NTSC VS PAL

[metroshane]

I want to send a copy of my movie to a buddy in Belgium.  So I guess I need to send him a PAL version?  OK, so I can make a PAL movie out of FCP...but how do you make iDVD burn it in PAL?  And if I send him an NTSC...can computers play both types of DVD...or is it segregated like TVs?

Basically what do I need to do?

[Kal]

I think there is no difference when it comes to DVD players... the important thing is that the DVD is Region Free. Other than that, I think PAL/NTSC works with regular TV and VHS, but not for DVDs. I may be wrong, but I dont think so

[Redlum]

Firstly, I haven't used FCP before but I know that NTSC to PAL conversion on software I have (and in general) is tricky to do well. I dont know how much you know about it but NTSC is running at 30fps and PAL at 25fps. If done badly, a conversion can cause the footage to stutter.

If he's watching it on his pc, it doesnt matter whether its Pal/Ntsc aslong as its not region coded (and even then there are ways). For playback on a television through a dvd player it is also not a problem for the footage to be NTSC aslong as both the TV and DVD are fairly modern (and again there is no region coding, assuming the player is not multi-region).

Here's a good page I found when I had to do this, less of a 'How-to' more of a briefing of the technicals of whats happening when you convert.

http://www.michaeldvd.com.au/Articles/PALvsNTSC/PALvsNTSC.asp

A post on another forum suggested it could be as easy as this:

export the video from FCP as an MPEG 2 then after you open your authoring program iDVD or Studio Pro, set the Prefrences for PAL, import the MPEG 2 and your end results will be a PAL disk.

But I don't know what the quality will be like.

[metroshane]

Thanks for the quick replies.

[Jeremy Blackman]

Important question for anyone who knows about playing PAL DVDs on a Mac...

Would it be possible for me to [permamently] set my internal drive to PAL and my external to NSTC... so I never have to do any more switching (since the switching is limited)?

[Reinhold]

when i export originally NTSC footage from FCP to iDVD and burn it in PAL, i get a green bar down the side of the screen. wtf, mate?