I have a client that would like a copy of their wedding video for relatives in Greece. I believe (correct me if I am wrong) that Greece uses SECAM video (as opposed to PAL/NTSC). If this is so, does anyone know if I can create a DVD using Encore that will play in Greece? Any info is appreciated.

-Don B.

Quote from an e-mail received yesterday from Themis Gyparis, a member of this forum: "our broadcast standard in Greece is PAL". Greece was once on Secam, but they dropped it together with all of the Eastern Europen (former communist) countries and switched to PAL.

See also http://www.kropla.com/tv.htm

Thanks for the info!

I suppose I can figure this out when I get home, but is it so easy as simply choosing PAL when I create a project? That will result in a DVD that will play in Greece?

Start a PAL project, and Encore will re-encode your footage - the result, however, will not be super duper... try converting to PAL while still in a higher resolution format (AVI) in some other software. Canopus Procoder is fairly good at it, you can download a trial version good for 30 days.

I've sent many of my final products to Europe...Nobody had a problem with playback on their settop DVD players...Especially newer ones.

Playback issues usually happen when the North American players receive PAL discs, but not the other way around.

Personally, i'd send them the created package.
I would shutter to think of re-rendering the whole project for Uncle Joe in Greece...

This is what I would do: send both an original NTSC and a trancoded PAL DVD, just to be on the safe side. This way, Uncle Joe will be also able to watch his niece (?) - just tell him that the PAL version might be a little jerky/fuzzy compared to the original NTSC.

While most players won't care what you feed them, some will... I have 4 DVD players in my house, all of them play PAL without fuss.