Hi folks,

I am familiar with converting NTSC DV to PAL DV on a Mac with FCP, using, say Nattress, but is there a simple way of converting a NTSC DVD to a PAL DVD - no DV footage available.

I've never been asked to do it before, but a client has just one copy of a home made NTSC DVD from her brother who lives in the US, and wants to change it to a PAL DVD so she can watch it here in Ireland.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

There is a good chance your client will be able to watch the NTSC dvd in her own player in Ireland.
Many dvd players here in Europe can play NTSC also.
(I think most, if not all the players sold here in Norway can play both PAL and NTSC)

I agree: all DVD players can play both NTSC and PAL, and all recent TVs (last ten years?) can take the NTSC signal output from the DVD player and display it.

Assuming the NTSC disc is Region Free (or alternatively, assuming the Irish DVD player is multi-region) I would fully expect the NTSC disc to work in Ireland.

Has you client even tried to play the NTSC disc she has?

Assuming the NTSC disc is Region Free (or alternatively, assuming the Irish DVD player is multi-region) I would fully expect the NTSC disc to work in Ireland.


Home made DVD is always region free. The region encoding is (mostly) for the Hollywood productions so they can release their DVDs in different parts of the world at different times.

Thanks Guys-

Martin- I asked her the same question - she says it will do nothing on her own DVD player, or on her laptop... which surprised me, to be honest. However, she did say it would play on her mother's multi-region DVD player. I was going to suggest buying a multi region player as an alternative to having her DVD converted.. but wanted to offer her a choice of both, if possible.

I converted some of my home movies (NTSC) using iMovie to PAL format. Then I burned a DVD using iDVD which was set to burn in PAL format. I mailed the DVD to my family and they were able to view the DVD with a PAL DVD player and a PAL TV without any problem.

To do this, you need to import your NTSC movie to iMovie and then export it using the expert Quicktime settings. Use the compression setting DV-PAL and the frame rate setting 25 fps. After exporting the movie, open iDVD and change the region setting to PAL at preferences menu. Then import your PAL movie to iDVD which you already set to PAL format in preferences. All you need to do is then burn your DVD.

Hope this helps.

P.