Video/DVD -- NTSC to PAL?
 

Question:

A client needs a PAL version of a DVD (training video) that I produced (shot/edited NTSC).

Having not done this before, can I simply render the source as PAL and create the DVD as I would for NTSC?

I’m using Ulead DVD Workshop 2 for the DVD authoring…

Are there any special considerations I should know about?

…or maybe this is not possible?

Thanks for the help --

A straight render will probably give you some significant motion judder where the extra frames are deleted to decrease the NTSC to 25fps PAL. Some people find this acceptable, but it my opinion it's pretty bad, especially for a paying project. A better solution is to use dedicated conversion software. DVFilm Atlantis ($195) works really well.

procoder is the way to go, if you can afford it... with vegas 5, you can frame-serve the ntsc timeline right into procoder, where it creates a pal mpeg2 file, so you don't have to create a pal-format dv file... use the procoder mastering mode.

set the dvd authoring program up to create a pal dvd, and you are ready to go... i use the same ac3 files for both pal and ntsc.

I just used DVFilm Atlantis to convert several things and was surprised at just how good it looked (and we projected on a 50' wide screen :-)

I have no basis for comparison with other software, but I was happy with the results. I used it to convert both computer animation rendered as 720x480 NTSC DV and also for NTSC video shot with my VX-2000 and PDX-10. These clips seemed to fit in fine with the other content I created directly in PAL using computer rendering, motion, and footage from my Z-1.

Your mileage may vary. Download their free demo and see what you think for yourself...

Thanks for the tips guys -- much appreciated...

Vegas 6 does a much better job of frame rate conversion than versions 5 and earlier. I liked DVFilm Atlantis's NTSC to PAL conversion better than that of Vegas 5, but Vegas 6 does an even better conversion than Atlantis. Not only that, but your titles and any animations will be directly rendered into PAL. It's worth upgrading to version 6 for this alone.

Why converting to PAL? I live in Europe and so far I know and have experienced most of the PAL dvd-players I know are able to playback NTSC dvd disks. As long as the dvd disk does not have a region protection code.

(The other way around is not possible: PAL dvd disks do not play at NTSC dvd-players).

Really. So I can send my DVDs to my friend in New Zealand? That's great news! Thank you, Peter!

I got excellent results with Procoder Express which is only about $50.

Ok folks, now I'm confused. You're saying that you don't need an external program - just put your .avi file up on the time line and render it as a pal file - ist that right?

Thanks,
Milt

No, I wouldn't convert a rendered NTSC avi file this way. I would load your full project and render that directly to PAL. It will look the same on video footage, but animations like the credits and still photo motion will look higher resolution and have smoother motion. The better looking text and photo animations is the biggest reason to do a PAL render from Vegas rather than an outside program.

Keep in mind that animations like these suffer more from the PAL conversion than the regular footage. If you look at converted PAL, usually its the credits that give it away as they kind of jerk their way down the screen. By rendering the complete project directly into PAL you avoid most of this. You'll still see a little jerkiness on zooms and pans, but you really have to look for it.