[ale] OT: DVD video format 'Newbie' question

[Lightner, Jeff]

Good point - the DVD players I've ordered on line did both NTSC and PAL.   (Note that at one point France hat a separate standard that I forget the name of now - if the DVDs were made in France or one of its former colonies and are old enough its possible they use that old standard.)

-----Original Message-----
From: ale-bounces at ale.org [mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org] On Behalf Of James Sumners
Sent: Friday, January 14, 2011 10:59 AM
To: John Mills; Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts
Subject: Re: [ale] OT: DVD video format 'Newbie' question

If the DVD is not "Region 1"[1], then your DVD player is not likely to
play it _at all_. If the DVD is region free, but the video format is
PAL, then the DVD is also not likely to play the DVD.

As for your television displaying NTSC or PAL, that depends. If you
have a a television manufactured for the U.S., then it probably won't
display PAL content. However, if you first convert the PAL video to
NTSC then there won't be a problem.

I have watched plenty of PAL content on my television, but I watched
it via my HTPC. So the computer converted the video to a resolution
that my television can handle.

[1] -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD_region_code

On Fri, Jan 14, 2011 at 10:48 AM, John Mills <johnmills at speakeasy.net> wrote:
> ALErs -
>
> If I have a commercially issued, but non-US, DVD of a movie, what video
> could I expect my DVD player to deliver to my TV?
>
> More specifically: I understand from Wikipedia that the DVD encoding is
> likely one of two screen geometries recorded as MPEG-2, but that video
> frame resolution may be basically any of the 'native' TV resolutions:
> NTSC, PAL, or whatever.
>
> Would a US consumer-grade DVD player convert or present the recorded film
> with the appropriate resolution for a US analog TV (in this case using the
> 3 'RCA' jacks: video, audio left, audio right), or would it simply decode
> and pass the recorded video and audio along expecting the TV's video sync
> to figure it out?
>
> Background:
> I have a friend with a big stack of classic Arabic movies on DVD and my
> very basic, old, "brand-X" DVD player doesn't play them. (It doesn't play
> any of my home-made copies either.) The DVDs play fine on a computer.
>
> How about playing them on the computer and displaying to the large-screen
> US analog TV?
>
> How about playing VCDs (same questions)?
>
> Elaborations and notes of practical issues welcome.
>
> TIA.
>
>  - Mills
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-- 
James Sumners
http://james.roomfullofmirrors.com/

"All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts
pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it
is magnetic to the corruptible. Such people have a tendency to become
drunk on violence, a condition to which they are quickly addicted."

Missionaria Protectiva, Text QIV (decto)
CH:D 59

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