ERROR: Please check the TV system.

What is this Region 1 DVD player trying to tell me?
* I bought a dozen DVDs at the thrift shop for a buck each
* Nothing on the label says whether they are PAL or NTSC
* They play perfectly on my Windows XP computer
* But in the NTSC DVD player, they all give the error
"Please check the TV system"

Could these thrift-shop DVDs be PAL instead of NTSC?
How could I prove the DVDs are PAL or NTSC?

"Kate" <lorisoard (AT) sbcglobal (DOT) net> wrote

You may have to decrypt one to copy one of the VOB files onto your hard disk
then you can use GSpot or AVICodec to give you the info. Sounds like they
are PAL

On Sun, 29 Apr 2007 05:14:03 GMT, Stuart wrote:

At first, I wasn't sure what you meant by "decrypt", but I googled
something called DVD Shrink and used it in re-author mode. This huge copy
of the original DVD played on my computer but when I burned it back to a
blank DVD it gave the same error "Please check the TV system".

I downloaded your suggested Gspot and AVIcodec, expecting either one to
report PAL or NTSC. They didn't.

GSpot doesn't say PAL or NTSC anywhere when a VOB file is slid onto it, but
it does say the Container is a DVD VOB format, MPEG-2 Program Stream << {1
vid, 2aud}, Sys Bitrate: 10080 kb/s VBR and that the Codec is MPEG2, Status
Codec(s) are Installed, of a Pics/s of 25.000, Frames/s of 25.000, Fields/s
of 50.00.

AVIcodec also doesn't say PAL or NTSC anywhere either when a VOB is slid
onto it, but it too says the video framerate is 25 fps.

Googling for "NTSC PAL FRAMERATE", I quickly found a forum.doom9.org
posting which implies the framerate for PAL is 50 frames per second while
the frame rate of NTSC is 60 frames per second.
http://forum.doom9.org/archive/index...C/t-70346.html

So, I can pretty well assume I have PAL DVDs. No wonder they were only a
buck apiece!

Then, I googled for "CONVERT PAL TO NTSC" to find more choices than I knew
what to do with. I basically randomly selected the forum.videohelp.com
article titled "How to convert a PAL DVD to a NTSC DVD using TMPGEnc Plus
2.5x" at
http://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=300144
so my first question is WHICH METHOD do most of you recommend for PAL to
NTSC conversion?

Moving on, I downloaded and installed the 14-day Tsunami MPEGEncoder
trialware TMPGEnc Plus 2.5 Ver. 2.524 from
http://tmpgenc.pegasys-inc.com/en/download/tp.html

Before I go on, am I on the right track?

Kate

On Sun, 29 Apr 2007 07:55:26 GMT, rich wrote:

Good heavens! IfoEdit is EXACTLY the kind of application I was looking for!
I'm very surprised all my googling didn't turn up IfoEdit as the program of
choice for unoquivically determining PAL vs NTSC video formats!

I downloaded and installed the IfoEdit freeware (installation was as simple
as a copy of the single file in the download). IfoEdit reported in the VMG
Overview: section:

Video Manager Menu attributes:
Video: MPEG-1 720x576 (PAL) (PAL 625/50) (4:3) (pan-scan & letterboxed)

Number of Video Title Sets on this DVD: 2
Title Set 1:
VTS_1 Video: MPEG-2 720x576 (PAL) (PAL 625/50) (16:9) letterboxed
Title Set 2:
VTS_2 Video: MPEG-2 720x576 (PAL) (PAL 625/50) (16:9) letterboxed

So, I think the only problem is I have a PAL DVD which I need to convert to
NTSC. There seem to be tutorials out there so I am currently following one
of them (which uses TMPGEnc trialware, DGMPGDec DGIndex freeware, and
DGPulldown freeware
http://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=300144

While I'm at it, would most of you recommend this approach to identify that
the DVD is PAL and then to convert it to NTSC using this tutorial?

Kate

"Kate" <lorisoard (AT) sbcglobal (DOT) net> wrote

Oh my goodness you should see my red face! IFOEdit is a program I use nearly
everyday and it completely slipped off the radar - anyway the other 2
programs are useful. I don't have any particular preference for system
conversion as it is not really an issue in Oz as most gear is PAL/NTSC and
most DVD players are region free or can be easily modded. I do it for when I
sent a disc to my aunt in NY because I know all the problems you have in the
USA with other standards. I use Canopus anyway. But be warned it can take a
long time.... btw TMPGenc is a very good program

On Sun, 29 Apr 2007 09:08:44 GMT, Stuart wrote:

Don't feel bad. I googled a lot and had trouble finding the right programs
which simply said "This is a PAL DVD" or "This is an NTSC DVD".

I'm still working on converting the PAL to DVD but in doing so, following
the article at http://www.videohelp.com/tools/DGMPGDec it seems there is
YET ANOTHER freeware program which reports "Video Format = PAL" or "Video
Format = NTSC" outright.

