OT: Mastering advice for universal compatibility (NTSC, PAL, SECAM)

[Graeme Nattress]

There are only “PAL” and “NTSC” on DVD. There is no SECAM. With regards to PAL and NTSC, they’re really transmission formats and hence the formats supported by DVD are 720×480 @ 23.98fps (NTSC 24p), 720×480 @ 29.97fps (NTSC) & 720×576 @ 25fps (PAL). I think there’s also a PAL 24p format. So really, you only need two versions, 720×480@29.97fps and 720×576@25fps. Unless it’s all from a film source, when you might be better off with the 24p option. It works great on NTSC, but I’ve never made a PAL 24p DVD.

Graeme

– http://www.nattress.com – Film Effects for FCP

[Chris Borjis]

Most pal DVD players can play NTSC discs if they are region free (DVD-+R is)
and if the TV set was made in the last 10 years (PAL 60 mode). NTSC won’t play pal though.

I’ve made quite a few NTSC discs for our international clients and no troubles were reported on playback in europe.

[Barend Onneweer]

I’ve never seen (ore heard of) 24fps PAL – if that’s to anyones interest.

As for SECAM: it’s a broadcast standard. But the all the material fed into the SECAM broadcast is PAL. In France all DVD’s are PAL.

Bar3nd

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[Emery]

Borjis are you telling me any failry new PAL tv can display an NTSC signal?

The audience for this project is an older group and I cant risk a compatibility issue so I guess my best bet is to make an NTSC and PAL version.

What are commercial DVDs mastered in for PAL countries? PAL right? What about countries like France and Russia that use SECAM, i imagine their displays and dvd players can handle an NTSC signal? Is a PAL or NTSC DVD better for SECAM countries?

All the dvds will be burned region 0 by the way

[Emery]

Thanks Barend, I was just aasking that question below.

so if im shooting with the Varicam @ 23.98 fps and make an NTSC 24p DVD and a PAL25p DVD i should cover all ground correct?

As far as I know there is no compatibility issue with 24p vs 29.97, is there?

I usually make NTSC 24p dvd’s and have never run into compatability issues but this is the first project Ive done that will have thousands of discs sent all around the world so I just want to make sure.

Emery

[Graeme Nattress]

A 24p DVD sounds great. I think, according to the DVD SP3 manual, there’s a way to also make a PAl 24p DVD, and the player itself will speed it up to 25fps for you. I’d personally just use Cinema Tools to speed up (conform) to 25fps with the HD media and do a seperate PAL downconvert from that.

Graeme

– http://www.nattress.com – Film Effects for FCP

[Chris Borjis]

>> Borjis are you telling me any failry new PAL tv can display an NTSC signal?

YES, but the signal MUST originate from a PAL player to make it work.

It’s my understanding the tolerances between SECAM and PAL are pretty close.

[Daniel Weber]

I have made lots of DVD’s for International use. We make NTSC DVD’s because like Borjis said, most PAL dvd players can play NTSC discs. It is only the NTSC players in the states that can’t do the conversion.

From what I have been told, if the DVD player was made in the past couple of years, it can handle NTSC discs. Just make sure that they are region encoded for all the world regions. This is more important than NTSC/PAL format.

Dan Weber

[Emery]

thanks graeme, your always a great source of information. Im doing research on a number of tools that could do the downconvert, including your FC plug-ins, compressor, and algoliths HQV processing board.

Emery

[Emery]

actually i guess your standards conversion wouldnt necessarily apply to this situation.