will a PAL DVD play in the US? at DVinfo.net

Don Bazley · October 5th, 2009, 04:21 PM

Sorry if this is not the correct spot for this but it seems like a "general" question.

I have clients that have requested a PAL copy of their wedding DVD to send to India. I made a PAL DVD using Adobe Encore the same exact way I made one last year when I had a similar request for clients in Europe. I simply created a project as PAL and burned the disc. Well, I just popped the disc into my laptop and the disc that is supposed to be PAL is playing. Does this mean the DVD is not PAL?

Last year, the clients told me that the PAL disc I created for Europe worked fine. I never tried playing that here so I don't know if the disc I now want to send to India is actually PAL. (?)

Boyd Ostroff · October 5th, 2009, 04:53 PM

Computers don't care whether it's PAL or NTSC, but here in the US, DVD players generally do. None of my own players will play PAL DVD's, but they're all a few years old. Perhaps you will find compatibility on newer units.

At my job we are frequently sent PAL DVD's to watch and fortunately we can view them on our computers because they won't play on our TV's or standalone players.

Ervin Farkas · October 5th, 2009, 09:26 PM

It's not that much of player age issue - I have two 5ish year old players and they both play PAL discs, BUT only as long as they are NOT region code 2.

What happened is, after a while some manufacturers got tired of making system specific players and just left them "open" - basically all they make is one base model, but they can "fix" them so they will only play one system... or they can leave them play both. However, all manufacturers are requred by law to adhere to region codes.

So there is no definitive answer to the question, some players will and some will not. All computers will play them both, but Windows also pays attention to region codes and you can only change the code 5 times, the last one is final.

To play safe, make DVDs for the TV system in the destination country and leave the region code open (set it to "all region").

Don Bazley · October 6th, 2009, 08:56 AM

Thanks for the replies. This is basically what I thought. Much appreciated.

I feel better about sending the discs now.

Tony Davies-Patrick · October 6th, 2009, 03:19 PM

As mentioned, if it plays on your laptop it doesn't mean that it has definitely been converted correctly (because the laptop would still play it correctly if it was still unconverted NTSC).

If it is an important customer I would double check by seeing if it plays on your NTSC VCR/TV and if it doesn't, then it is more likely to have been converted correctly to Pal. Even so, I would still double check on a Pal only player if you can.

It should also be noted that a straight conversion from NTSC to Pal in Encore would cause a drop in quality of the completed DVD, depending also if the original files were from SD or down-converted HD.

October 5th, 2009, 04:21 PM	#1
Don Bazley Regular Crew Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Ithaca, NY Posts: 149	will a PAL DVD play in the US? Sorry if this is not the correct spot for this but it seems like a "general" question. I have clients that have requested a PAL copy of their wedding DVD to send to India. I made a PAL DVD using Adobe Encore the same exact way I made one last year when I had a similar request for clients in Europe. I simply created a project as PAL and burned the disc. Well, I just popped the disc into my laptop and the disc that is supposed to be PAL is playing. Does this mean the DVD is not PAL? Last year, the clients told me that the PAL disc I created for Europe worked fine. I never tried playing that here so I don't know if the disc I now want to send to India is actually PAL. (?) __________________ "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro" - Hunter S. Thompson

October 5th, 2009, 09:26 PM	#3
Ervin Farkas Inner Circle Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Atlanta/USA Posts: 2,515	It's not that much of player age issue - I have two 5ish year old players and they both play PAL discs, BUT only as long as they are NOT region code 2. What happened is, after a while some manufacturers got tired of making system specific players and just left them "open" - basically all they make is one base model, but they can "fix" them so they will only play one system... or they can leave them play both. However, all manufacturers are requred by law to adhere to region codes. So there is no definitive answer to the question, some players will and some will not. All computers will play them both, but Windows also pays attention to region codes and you can only change the code 5 times, the last one is final. To play safe, make DVDs for the TV system in the destination country and leave the region code open (set it to "all region"). __________________ Ervin Farkas www.AtlantaLegalVideo.com

October 6th, 2009, 08:56 AM	#4
Don Bazley Regular Crew Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Ithaca, NY Posts: 149	Thanks for the replies. This is basically what I thought. Much appreciated. I feel better about sending the discs now. __________________ "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro" - Hunter S. Thompson

October 6th, 2009, 03:19 PM	#5
Tony Davies-Patrick Trustee Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Worldwide Posts: 1,589	As mentioned, if it plays on your laptop it doesn't mean that it has definitely been converted correctly (because the laptop would still play it correctly if it was still unconverted NTSC). If it is an important customer I would double check by seeing if it plays on your NTSC VCR/TV and if it doesn't, then it is more likely to have been converted correctly to Pal. Even so, I would still double check on a Pal only player if you can. It should also be noted that a straight conversion from NTSC to Pal in Encore would cause a drop in quality of the completed DVD, depending also if the original files were from SD or down-converted HD. __________________ www.WILDCARP.com www.NIKON.me.uk

October 5th, 2009, 04:53 PM	#2
Boyd Ostroff Wrangler Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Mays Landing, NJ Posts: 11,787	Computers don't care whether it's PAL or NTSC, but here in the US, DVD players generally do. None of my own players will play PAL DVD's, but they're all a few years old. Perhaps you will find compatibility on newer units. At my job we are frequently sent PAL DVD's to watch and fortunately we can view them on our computers because they won't play on our TV's or standalone players.