Making DVDs to send to the USA

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tom hardwick
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Joined: Mon Jan 29, 2007 9:59 am

Making DVDs to send to the USA

Post by tom hardwick »

What's the latest on making DVDs to send to the USA, good people? I send perfectly normal PAL tapes to my brother in NTSC Canada and he tells me they play perfectly well on his kit. His latest buy is a Sanyo TV with an inbuilt DVD player, and that too plays my PAL discs perfectly.

But that may just be luck. What if you're going to send DVDs to people all over the States - surely we need to send them NTSC copies just to be sure they'll play ok? In which case, where are people getting their NTSC DVDs made - or better yet, are there IAC members out there that offer this service?

tom.
ned c
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Location: Dammeron Valley USA

Post by ned c »

There seems to be a difference in the equipment sold in Canada and that sold in the USA. The Canadian VHS/DVD players often play PAL with no problem. Very few players here in the USA play PAL. There is an inexpensive DVD player widely available that actually transcodes PAL to NTSC and we recommend this. It is the Cyberhome 300 and 300a usually sold at around $30. I have substantially more expensive Sony and Toshiba players that absoluteluy will not play PAL.

Ned C
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stingman
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Post by stingman »

Isn`t just right. The cheap DVD players etc, play all the formats you throw at it but the `proper` branded one`s (and dearer) like Sony only play a few. I`ve made discs that will play on the cheap one`s but stutter non the better one`s. My Sony is like this. Quality product but stubbern sometimes.
Ian Gardner
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cwiac
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Joined: Sat Mar 17, 2007 5:24 pm
Location: Cheltenham

DIY NTSC DVDs

Post by cwiac »

To create NTSC DVDs you need to convert your video from AVI or MPEG2 into an NTSC form of MPEG2. Canopus Procoder or
Procoder Express will do this.
Then author and burn your DVD with software that can produce NTSC output e.g Ulead DVD Workshop
ned c
Posts: 910
Joined: Mon Jan 29, 2007 3:39 pm
Location: Dammeron Valley USA

Post by ned c »

Could you share your experience using Procoder to transcode PAL files to NTSC please. What is Procoder Express, I couldn't find this on the Grass Valley site?

There is news of a new version, v3 to be released in the near future and hope this addresses HD and HDV.

Thanks

Ned C
Michael Slowe
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Joined: Mon Jan 29, 2007 4:24 pm

DVD's For America

Post by Michael Slowe »

This issue is topical for me right now as I have recently been with a number of American friends on our annual meet up in the Caribbean where I filmed an event and they all want copies of the finished production. Last year I sent PAL DVD's which they could play on computers but this year I am sending NTSC DVD's. I had my tape master converted and coded to DVD by Stanley Productions in London's Soho and to be certain it would play on 4:3 aspect TV screens had it letterboxed.

This is an expensive option and I would be very interested to learn of software that encodes for NTSC. The aspect ratio is important because the 16:9 TV's becoming common in Europe are still rare in America. I am told that even when HD is widely in use on both sides of the Atlantic the systems will still not be compatible, is this correct Ned?
ned c
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Location: Dammeron Valley USA

Post by ned c »

We are in the middle of a TV sales boom here in the USA at present, these are 16:9 and HDTV capable, LCDs and plasmas. The smaller screens are 720 and the larger screens 1080. We have the usual incompatibility as the transmissions are 1080 60i or 30p. We can feed a 1080 60i signal into a 720 TV and it automatically converts to 720. Picture quality still superb.A number of channels are transmitting HD programming and the pictures are great.

I will visit the Canopus booth at NAB and see what is happening with Procoder.

Ned
ned c
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Location: Dammeron Valley USA

Post by ned c »

Procoder Express is specific to the Edius Pro editing software.

Ned
cwiac
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Joined: Sat Mar 17, 2007 5:24 pm
Location: Cheltenham

PAL to NTSC using Canopus Procoder

Post by cwiac »

ned c wrote:Could you share your experience using Procoder to transcode PAL files to NTSC please. What is Procoder Express, I couldn't find this on the Grass Valley site?

There is news of a new version, v3 to be released in the near future and hope this addresses HD and HDV.

Thanks

Ned C
I have used Procoder 2 extensively to to convert from PAL to NTSC. I usually produce an AVI file from Adobe Premiere 6.5 and then feed that into Procoder telling it to convert to NTSC. I have a Canopus DV Storm card in my PC but for PAL to NTSC I find it best to use the software encoder rather than hardware.

After creating an NTSC MPEG2 file I then author the DVD using Ulead DVD Workshop 2 starting a new NTSC format project.

I've looked on Google for Procoder Express and its featured on the Siren Technology site. It doesn't say specificallty that Express converts from PAL to NTSC and I don't know that it does but you could ask someone at Siren.
ned c
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Joined: Mon Jan 29, 2007 3:39 pm
Location: Dammeron Valley USA

Post by ned c »

Thanks for the info, I visited the Siren Technology site and it seems that Procoder Express does not offer PAL /NTSC transcodes.

Thanks again
ned C
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