NTSC and PAL Delivery?
 

I have a question for those who have done this before. I recently had a bride from Spain contact me to do a wedding in the states and would like to be able to play the DVDs in both countries. How much is a reasonable amount to charge to make both formats available to them.

Ive made a PAL version DVD before but was not able to make sure it worked properly.

Thanks!

You should be able to play both PAL and NTSC on your computer without any problems.

In terms of providing both types, I do this with very little charge provided I know in advance. It's another 40 mins or so of computer time to generate the alternative version.

I've sent many DVD's to Europe....I haven't heard of playback issues...

Therefore, i'm suggesting to shoot NTSC, and deliver for NTSC..
Unless their DVD player is first generation, there shouldn't be a problem with playback....

thanks for the input! I did not know the newer dvd players could play both formats.

Newer DVD players play everything, that's true, just be careful not to put a region lock during authoring. "All Regions" should be the right choice for it. The real problem though is that you may have some problems in how the NTSC footage would show in a PAL system. Computers are OK, but just today I authored some NTSC DVDs after converting them from PAL, for use in the USA (last minute request from the bride). Although PS3 (my default BD/DVD player) played it on a 37'' LCD/TFT TV, it shrinked the footage creating black areas not only horizontally but also vertically. In PC it plays fine. It doesn't make any sense because only the vertical resolution is smaller in NTSC, but I am sure that the authoring properties are 100% ok in all aspects. So, you actually may have a problem if you deliver in NTSC, although I'd love to have an original NTSC region-free DVD to test and be sure about it.

Best choice is to convert to PAL if you want 100% European compatibility. There are easy ways and hard ways to do this, and the harder it gets, the better the quality (and the bigger the render times).

Hi Steve

I have done a few weddings where the bride has come here from the USA and wants to send DVD's back home so it's basically a reverse of your situation.

Yes, most new players will play either format but there is a good chance that Grandma still might have an old CRT TV and a 10 year old DVD player so it's best to provide the disks in PAL for Spain rather than hope that they have a newish player.

Dunno what NLE you have but in Sony Vegas it's a matter of simply rendering the footage out twice..once for the PAL and once for the NTSC. I normally do it at normal extra copies charge (also if I know beforehand)

Chris

Hi Steve - same as Chris.

I'm in New Zealand and occasionally have the "pleasure" of filming brides from the USA.

I charge $50 for the time on mastering an NTSC disc which basically involves banging the master file through Canopus Procoder with NTSC settings, and then recreating the menu using NTSC settings in Sony DVDA.

Last 2 weddings, I haven't bothered and given them a PAL copy to send home - no issues.

Thanks for the helpful info guys! I talked to her and she decided that she wants them in both formats.

Steve