be able to read PAL discs? I want to make absolutely sure before I buy the disc from them and have to reencode it to NTSC. Ok now about the re encoding part. I saw a link on the internet that said if you have ConvertXtoDVD which I have it will convert PAL DVD's to NTSC. Do you think it work? Here is the link here:

http://www.convertxtodvd.com-http.com/conv…al-to-ntsc.html

Or is there a better easier way? If so please recommend one as if I have to re encode the DVD myself to NTSC, I would like to know it so I could use it. Please give a simple link with step by step instructions since I'm a newbie and won't understand anything technical. Thanks

EDIT: Wait a sec. I'm a bit confused you said when I get the DVD and it's in PAL format I'll be able to watch it on my computer and then copy it . You mean I have to copy it before I re encode it? Can't I just re encode it from the original (now I am confusing myself LOL) , meaning open a new disc and then encode the contents as a NTSC onto that disc? Or maybe we are saying the same thing. I'll leave you to clear it up for me. Thanks again.

yes 100% certain a pc can read pal video frame rate dvd's.(it's not really a read problem but a playback problem, hardware in the us is usually set only to playback at ntsc frame rate speed and not at pal, but a pc can playback at any video frame rate)

if you already have that software then yes that link says it'll do the job just fine.

if you don't own that software, this is what i use, handbrake.:- http://handbrake.fr/downloads.php never needed to change the source frame rates from ntsc to pal or vise versa so don't know the exact steps.
but you should find lots of info and help from these two links or with a quick google search.
handbrake guide:- https://trac.handbrake.fr/wiki/HandBrakeGuide
handbrake forum:- https://forum.handbrake.fr/
you'll need separate software to burn it back to a disc tho, what i use for this doesn't work with a windows os, so can't recommend anything here.

now for the dvd, if it's a read only(cheaper blank dvd disc's) then you won't be able to record anything to it anyway, but if it's a read/write dvd then yes you should be able to use it to write the new decoded video back onto it (i wouldn't i'd just use it as the backup disc) either way tho, first your going to have to copy the video onto your pc so the software can convert it and put the converted video into another image file, this new image is what your then going to burn to a new blank dvd, or to the read/write disc it was originally on.

of course depending on how your software works and if you have 2 dvd drives in your pc, you may be able to read from the drive with the video dvd in and convert the video on the fly(it'll still be copying it to the pc to re-encode, but doing it as it goes along) and burn it straight to a blank dvd in the other drive,
must admit i've never done it this way tho and always copy the full video file to my pc before i run any re-encoding/editing before burning it to a dvd.

Hi, thanks for your help :), but could you elaborate further? I have looked on the internet for how to convert pal to ntsc using handbrake could find no guides on how to do this? Could you please give an EXACT step by step guide of how you do it? I have no idea of how to use this software at all and therefore have no idea of how to use handbrake to convert PAL DVD's to NTSC. One person said use handbrake to rip to avi or mp4 and then use devede to make it an NTSC and then another said try to make it a multiregiion disc that will play anywhere on the planet. http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-1035465.html i don't know how to do either of those things. Please just give this newbie (who gets easily confused btw ) an easy step by step guide on how to use handbrake to convert PAL to NTSC. Thanks.

