NTSC DVD playing back in PAL Asia at DVinfo.net

Yang Wen · January 2nd, 2004, 07:28 AM

I'm creating a DVD title for a client that might possibly take it to China to display there. Now i know that DVD titles sold in China can playback here fine, but since China uses the PAL standard, that just complicates things. Also it is known that a lot of TVs in China supports both standard. But what requirements are needed on the DVD player side? It needs to be region free obviously(But can't I author without a region put in?) Does the player need to be a PAL player that supports NTSC(Or do all DVD Players supports both format?) What can I do while authoring to ensure that my NTSC DVD title will playback in China? Thanks

Frank Granovski · January 2nd, 2004, 08:07 AM

You will need a multi-system DVD player, these are also region free.

Rob Lohman · January 2nd, 2004, 08:16 AM

Are you sure on that frank? To the best of my knowledge all
DVD players will be able to play all formats. Usually the TV
(or whatever you are using to display the DVD) is the problem
(it gets the NTSC or PAL signal). There are multistandard DVD
players that can CONVERT the signal on the fly. Then it can
convert an NTSC DVD to PAL while it is playing.

You cannot do region coding (or encryption for that matter)
as a consumer. Only professionally authored DVD's can do that.
So no worries on regions etc. The only "issue" is the NTSC / PAL
one.

Frank Granovski · January 2nd, 2004, 08:23 AM

Quote:

To the best of my knowledge all DVD players will be able to play all formats

Not here in North America; and for a DVD player to play all formats and convert the signal, it would have to be a multi-system / region free unit. Perhaps in China, most DVD players are multi-system.

Rob Lohman · January 2nd, 2004, 08:54 AM

Yes, for it to convert it must be a multistandard capable player.
We agree on that. I just thought all player could HANDLE all
discs. Well, all european (whether or not they can CONVERT the
sgnal) do anyway.

Jake Russell · January 14th, 2004, 11:23 AM

Yep if you make the disc Region ALL, Regions 1-8 are flagged, then it'll play on all players pretty much. Even if the player is Region 2 only it will play as Region 2 is flagged on the disc. Some Region 1 players are suppose to be about in the US that don't like Region All disc but they are few and far between at the moment.

As mentioned it's the tv standard that play's a big role and sending a NTSC region ALL disc to PALland has a far greater chance of playing than the other way around.

On the topic of Regions, I'm testing TFDVDEdit 2 at the moment and this topic came up while I've been playing. It's been pretty much said that for region codeing to work reliably you need to enable copy protection(CSS) and write to DLT. I have a dvd-r written which we're testing and it's 'Region Mask code' is set to '0' and working perfectly so far. All non-modified players would not play the disc and put up it's Region warning. So it's got some heads scratching on the tfdvdedit board.

Jake

Paul Leung · February 4th, 2004, 11:28 PM

Yang,
I have tried played a PAL DVD with a normal DVD player in Canada. It played... however the TV was not multisystem so only saw distorted pictures and noise.

Shouldn't need to worry about DVD players sold in Asia. Almost all DVD sold in this region is in fact NTSC! Surprising but this is the fact. This reason is that imported DVDs (LD in the past) from US and Japan are very popular. All you need to worry about is the TV.... many TV sold in China are multisystem... however, not all.

If your client is in HK. You need not worry at all. 99.999% DVD players and TV sold after the 80's in HK are multisystem.

PS. DVD players sold in HK don't have regional code restriction at all!

January 2nd, 2004, 07:28 AM	#1
Yang Wen Major Player Join Date: May 2003 Location: Chicago, IL Posts: 991	NTSC DVD playing back in PAL Asia I'm creating a DVD title for a client that might possibly take it to China to display there. Now i know that DVD titles sold in China can playback here fine, but since China uses the PAL standard, that just complicates things. Also it is known that a lot of TVs in China supports both standard. But what requirements are needed on the DVD player side? It needs to be region free obviously(But can't I author without a region put in?) Does the player need to be a PAL player that supports NTSC(Or do all DVD Players supports both format?) What can I do while authoring to ensure that my NTSC DVD title will playback in China? Thanks

January 2nd, 2004, 08:16 AM	#3
Rob Lohman RED Code Chef Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Holland Posts: 12,514	Are you sure on that frank? To the best of my knowledge all DVD players will be able to play all formats. Usually the TV (or whatever you are using to display the DVD) is the problem (it gets the NTSC or PAL signal). There are multistandard DVD players that can CONVERT the signal on the fly. Then it can convert an NTSC DVD to PAL while it is playing. You cannot do region coding (or encryption for that matter) as a consumer. Only professionally authored DVD's can do that. So no worries on regions etc. The only "issue" is the NTSC / PAL one. __________________ Rob Lohman, visuar@iname.com DV Info Wrangler & RED Code Chef Join the DV Challenge \| Lady X Search DVinfo.net for quick answers \| Buy from the best: DVinfo.net sponsors

January 2nd, 2004, 08:54 AM	#5
Rob Lohman RED Code Chef Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Holland Posts: 12,514	Yes, for it to convert it must be a multistandard capable player. We agree on that. I just thought all player could HANDLE all discs. Well, all european (whether or not they can CONVERT the sgnal) do anyway. __________________ Rob Lohman, visuar@iname.com DV Info Wrangler & RED Code Chef Join the DV Challenge \| Lady X Search DVinfo.net for quick answers \| Buy from the best: DVinfo.net sponsors

January 2nd, 2004, 08:07 AM	#2
Frank Granovski Outer Circle Join Date: May 2002 Location: Hope, BC Posts: 7,524	You will need a multi-system DVD player, these are also region free.

January 14th, 2004, 11:23 AM	#6
Jake Russell Regular Crew Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Oxford, UK Posts: 177	Yep if you make the disc Region ALL, Regions 1-8 are flagged, then it'll play on all players pretty much. Even if the player is Region 2 only it will play as Region 2 is flagged on the disc. Some Region 1 players are suppose to be about in the US that don't like Region All disc but they are few and far between at the moment. As mentioned it's the tv standard that play's a big role and sending a NTSC region ALL disc to PALland has a far greater chance of playing than the other way around. On the topic of Regions, I'm testing TFDVDEdit 2 at the moment and this topic came up while I've been playing. It's been pretty much said that for region codeing to work reliably you need to enable copy protection(CSS) and write to DLT. I have a dvd-r written which we're testing and it's 'Region Mask code' is set to '0' and working perfectly so far. All non-modified players would not play the disc and put up it's Region warning. So it's got some heads scratching on the tfdvdedit board. Jake

February 4th, 2004, 11:28 PM	#7
Paul Leung Regular Crew Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Vancouver, Canada Posts: 173	Yang, I have tried played a PAL DVD with a normal DVD player in Canada. It played... however the TV was not multisystem so only saw distorted pictures and noise. Shouldn't need to worry about DVD players sold in Asia. Almost all DVD sold in this region is in fact NTSC! Surprising but this is the fact. This reason is that imported DVDs (LD in the past) from US and Japan are very popular. All you need to worry about is the TV.... many TV sold in China are multisystem... however, not all. If your client is in HK. You need not worry at all. 99.999% DVD players and TV sold after the 80's in HK are multisystem. PS. DVD players sold in HK don't have regional code restriction at all!