DVD's for Europe

[Mike Meyerson]

I have a DVD that's already been authored (NTSC-region 1). I need to make copies to send to Europe. Do I need to convert the video to PAL and than make a region 2 copy? Or can I just take the DVD I have and get a region 2 copy burned?

I've heard many different answers, do anyone know?

thanks in advance.

[Rob Lohman]

If you have made your own DVD you basically cannot have
region encoding. So yes, your DVD is authored / enocded for
NTSC but that does *NOT* also make it region 1. You need to
do special authoring (which pro level authoring apps can only
do) to add the region bits.

DVD's here in Europe are PAL so you will need to convert it to
that and author for PAL.

If you somehow did do region encoding it must be region 2 or
no region for PAL as well.

[Mike Meyerson]

thanks Rob....I guess than what I have is just a NTSC dvd (no region). Is it possible to just take what I have and make a region 2 copy? If not, is there a way to make a PAL copy without having to redo the menus and chapter points?

[Ursula Badertscher]

With DVD you don't have to worry about PAL. Every european DVD player reads NTSC disc as well, and most newer TV‘s over here can output NTSC video signals! Just make sure the DVD is codefree. If you burned it yourself, with your own content it is of course codefree. If your content (I hope it's yours, otherwise this would be illegal...) was authored for commercial use, it is more likely region 1. In this case you need an encoder (DVD ripper) to remove the region code. For Mac I highly recommend MacTheRipper (search under www.versiontracker.com). For PC you may find something here: http://www.afterdawn.com/software/video_software/dvd_rippers/

[Rob Lohman]

Although there is some thruth in Ursula's comments, I do not
agree. Yes, I think any player can playback the NTSC discs here
in Europe. The problem is with the TV's. I am not sure at all how
well the multistandard TV's have penetrated the market by now.
I know of at least 3 people who's TV sets do NOT play NTSC.

Some DVD players can also convert NTSC to PAL on the fly, but
again not all of them. So basically you will have to redo the
complete DVD in PAL. You might be able to keep things as menu
structures and chapter points by simply replacing the footage with
a PAL copy (also the menu images!!) and changing the project
to PAL. You will probably need to move the buttons to the correct
positions again.

Whether or not you can just send your NTSC disc depends on
things like whether you are asking money or you know the people
the disc is going to.

I personally buy NTSC discs as well because I can play them. But
if you are seriously selling a product it might be worth the effort
to also sell it in PAL format. If you are only going to do NTSC clearly
label it with something like: "EUROPEAN customers: this disc is in
NTSC format and might not be playable on your system. The DVD
is region free!"

Something like that. I do know that here in Holland a lot of people
can play NTSC discs (they might not know this though). But I'm
not sure how other countries are doing. It will depends on the
country you are in. I highly doubt Germany has a high market
penetration for NTSC stuff since everything is converted for that
country including audio tracks (normally).