DGMPGDec DGIndex (from http://neuron2.net/dgmpgdec/dgmpgdec.html) both
plays the movie and brings up a side window which unoquivically states
"Video Format = PAL".

To summarize, so far anyway, the programs that instantly report PAL vs NTSC
are:
1. IfoEdit
2. DGMPGDec DGIndex

And programs which report the framerates (50 or 60) are:
3. GSpot
4. AVICodec

I'm in the middle of the conversion of PAL to NTSC so I'm sure I'll be back
as this kind of stuff just can't happen without questions!

Kate

In message <mri9pcccejx5.1l8ozgf1ecood.dlg (AT) 40tude (DOT) net>, Kate
<lorisoard (AT) sbcglobal (DOT) net> writes
Is your machine a DVD player or a recorder? If it's a recorder, it might
be possible to make it region-free, and possibly also with some
players-only. Many (if not most) of the recorders sold outside the USA
can be changed to another region or made region-free by punching in a
few magic numbers from the remote control. However, I believe that this
is not so common in the USA.

In the UK, a lot of the really cheap DVD players, although specified as
being Region 2, have no problems playing Region 1 NTSC. I have one which
actually has an NTSC/PAL button on the R/C.

Regarding playing DVDs on a PC, if the DVD isn't Region 1, I'm surprised
that your PC hasn't told you that you need to change the region setting
for the DVD drive. The DVD drive is usually locked to your region (in my
case, 2). If you try to play another region, you are given the option of
changing the region - but only four times. After that, it is permanently
locked. However, this depends on what you use to play the DVD. Things
like VLC Media Player ignore the region coding. If you are using one of
the 'normal' programs, and you are NOT being prompted to change the
region code, it is possible that the DVDs are actually Region 1.

I don't know about freeware, but I've successfully used Nero to convert
from PAL to NTSC. But it's very, very slow.

Ian.
--

In article <fNYYh.4127$H84.1362 (AT) newssvr22 (DOT) news.prodigy.net>,
Kate <lorisoard (AT) sbcglobal (DOT) net> wrote:
Before you go too much further go into your DVD player and check
the setup menus.

On virtually all DVD players I've seen [ just a fraction of what is
out there ] under the video section there is a choice, at least on
mine, for 'automatic', 'pal', 'ntsc'.

Most players are set for automatic so they output the format
in which the DVD was recorded.

If you set NTSC, then even PAL disks will be transcoded to
an NTSC output.

Automatic works well for most people, as they typically buy/rent
disks made for the NTSC standard if they are in the USofA.

I change to NTSC so I can play NTSC or PAL disks - of which I have
several.

Re-encoding in TMPGenc takes time, and the problem of converting
the 25FPS to 24fps and/or 32fps means you also have to change the
audio file so it stays in sync. One program that does that
is BeSweet - but it is NOT a user friendly operation.

Bill

--
Bill Vermillion - bv @ wjv . com

On Apr 29, 10:45 am, b... (AT) wjv (DOT) com (Bill Vermillion) wrote:
DVD2SVCD 1.2.2B1 gets there with BeSweet's output mix subsequently
multiplexed, but as apt to be neither friendly. Given the initial
audio-visual component creation files, MPEG-VCR V3.14 nicely handles,
including spot timings adjustments for difficult encodings, such as on-
the-fly CPU-related or commercial sync interruptions.

I talked myself into changing out the MB for a 32" LCD/tuner display.
At least from Olevia CS standpoint, I should be "in the green" with
computer hardware experience. Anything particular to watch out for,
other than a flat blanketed prep surface. . . Appears largely a
modular change out, few more or less connectors than a regular MB
(apart from steel cases more forgiving than flexible liquid crystal
arrays).

On Sun, 29 Apr 2007 13:37:42 +0100, Ian Jackson wrote:

My first two tries failed so I'm reading and re-reading the PAL2NTSC
tutorial. I ask you if I have the steps understood correctly below.

DGIndex already created three files (took 1.5 hours)
1. movie.d2v
2. movie_2_0ch_192Kbps_delay_0ms.ac3 (2 channel dolby audio)
3. movie_3_2ch_448Kbps_delay_0ms.ac3 (5 channel dolby audio)

The PAL to NTSC conversion recipe uses three freeware programs
i. DGIndex
ii. TMPGEnc
iii. DGPulldown

Corresponding, I think, to the three general PAL-to-NTSC conversion steps
a. Separate the PAL movie into d2v video and ac3 audio channels
b. Combine them back into a PAL/NTSC hybrid with NTSC frame size (720x480)
and PAL frames per second (25 fps)
c. Convert the PAL/NTSC hybrid frames per second to NTSC

Do I have the gist of the necessary PAL to NTSC conversion steps correct?

Kate