ok this is what you'll need to do. we'll leave everything at handbrakes defaults to make things easy and just change the frame rate to ntsc.(there are lots of settings you can learn to play with on your own to adjust video quality, file size, etc.) put the dvd into the pc's dvd r/w drive. open handbrake in the top right hand corner you'll see "file" click on it to open a dropdown window, you should see your dvd drive there with the title of the video, click on it and hand brake will start scanning your dvd when it's finished scanning you should see details and a picture appear in the summary tab below. in the destination above the summary you'll see a file window box where you can rename the file if you want, just below that you'll see where it's going to be stored after encoding, just use the dropdown arrow to navigate and choose somewhere you'll be able to find it again easily, desktop say. click on the video tab next to the summary tab below. where it says framerate "same as source" click the dropdown arrow and click on the 29.97 (NTSC Video) to select it. click on the green play/start button near the top, this will turn red and start encoding the video. the video could take anywhere from 20minutes to a few hrs to encode depending on the speed of your pc and video length. when it's finished it'll give you a little popup box telling you and the start button will turn back to green. you'll find the new ntsc file wherever you chose for it's destination, close handbrake find the file and click on it to play using whatever media player you have installed to check it, next and last step open whatever program your going to use to burn the file as an image to a new dvd, it is important you do burn it as an "IMAGE" and not just drag/drop copy the file to a blank dvd, otherwise it will/might not play when you put it into your playstation or dvd player. until your dvd arrives you could play with handbrake using one of your dvd's and try converting it to pal from it's original ntsc, just to get used to it.(if you experiment with the quality/file size settings, remember the coded file size needs to be smaller than 4.3GBs to fit onto a standard single layer blank dvd) there are other/quicker ways to just change the frame rate from pal to ntsc without actually converting the video, using different programs but this is what i use.

been a while since i've done anything like this and my memories not great.

i just remembered handbrake doesn't create an image(iso) file that you can burn straight to a dvd…

after i just ran a test..

so also download and install devede here :- http://devede.softpedia.com/

open devede
click the top choice video dvd
in the changed window near the bottom put the dot next to ntsc under default format, just click it
on the right under the empty files window, click the add button
in the new window at the top right, click anywhere in the empty bar, a new window opens find the file you just made using handbrake and click on it to highlight it,
click the open button at the bottom, taking you back to the last window, now you will see at the top in the file bar a film icon and name,
click ok bottom right corner to close that window and go back to first.
now check the disc usage bar and if it says anything over 100% click on the adjust disc usage to the right, to make sure the iso will fit on a single layer dvd.
click forward bottom right corner.
in the new window choose where your going to create the dvd image, i suggest desktop and give it the name you want.
click ok

now you'll have an ntsc image(iso) file that you can burn to dvd.

here's a video tutorial :- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XBx6juZnZQ…ayer_detailpage

been a while since i've done anything like this and my memories not great.

i just remembered handbrake doesn't create an image(iso) file that you can burn straight to a dvd…

after i just ran a test..

so also download and install devede here :- http://devede.softpedia.com/

open devede
click the top choice video dvd
in the changed window near the bottom put the dot next to ntsc under default format, just click it
on the right under the empty files window, click the add button
in the new window at the top right, click anywhere in the empty bar, a new window opens find the file you just made using handbrake and click on it to highlight it,
click the open button at the bottom, taking you back to the last window, now you will see at the top in the file bar a film icon and name,
click ok bottom right corner to close that window and go back to first.
now check the disc usage bar and if it says anything over 100% click on the adjust disc usage to the right, to make sure the iso will fit on a single layer dvd.
click forward bottom right corner.
in the new window choose where your going to create the dvd image, i suggest desktop and give it the name you want.
click ok

now you'll have an ntsc image(iso) file that you can burn to dvd.

here's a video tutorial :- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XBx6juZnZQ…ayer_detailpage

Thanks for your replies terry. I appreciate them. They sound very detailed and well thought out. Well the devede option sounds easier than handbrake to me. And you said there there there is a video tutorial, which is great for a newbie like me. Would the devede option be better to use for this? To convert a PAL video to NtSC? Please let me know, because when my DVD arrives I think I want to try it.

i honestly don't know if devede will rip and encode the pal dvd into ntsc on it's own before creating the iso image, or if it does,
if it will be a better quality video than converting it from pal to ntsc with handbrake first and then using devede just to create the iso image of the resulting file.

it's not something i've ever tried converting from pal to ntsc and it's also been a very long time since i've used either program for anything,

so all i can suggest is to play with them both and see what results you end up with.

who knows someone might come along and suggest a better/easier windows only program for you to use, there are a quite a few out there, some free some not.



lots of video's out there on using both handbrake and devede.. :- here's one for handbrake..:- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x88xM4vl0zk…ayer_detailpage

i also suggest installing vlc if you don't already have it. :- http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-windows.html

Thanks for the information terry. Once I get the DVD I will try it.