convert PAL to NTSC

Hi, im new to the forum i am in Australia, the standard in PAL over here, i am wanting to send a documentary that i made to USA to enter a film festival, im submitting in in Mini DV format, but i need to convert it from PAL to NTSC, i've done this by exporting the documentary through Adobe Premiere pro as a movie file (.avi) but just chose NTSC 29.97fps in the drop down menu....is this wrong??? should my documentary playback fine in USA??

 

The demux/mux, 2:3 pulldown, audio stretch, all that I get. It's pretty straightforward. The hardest part is maintaining the menus and chapter points.. right now I pretty much have to do them by hand. Does anyone know if there's an easier way to migrate PAL menus and chapter points over to NTSC (or vice versa)?

 

That is the most arrogant non-response I've seen. A more accurate response would have been "This question has been asked many, many times, but I don't know the answer."

After running the search, I found a number of threads containing that string, but none of them resolved the issue. They all raised more questions than they answered.

My search will continue until I find a meaningful answer.

 

Okay, after reading and reading, I finally got Nero Recode to actually work, I guess the new version fixed all those bugs. BUT, I can't find an option to recode the PAL/NTSC DVD into the other format.

Is there a way to Recode PAL into NTSC and vice-versa?

So far, Nero Recode is the only thing I have found that says it will recode the menus, audio, subtitles, etc., of the entire DVD.

Is it possible to do this, or does it just allow you to recode to a new region?

All my newer DVD players automatically conver PAL to NTSC, so is it safe to just recode the DVD to Region 1, from Region 2, 3, 4, etc.?

 

The best answer is to not convert PAL to NTSC (or the other way around).
I'll throw another method into the pot here, and you can all bash the hell out of it as well

Take the PAL video, load into tmpgenc.
Select the NTSC template, then on the settings tab, change the framerate back to 25fps PAL. Encode to elementary streams.
This generates an NTSC aspect (720x480) video at 25fps.
Good for nothing really, but it will play on the computer, AND it will probably play in most standalones.
For compliance, we need the header of the mpg to be NTSC as well, thus fooling the player slightly.
Get DGPulldown. Load the m2v you just made in tmpgenc. Select the 25 -> 29.97 button, and convert it.
Load the mp2 audio and dgpulldown.m2v into your authoring program.
For better compliance, transcode the mp2 into AC3, then author.

 

I used AVI2DVD..W/CCE..To convert a movie I had in PAL to NTSC..(The Aviator)..I Know it worked cause my X wife borrowed it & it would not play in her DVD Player,thats when I used Nero Tools to see..WaLa it was Pal..so I converted it..WaLa it Played in Her player no jumping or skipping still nice 5. Surroud sound..Nero Tools said it was NTSC after
I finished..TOOK 6 Hrs 2passes

 

rebootjim, it's funny you mentioned that technique 'cause I was just going to ask about it. I ran across this guide:
http://www.johnisme.com/avi1.shtml

for that very method.

 

it ain't funny it's a forum..that's why we all come here

 

Again, this is all basically the same stuff, the easiest way, use Canopus Let's Edit to IMPORT the DVD, use Canopus Procoder to convert to NTSC/PAL, then use Let's Edit to burn it to the new DVD.

But, I believe, as with me, the original quaestion is how to convert EVERYTHING. Menus, separate audio tracks, subtitles, etc., from NTSC to PAL or PAL to NTSC.

Posting how to convert AVI's is fine, but first, unless you use the method I just described, Pinnacle Studio 9.4 now allows importing DVDs as well, to import the MPEG-2, convert it to NTSC/PAL MPEG, then burn it back to DVD, you still have to:

1) Convert the VOB file to AVI
2) Convert the AVI to NTSC/PAL
3) Convert the AVI to MPEG-2
4) Burn it to a DVD.

No menus, no multiple audio tracks, no subtitles, etc..

Nero Recode is the ONLY software I can find that says it does recode the menus, audio and subtitle tracks...

I can't find the option of recoding the entire movie with all extras to another format. I can recode from Dual Layer to Single Layer, and I assume region since it is doing the entire DVD, but there is, that I can see, an option to recode to PAL or NTSC.

As long as all NEW DVD players will auto-convert PAL to NTSC, Nero recode seems to be the ONLY way to atcually keep all the menus, extras, etc., just recode them to a new region, depending on the region setting of your recorder.

 

I have found an answere to this. I have tried everything for the past month for this problem. All the software mentioned in this thread was tried. I was not ever satisfied with the results. Jerky Playback, Digital ripping, block artifacts and screwed up aspect ration on 16:9 are just some of the things I was unable to fully rid of. There is a program out there called SVCD2DVD. Even using this program did not make me fully happy until I tried its V2 RC9 release. The RC9 version added ability to convert PAL to NTSC and NTSC to PAL. This feature was not available in Version 2 RC8 or older. RC9 was just relesed last month.

So I paid the $20 US price for the full version of SVCD2DVD V.2 RC9 and I am impressed and finaly satisfied. When I get the files, Even XVID, onto DVD it looks like the network made the disk. Some of my XVID where PAL but now NTSC on DVD. No block, Nice playback, No digital ripping, audio in sync and best of all aspect ratio is correct in 16:9. The program does some of the steps mentioned before in this thread. It takes the PAL down to 23 FPS then it Demuxes. After that it converts PAL to NTSC or other way arround. Then it applies pulldown. Finally it puts the audio back with the video. Leaving you with a nice .VOB set. I use DVD lab to make the menues. Although SVCD2DVD has a very basic menu thing in it.

