Hello, I've seen many posts regarding this, but they all seem as though they're written in a foreign language for all the sense they make to me. I have purchased some exercise DVDs from eBay, and after receiving them I realized they're in PAL format (I did a lot of research and discovered the difference between PAL and NTSC--I never knew there was a region issue on DVDs). They won't play on my NTSC-only DVD player. I would like to just convert them to NTSC format. I have looked at www.geocities.com/xesdeeni2001/StandardsConversion/index.html which seemed to give the most details instructions, but when I tried actually doing any of these things, I can't figure out how they did it (the software they linked to doesn't seem to work in quite the same manner as the instructions on that site say they should). I am not a computer gamer, nor do I plan to ever do this again...these DVDs are just exercise DVDs (hey, I'm a full-time student, single mother of three boys under the age of 7). I paid over $150 for them, and can't afford to just give up on them. I will only do this once (on 7 DVDs, it is too cost prohibitive to use a service that will do this for me at $15 a pop), and won't need anything longer than a 30-day trial of something, assuming it works correctly. I have a brand new Dell Dimension 8300 with a DVD+RW burner, WinXP Pro, and Sonic MyDVD Deluxe v5.0 (also Windows Plus! Digital Media Edition). I have changed my computer's DVD drive to PAL format (and can now play the DVDs on my computer, but that's not what I want -- I need this to work on my regular DVD player in my home theatre) and really need to burn some of my Mini-DV tapes to DVDs, but don't want to change back to NTSC format just yet because I found I'm only allowed to make this change 5 times. Does anyone have any links to any websites, forum threads, or software which will work to do this? This is for DVD movies (exercise videos), not for games or anything else. These movies will not be played on a computer, but on a regular Sony DVD player. Thank you in advance for all your help! If I knew more about this stuff, I'm sure I'd appreciate the information in these forums a lot more! You guys are all so smart! And I'm so dumb! :-(
One more thing: I have read that there are cheapie DVD players one can purchase from BestBuy or Sam's Club, etc. which will play both. My TV set is about 9 years old, so I don't know if it will work anyway. Also, the Sony DVD player is only about 3 months old and also my "rack" is full, so I don't have any place to put a new DVD player (unless I put it on the floor where my small boys will step on it and damage it, and perhaps pull on the patch cords and damage the rest of the rack), and I also can't take the new DVD player back as I have owned it for too long. So, what I'm looking for is a way to load the PAL DVDs on my computer, and then burn them to new DVD+R disks in NTSC format, and delete them from my computer. I just wasn't sure if I made myself clear. In most of the posts I've viewed these last couple of days, it appears that everyone is discussing how to make a DVD playable on a computer, and telling everyone how NTSC/PAL compatible components may not work with certain older television sets. I just want to burn NTSC versions of my PAL DVDs on my DVD+RW burner. Nothing else. And, I'm completely ignorant of how to do any of this. Thanks again for your help! You guys are great!
NeroVision Express 2 handles all my R2 PAL to NTSC conversion chores, it does take a while to transcode, but it does work
Unfortunately, I don’t think there’s an easy fix. One thing you can do is to convert the IFO files in the PAL DVDs to MPEG2 file. The MPEG2 file will be in PAL format. Then use MovieFactory or Procoder to convert the MPEG2 file in PAL to NTSC format and burn the NTSC file. It may be cheaper (at least hassles-free to pay $15 per disc and have it converted). Sorry for this pessimistic note. Good luck!
I imagine you mean you've changed regions on you drive. Playing on your computer should make no difference as to PAL or NTSC. NeroVision Express which is part of Nero 6 should work (as was posted). Rip the originals first with DVDDecrypter (which will make them region free) then load the VOB's into NVE. You may not be able to use the original menus but you can create new chapter stops and menus with NVE. You could also try DVDShrink to backup/copy one and see if it plays in your standalone, it may, once Shrink removes the region coding. It really has nothing to do with your TV set.
Hi sillycybe, OKay, so you're saying your Nero Express 2 will let me rip the PAL-format DVD to my computer, and then burn the info to a new DVD in NTSC format? And sunyam0, I've looked at the files on the original DVD (there's a file which starts with "vts" as well as several other files), and I'm not sure what to do with them all. You're right, the easiest thing to do, especially since I don't ever expect to get stuck needing to do this again, is to go to a company that will change them over for me. 7 x $15 = $105 -- a pretty hefty price when the purchase price of $170-ish is considered as well. Oh well, my fault for not knowing more before I bought them. Hey, but at least I know now! By the way, don't mistake your "pessimism" for "realism." I'm a realist, and know that life just plain sucks sometimes, and there's nothing we can do about it except put on our "big girl panties" and get over it. I'm not dead...just out of shape (hence the exercise DVD purchase)... ha ha! So life can't possibly be all THAT bad... ;-) And MysticE, yes you are correct that I changed my computer's region (does that mean I only changed the "writing" region, if it's supposed to "read" both NTSC and PAL?). I was stupid (ignorant of the fact) and didn't try the DVD on my computer BEFORE changing the region on my drive. Just some of my newbie idiocy showing... ) Now, you say to rip the original first using DVDDecryptor. Is this part of the NeroVision family? Or do you have a link (is is free/shareware, or is it a software I should purchase)? Wait, then you say to load the VOBs into NVE, so I guess it's not an Adobe product. There is one VOB file on the one disk I looked at, but there are other files on that disk as well. Does this matter? Will they "know" to "follow" where the VOB file goes when it's burned to the new disk? Will the software "know" to copy all those other files over? Or are those files the "menu" files? I still think in DOS terms, and have never worked with video/dvd/movie software/hardware, so I am COMPLETELY unfamiliar with any/all filenames, file extensions, and other bits (and bytes, ha ha) of information regarding all this stuff. Thanks for the warning about possibly not being able to use the original menu...that will give me something to look into before I start making frisbees as I figure this whole thing out. Ooh, that's a good idea with the DVDShrink. I think I'll try that first, assuming I can find the software (is that one free/shareware?). Thank you everyone for all your input! Please keep more ideas coming...it might be a couple of days before I can try any of these ideas...it's getting close to Finals Week at the University! I'll keep you posted regarding my failures/successes! By the way, I had a friend in one of my classes tell me he used Adobe's Premier Pro (they made a really cool DVD presentation which I want to use for a family movie). I glanced at the Adobe website, but I couldn't tell if that software would also convert these existing DVDs into NTSC format for re-burning. Does anyone know? I'm planning on getting the Adobe Premier Pro software anyway, and would like to not purchase redundant software if the Adobe software will accomplish my goal. Does anyone know the answer to this? Thanks again everyone! I look forward to hearing more from you!
MysticE is spot on. Sorry I didn't leave any details. I did have to create new chapter breaks. NeroVision will post a message when it's time to encode the VOB files stating that your project is more PAl than NTSC, do you wish to keep it PAL? Click "No" and you're on your way. I've done this with DVD's I bought in europe which were R2 PAL and I can't detect any difference between the two, I have since purchased a multi region DVD player and no longer have this problem...c'ya
