Hello .... Does anyone know if there's an easy way to convert a PAL dvd to NTSC? Will Shrink or Decryptor work? Thanks
I've been able to convert a dvd (not a commercial one), from NTSC to PAL with Nero. There's a DVD I've been wanting to purchase, but it's only available in Europe (PAL) and never released in the States. I'm hesitant to get it there's no way to convert it to NTSC.
In my opinion, converting between PAL and NTSC is hardly worth the trouble anymore. There are inexpensive DVD players that will allow you to play both formats. I bought a Cyberhome CH DVD-300 at Best Buy for $40 and it plays PAL and NTSC DVD's just fine. http://www.cyberhome.com/products.asp?Product=300 Or, you could install free software on your PC to make your DVD drive region free and watch the DVD on your PC. You can software convert a PAL DVD to NTSC if you really want to, but the easy one-click methods like NeroVision Express 3 sometimes give you bad results with choppy playback or audio sync problems. You might get lucky and get a decent result though. To convert it properly takes some time. http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?t=56599 I still think the easiest thing is to get a cheap DVD player that plays both.
Nero is the easiest way. As pointed out, the results aren't always that great. Nero has to add frames to convert to the 29.97 fps NTSC format. The other thing is that you will only get the movie. The menu will be lost. There's no way around this. If you need a menu, you will have to make your own.
PAL is superior to NTSC( never the same color) why would you want to degrade it? Most DVD players on the market today support both formats anyway.
Thanks for the feedback ..... I'm interested in the movie, as it was never released in the states. If I can get it w/o the menu, that's ok too. As for dual capacity players, how does one determine if a system can play PAL and NTSC? I've never seen any references to PAL on any cartons. If I'm lucky enough to hound down a sales person to help me, I've found that most of them are are CLUELESS (and don't even know what PAL is). Most of them guess just to make a sale. I recently had to return a dvd players FOUR times, because I was given incorrect information. I'll check out Best Buy and see if they have Cyberhome.
Google "region free DVD players." You will get a good listing of brand, model numbers, and specs. That way you can tell the store what you want.
I don't know if Best Buy still sells the Cyberhome CH-DVD 300, but they might. I bought mine over a year ago. As suggested, Google first, do your homework so you know what your're getting before you buy it. Don't rely on sales people. Also, the Cyberhome 300 is region free, but right out of the box it won't play all regions. You have to use a hack with the remote control to enable the region free capabilities. But you only have to do it once then it remains region-free forever.
use a hack with the remote control ???? .... hmmm, what does this mean? How is it done? Is this the case with most region free systems?
I don't know about other players, but for the Cyberhome CH-DVD 300 it's quite simple. Turn the Cyberhome player on. Make sure there is no DVD in the DVD tray. Close the tray and with the remote press menu, 1, 9. A menu will appear, use the arrow keys to navigate down and enter region code 0. From then on the Cyberhome CH-DVD 300 will be region free.
Moonrocks...even though it plays PAL, don't you also need to have a PAL compatible TV...because TV standards are also different? The specs say both PAL and NTSC TV standards are supported...but it doesn't say anything about converting one to the other.
It converts. Whether you're playing an NTSC DVD or PAL DVD it will still output NTSC. A regular American TV will be fine.
in best buy what they have is CyberHome Compact Multiformat Progressive-Scan DVD Player Model: CH-DVD300S This is the same dvd player capable of play PAL?
Yes. The 'S' just just means it's the Silver model. It also comes in black. The 300S will be fine with PAL.
BTW: I checked Best Buys yesterday and they're not carrying this model any more ... at least, not in my neck of the woods. To see if it's available near you, you can check Best Buy's site
A Best Buy near me showed that they had one in stock .... I called ahead to make sure they had it. After 4 attempts to call them, and getting hung up on, I gave up. (They didn't want to look for it!). There are plenty of them on line. Amazon's price is decent but their $20 shipping charge was a bit too much! ... I finally found one through BundleCity.com for $42 (including shipping). Ordering process couldn't have been more simple.
