Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
Thing is it's a bit of a misnomer talking about PAL or NTSC DVDs - as they
aren't actually coded to either. It's just the line and frame rates that
differ - and of course there are different ones of those on both PAL and
NTSC, IIRC, in various countries. In other words the digits on the disc
aren't PAL or NTSC encoded. And if you're feeding them to the TV in
digital, RGB or components again it doesn't matter - only if composite or
RF does PAL or NTSC really come into the equation. So I suppose it's
really just convention that they are marked PAL or NTSC - to show the
countries they're for.

Yes, and no. DVD's are component video not RGB and they can be in one of
3 frame rates. NTSC film (24/1001), PAL (25) and NTSC video (30/1001).

Even HTDV has different frame rates, PAL/SECAM zones use 25 fps, NTSC zones
use 30/1001. AFAIK, no TV sets actually play 24/1001 video.

The first DVD player I bought, circa 2000 had a choice between multisystem
and PAL TV sets as a setup option. So have all the successive ones, except
a Sansui bought around 2001, which had a multisystem/PAL switch on the back.

The Sansui one was also the only one that was zoned, at it could be converted
by entering PI at the right time on the remote. The instructions were on
a piece of paper included in the box by the importer.

Geoff.


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Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel N3OWJ/4X1GM