Railfan Technology > Conversion of PAL DVD

Does anyone know of software that will allow me to copy and convert PAL DVD's to the NTSC format used in this country. I have several DVD's of European rail operations and need to convert for personal use.

Aside from some minor resolution issues, DVDs are just MPEG streams and should be reasonably the same. The player actually handles the translation of the image to a particular video standard. Your problem is more likely something called the "region code" that the movie industry built into the DVD standard. It prevents US (region 1) players from playing, for example Australia/NZ DVDs (region 4), or European DVDs (region 2).

Your options are either figure out if you can make your DVD player region free (or buy another one that's hackable to region-free or at least be able to set it to the region you want to play), or use one of the various DVD "backing up" packages. Many of these will allow you to adjust (translation: remove) the region code during the copy process. Some of this software might be able to correct the resolution and timing issues of a PAL-oriented MPEG stream as well. Fair warning: breaking DVD encryption for the purposes of copying, even if for legitimate reasons (such as here, where you own a copy but can't play it here), is technically illegal in the US.

Nathan

Most DVD players in PCs have the capability to change the "region code" a limited number of times (I believe it is 5 times on my DVD player and burner) before it becomes permanently locked on the fifth setting. Perhaps you can take advantage of this option once or twice to process all of your European PAL format DVDs?

rhotond Wrote:
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> Does anyone know of software that will allow me to
> copy and convert PAL DVD's to the NTSC format
> used in this country. I have several DVD's of
> European rail operations and need to convert for
> personal use.

I have several dozen DVDs in PAL format and got tired of watching them on my PC. Most RR oriented DVD aren't Region encoded. Can you post the name of the company or DVD? I wound up just buying a translating DVD player, and for that matter a VHS Player too. If you decide to go that way try these people I have had good luck with them. They are in the Chicago area. This also helps with SECAM.

http://www.dvdoverseas.com/

BTW if you are into European videos I can suggest some good ones.

DVD's are definitely PAL or NTSC. The "minor resolution issues" are exactly what make them different.

If region coding is an issue many players have "hacks" to reset them to handle all regions: http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks

Once past the region issue (which may not be an issue at all with a train video) a lot of players are capable of spitting out NTSC video from a PAL disk. Quality will vary among the methods used (chip set and firmware etc.). If you find a player with good quality output you could record it and burn a new NTSC disk. On the other hand there may be software that enables conversion in a more direct way.

These comments are intended for the rightful owner of a disk to view and enjoy it in the manner most convenient to them, not to make illegal copies.