DVD problem - PAL to NTSC
 

I have read the previous threads on DVD players, but haven’t found answers to my questions, so would appreciate your help. My problem is PAL to NTSC rather than the zones.

1. We brought our multi-region DVD player from Europe but when we connect it to the (NTSC) TV we bought here, we see the picture in black and white (and not clear). I presumed that this means that our DVD-player only gives out PAL signal and that the TV can only read NTSC but now I read in a previous thread that if that was the case, there would be no picture at all, and that if I see a black-and-white picture, there is a way to make the TV also show the picture in colour. Could someone comment on this?
2. We then decided to buy a new DVD player (Philips 642) which I hacked to change the regional setting to 0. When we tried it out, it was showing the PAL DVD, but the picture quality was extremely poor, more like an old videotape. So now I’m wondering, does the picture quality always suffer so much when converting from PAL to NTSC or does it differ from one DVD-player to another? If you buy a DVD-player sold as “multiregion�, would the conversion quality also be better?

I don’t know what to try next. Thanks in advance for any advice.

Re: DVD problem - PAL to NTSC
 

I seem to recall with my Cyber-Home DVD player, I had to change a setting via the menu in order for it to show on my US TV properly. (I think I may have posted on this - search through my past posts - it was about 2 months ago).

Of course, it may just be that your player doesn't convert, but don't give up hope just yet - pull up the onscreen menu and see if you can find a setting that needs changing.

Re: DVD problem - PAL to NTSC
 

That's my thought as well. I have the Philips and it does PAL-NTSC conversion perfectly. Is you player still set up to output NTSC?

Re: DVD problem - PAL to NTSC
 

could be your TV is the problem? If there is a pal/NTSC issue you could get a black and white picture. The Cyberhome hack is via the menu, but if you are getting bad picture that is not a region issue.

You can't buy muti region players over here (except on specialist websites) they all have a hack or a chipset upgrade. Not sure what to suggest - does your tele work ok otherwise?

Re: DVD problem - PAL to NTSC
 

The black and white is a clean digital pal signal....you can get a convertor to convert it to ntsc, but it's cheaper getting a new dvd player.

As for the philips dvd player, it converts things fine, I haven't had a problem with it so far, does skip when playing the odd mpge4 movie, and also can't fast forward those movies, which is annoying.
Also, models made afer Dec 04 have the macrovision protection, and I can't be arsed to downgrade it for that hack.

Re: DVD problem - PAL to NTSC
 

The TV has no problem, the picture is super clear. I will go back and check the setup menu in our old DVD player again, but so far I did not find a possibility to set output to NTSC. We were able to watch NTSC DVDs in Europe though, so it does convert from NTSC to PAL but seems that not the other way.

So you guys are saying that there's no problem with picture quality on your hacked DVD players? Maybe I'll try one of those Cyberhome players then.

Re: DVD problem - PAL to NTSC
 

I don't think the DVD region will affect what format the player output is in. If you've bought a US DVD player and hacked it to play evry region there should be no picture problems.

-tom

Re: DVD problem - PAL to NTSC
 

Same here - I've ordered a bunch of PAL/R1 DVDs and they all play in perfect quality on the DVP642 (except for the Have I got News for You Best of, which keeps freezing - very annoying).

Re: DVD problem - PAL to NTSC
 

Region of the player makes no difference, it's the output the player sends to the tele, if your player is from blighty, it'll send out a pal signal, and unless your tv can read both, it'll come up black and white. Either your tele can have the option to read pal signal and it'll work, or you can't, in which case, you have to get a new dvd player, or a pal/ntsc signal output convertor....new dvd player is cheapest option.

Re: DVD problem - PAL to NTSC
 

My Cyberhome plays UK DVDs fine - except they look as if they are playing ever-so-slightly speeded up. Is this normal? It's not a great problem and you kinda get used to it after a while - thankfully it doesn't seem to affect the sound at all.

Re: DVD problem - PAL to NTSC
 

PAL and NTSC have different frame rates so speed issues could be a problem, but shouldn't be that noticable. The picture quality problem could be the way you have it connected to the TV. Idealy you would want some high quality component video cables, Each colour and the sound is sent to the TV by different cables so you get the best picture quality. Then you have S-video which is good but not the best, One cable for the picture and cables for the sound. Then composite which is the worst and probably the way you have it if you used the cables directly out of the box, the picture and sound all in one cable. Check your TV and DVD players manual to find the best cable for you, then go an buy some! I think that for everyday use the Monster middle range is pretty decent value for money and remeber you need the video and audio cables for component and s-video! You also want to get the shortest length you can without it being tight, the longer the cable the more quality will be lost. I use S-video and am pleased, my TV isn't the best so the quality isn't as good as it could be, but with a good TV your results should improve.
If you want more info I think the best buy website has a section about hooking DVD players to your TV.
Hook Up

Re: DVD problem - PAL to NTSC
 

Thanks guys for all the info. Wow I never realized that the cable could also influence picture quality. In any case now the DVD-player also decided to freeze on one of my treasured PAL-DVDs, so it went back to the store. We'll try a different one.

Re: DVD problem - PAL to NTSC
 

Make sure you ventilate the DVD player -- of all my gear the DVD players are the most sensitive to heat. If they overheat, they start to freeze and stutter on playback, or even refuse to work at all.

I've got a cheapo Sanyo that's been hacked to turn off both region-ing and Macrovision. One of the better investments I've made. It outputs NTSC.

Re: DVD problem - PAL to NTSC
 

That might make sense. I've been watching a UK DVD set of the "Cold Feet" series on my Cybre Home. Around halfway through Series Three I started getting slight "jumps", and then a whole 25-minute section of one episode kept jumping. Just couldn't get it to play that part.

I've now realized that if I hit the "Stop" button, the DVD player doesn't automatically turn off the power after a while like it's supposed to do, so it's been turned on 24-7. Maybe that's causing it to overheat (I usually turn off all my audio/video stuff when not in use).

I've just turned off the power, and will go back later and see if that episode still does the same.

Re: DVD problem - PAL to NTSC
 

2. We then decided to buy a new DVD player (Philips 642) which I hacked to change the regional setting to 0. When we tried it out, it was showing the PAL DVD, but the picture quality was extremely poor, more like an old videotape. So now I’m wondering, does the picture quality always suffer so much when converting from PAL to NTSC or does it differ from one DVD-player to another? If you buy a DVD-player sold as “multiregion�, would the conversion quality also be better?

I don’t know what to try next. Thanks in advance for any advice.[/QUOTE]

You may need to check the video-out setting is correct as apparently it doesn't auto-detect. When I was researching which DVD player to get I saw that someone had problems with the Philips because of this setting.

I ended up getting the Philips and have not had any probs playing UK DVDs.