Now, the way of using 3 to 4 different programs to do all that would take me almost 4 hours to finish with near ok results. On the same file run through SVCD2DVD in 2 pass it only takes 1.5 hour to complete. Not to mention only changing 3 settings before hitting start. There are talks about this program in this fourum. Many say they do not like it but they are not talking about RC9. I agree with what the others have said about it in previous versons of this program. There is a difference of night and day between V2 RC8 and V2 RC9. Its free to try. The demo will only author 2Gig but gives same results of full. Since I am in NTSC land I have not tried conversions from NTSC to PAL. But there is an option there for it, Even in the demo.

What the heck??? I just looked up and noticed the Preview. Is that new or was my computer settings messed up? I like it.

-Del

 

Rebootjim has just solved this problem
You are all wasting a lot of time using the slowdown method.
I have tried everything on this board. NOTHING works better than his method. Simply change the size of your Mpeg and use Dopulldown to fool the DVD player NO AUDIO resync time streching involved.
I have tried the new streams converted this way in Sonic Scenarist with no problems. We were about to go back to Alchemist Phc to get PAL TO NTSC this method has saved me £10000.00. I have 32 NTSC conversion for a client which have to be re authored PROFESSIONALLY in Sonic Scenarist all are live concerts where audio sync must be spot on.
Sonic reports no problems and I have authored and tested using 3 different DVD players set to NTSC with an NTSC Monitor all worked.
I am based in the U.K my client is a large American distributer nothing can go wrong and time tight so thanks again Rebootjim
you have saved my life.

Cheers,

Dave.

http://www.johnisme.com/avi1.shtml

 

Nyquest: You have to realize that RebootJim"s Method will Not work on all DVD Players and if doing this for someone as a Buisiness you would want to allways create Files that are 100% DVD Compliant as these Files wouldn"t be.....

Pluss the other Methods are Just as simple or even Simpler than this One if you know what you are doing.....

 

I never said it was 100% compliant, but...from extensive testing on my part (8 hours at the local DVD player stores), and testing in 67 different machines, from Nexxtech to Sony, and everything in between, it played on every single one with no problems.
So, from my experience (and others that have posted after trying it), the process IS 100% compliant...however, I would venture to say, there is always going to be one machine out there somewhere, that won't play it.
For arguments sake, they're 99% compliant

 

Many thanks to both of you for your concerns and help.
I am still going with this method because my projects are in 2.0 & 5.1 stretching audio is too much of a pain and I can still see jittering with the slow down. I have to deliver the first 4 by the end of June so I will keep you informed of any nasty suprises I may encounter.
Just one question why would the slow down method make compliant streams and the non slow down not?
They both use pulldown to fool the player don't they?
Scenarist will not let you import non compliant streams when authoring but had no problems recognising the files as NTSC. Surely this means the streams are compliant?

Again,
Thanks for your input.

 

It only means that Scenearist thinks the streams are compliant.
I have no idea how Scenearist determines this. It may be only reading the header and aspect of the file.
DVDLab Pro also accepts them as compliant.
Doesn't matter which method you use, both outputs seem to be compliant.
The single largest issue with framerate conversion, is audio sync.
DGPulldown has no such problems.

 

to: Minion

I've been reading this topic and would like to know how this proces is reversed as in a conversion from NTSC to Pal? to be more exactly how to reverse a 2:3 pulldown, speeding up the frame rate should be easy.

 

Hi all: I have read the entire thread (convert PAL to NTSC)and still a bit unsure of the best way to convert a PAL Movie to NTSC format and cannot find a definitive guide anywhere that fully explains how to do this. The process that Minion describes sounds to be a great way (slowing video down to 23.976 using script "AssumeFPS(23.976,True))but unsure of steps to take, especially regarding the 2:3 Pulldown Flags and regarding the audio.

I have the DVD PAL video in VOB's and associated files.

Should I demux the audio and video first and proceed from there? Really just unsure of exactly what to do to get a great NTSC DVD that will play in a stand-alone player.

I am a newbie at this so if someone can please provide a step by step guide as to best way of doing this conversion, I, as I'm sure many other forum readers, would greatly appreciate your time and help, THANKS!

 

@ SpooX, DGpulldown will do it that way too.
Select Custom, and go from source fps to 25fps.

@ dll2hell, there is no definitive guide, because there's no definitive method.
I use the dgpulldown method (described on the previous page), and it works for me.
Demux the video to it's .m2v and .ac3 components.
Re-encode the video to NTSC standard 720x480 but DO NOT adjust the framerate. Keep it at 25fps.
Apply dgpulldown to the file, 25fps -> 29.97fps
Author the dgpulldown.m2v and the original ac3.

 

i was just wondering if i use cce and avisynth will my extras and menus be ripped? thanks in advance

 

Thanks for your reply rebootjim! I tried to find instructions on using the dgpulldown method and to follow your steps but I have one problem...I don't know how to demux the audio and video exactly and don't know which settings to use for the video portion (i assume we would use DVD2AVI for the audio?). When we re-encode the m2v are we talking about using TMPGENC without any special settings except for maybe using the NTSC DVD template? After we do this, a DVD compliant MPEG is created and we would use dgpulldown to convert to NTSC format? Pretty lame heh? I really am a newbie but trying to understand and figure out how to do this.

On a second note: I have tried another method by demuxing audio and video, using tmpgenc to create a mpeg file by using avs script (AssuemFPT(23.876,true) and using goldwave to create wav and then to match length of this wav to the mpeg file and then to convert this to a AC3 file. THen I authored this, but audio does not match up to video! I tried this 2x and it took like 8hrs. each time but will not give up yet.

Can someone please help so I can do this the right way and a way that works? (I have a PAL Movie DVD ripped to VOB's and I assume that this is a progressive movie and I want to convert to NTSC to play on a stand alone DVD player). Thanks to anyone with suggestions!