PAL format

[Whatever]

OK, I know this has been asked before and will be asked again. BUT I need to know, so I will ask. I really really really love the German movie "Good-Bye Lenin" and really really really want/need/desire to see it again. It is the greatest movie. It is maddening because it has been released finally here in the United States. But the only version I can find is PAL format. I don't know if I can play PAL format. I watch all DVDs on my computer, which is new and Dell. Does anyone know if this will play PAL format or how I can find out if it does? Thanks for any advice!

 

[Boober_Gorg]

No computer I know of can play R2 discs, but there are several places you can contact to make a R1 backup (that would probably cost an arm and a leg, though). I think there might also be DVD burning software that can make a R1 copy of an R2 disc. But maybe I'm dreaming.

Your thoughts, Alex?

 

[Muppetsdownunder]

I have a few American NTSC DVDs and they play fine in my computer and here in australia we use the PAL format. They even work fine in most video players and TVs here. You can get software that gets rid of region coding, it sometimes can take a little skill to get rid of region coding though, thats why I havent attempted it just yet plus region 1 discs work for the moment on this computer.

I'm not sure if NTSC or PAL colour systems even affect playback on computers bcause I'm pretty sure computer monitors are much the same worldwide. Its just TVS that can be a problem sometimes.

 

[anathema]

OK, I know this has been asked before and will be asked again. BUT I need to know, so I will ask. I really really really love the German movie "Good-Bye Lenin" and really really really want/need/desire to see it again. It is the greatest movie. It is maddening because it has been released finally here in the United States. But the only version I can find is PAL format. I don't know if I can play PAL format. I watch all DVDs on my computer, which is new and Dell. Does anyone know if this will play PAL format or how I can find out if it does? Thanks for any advice!

You're saying you've found a PAL videotape/DVD for sale in the US?!

Any computer which can play DVDs will play PAL and NTSC discs. As far as it's concerned, the only difference is the picture size and framerate. However, you will find that your DVD drive is configured to only allow discs flagged for a certain region to play. Since you're in the US, that will be region 1. This can be changed, but you are only allowed to change it a few times (usually 6) before it 'sticks' on whichever region you last set. There are tools which will unlock your drive again, but I have no particular experience of any of them. I simply have two drives, one set for R1, the other for R2.

Converting a PAL disc to an NTSC one is a non-trivial task!

Most if not all PAL DVD players will play NTSC discs (a PAL60-compatible TV set is also required). Very few NTSC players will play PAL discs, and those that do will actually perform a standards-conversion on the signal, so the results are less than ideal anyway.



Something that doesn't seem to be well understood here is the difference between the TV system (PAL, NTSC) and region coding (R1, R2, ...).

The region code is just a flag on the disc that says whether the disc can be played in a particular geographic region. There are eight regions, cunningly numbered R1-R8:

1: U.S., Canada, U.S. Territories
2: Japan, Europe, South Africa, and Middle East (including Egypt)
3: Southeast Asia and East Asia (including Hong Kong)
4: Australia, New Zealand, Pacific Islands, Central America, Mexico, South America, and the Caribbean
5: Eastern Europe (Former Soviet Union), Indian subcontinent, Africa, North Korea, and Mongolia
6: China
7: Reserved
8: Special international venues (airplanes, cruise ships, etc.)


That's all it does. Many discs are flagged with multiple regions (for example, most discs published by the BBC are flagged for R2 - the UK and Europe, and R4 - Australia). Other titles may be flagged for all regions; these are sometimes - incorrectly - referred to as 'region-free'. If your player allows playback of one or more of the disc's flagged regions, it can in theory play the disc. If not, not. Most players can be modified to support playback of all regions.


The TV system is what actually determines whether the disc will play. Most of the world uses a system with 625 lines making up the picture, and 25 pictures per second. The US, Canada, Japan and a handful of other places use a system with 525 lines and 30 pictures per second. The two are not interchangeable.

625-line is commonly referred to as 'PAL'; PAL is actually just the colour system used by most of the 625-line world. 525-line is referred to as 'NTSC' for the same reason.

A DVD player sold in Europe is 'PAL' by definition, and will also play 'NTSC' discs (Japan is R2, the same as Europe, but is also an 'NTSC' country, and it's cheaper to produce all players to do the same tricks). A DVD player sold in the US is 'NTSC', but will almost invariably NOT play 'PAL' discs. The reason for this is simple: there is a huge demand for US videotapes and DVDs in Europe, so most European TV sets will support a variant on NTSC called 'PAL60'; this allows cheap and easy playback of US tapes/discs. There is very little demand for European material in the US, so the same situation has not arisen: there is no 'NTSC50'.



Any disc can be flagged as R1 regardless of its contents. Likewise, any disc can be flagged as R2 (or any of the others) regardless.

Computers do not care about the TV system: any disc will play so long as the DVD drive is set to support one of the disc's region flags.




I've asked this before: would there be an interest in a 'Video FAQ' thread? I'm happy to write it if there's enough demand...