Hi, I just purchased a DVD from the UK and it's region 2 PAL. I can play it with no problem because I have a region free DVD player. I made a copy and made the DVD region FREE so anyone can view it. So I started to watch it on the DVD in the Rec Room ($29.99), which is a no frills DVD player. It started playing no problem, but the black bars on the top and bottom are missing and it looks like it's PAL. So I played another DVD with the black bars (widescreen - I buy nothing else) and it played with the black bars. Is there a program to convert PAL to NTSC (US)? I'm, sort of new to this because I never had to use any forums. I figured everything out and it worked. I'm not new to PC's, just to this PAL to NTSC/ DVD players/recorders/region codes...etc. I would appreciate any and all help.
I assume you are watching DVD on analog NTSC TV/Monitor. So your DVD player output (RF and Composite Video) must be NTSC. (Otherwise you cannot see the color on the picture unless your are using S-Video Out.) Although I believe that the reason you lost top and bottom “Black Bar” is the difference in system of PAL and NTSC like you mentioned. Most PAL system has 625 lines in 4/3 aspect ratio (50 Hz). NTSC has 525 line (60 Hz). So if you watch Full Screen (not Wide Screen) PAL video signal on your system, you will not see top 50 lines and bottom 50 lines. And the screen looks like stretched vertically (You will see only 525 line out of 625). I am not sure about your wide screen signal. (It must be something to do with the original aspect ratio and how your DVD player converts to video signal.) Though since you are missing “Black Bar”, I think same as Full Screen. (Does your picture seem stretched a little?) As my understanding, PAL and NTSC are only for Analog signal. So using DVD Players digital output and digital monitor may be different… How is the screen when you watch it on the PC? If you see “Stretch” on PC, what you need is to change aspect ratio of video (not the way you meant of “PAL to NTSC”). Am I helping???? (I feel that I'm not explaining well. Ask again you have question.)
My previous post based on my knowledge of TV/Video (analog) signal. So I believe it is mostly correct for analog source, like VHS. (Though still color and V-Height issue are there between PAL and NTSC.) I did not know about digital source (DVD). I meant what is on DVD. Following is from Wikipedia(DVD-Video). “DVD-Video can consist of either MPEG-2 at up to 9.8 Mbit/s (9800 kbit/s) or MPEG-1 at up to 1.856 Mbit/s (1856 kbit/s). The following formats are allowed for MPEG-2 video: At 25 fps (usually used in regions where PAL is standard): 720 × 576 pixels MPEG-2 (Called full D1) 704 × 576 pixels MPEG-2 352 × 576 pixels MPEG-2 (Called Half-D1, same as the China Video Disc standard) 352 × 288 pixels MPEG-2 At 29.97 or 23.976 fps (usually used in regions where NTSC is standard): 720 × 480 pixels MPEG-2 (Called full D1) 704 × 480 pixels MPEG-2 352 × 480 pixels MPEG-2 (Called Half-D1, same as the China Video Disc standard) 352 × 240 pixels MPEG-2” So, your region 2 DVD has data for 720 * 576 (or 704 * 576), and the region1 DVD has data for 720 * 480 (704 * 480). Note that Region 2’s is taller than region 1’s. Therefore if you see region 2 DVD on the PC, you’ll probably see taller picture (screen), and not “Stretched”. I still do not know that there is a standard how to convert those region 2 data format to NTSC. It may be up to DVD player. Your Region-Free player and your standard player are creating different analog signals (NTSC). I guess it is just not common to watch a region 2 DVD with the standard DVD player...
