Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with ntsc

Prosumer Digital Video camera bought in NY to take to Middle East. Problems with video formats even in 2009?

xetere — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 10:01:15 -0800

Prosumer Digital Video camera bought in NY to take to Middle East. Problems with video formats even in 2009? Our director of Middle East Operations wants to go to B&H and go back with a prosumer digital video camera to record interviews and the like.

This will ONLY be used to create streaming video for our Web site/Intranet and DVD.

Still I wonder in this context whether or not NTSC/PAL still makes a difference.

I searched the archives and took a look at this thread and it seemed that the answer is "yes", but that was three years ago.

So is this still so in 2009? Can you set the format in modern Digital video cameras when you set up your camera for the first time?

(I seem to remember on my home one asking me for video format.)

They'll be using something like Vegas Video and 95% of output is for the Web, with a possibility of making DVDs.

Part of me thinks why can't they pick on up in Cairo - Consumer wise, it ain't the Gulf but it is *Cairo!*, but who am I to argue? I am charged with making it happen.

Oh yes, of course we know about different electricity standards and differing plugs, we can plug in the charger to a universal outlet they have. The computers in the office come directly from the States.

NTSC XBox 360 in Europe?

ninotchka — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 12:30:25 -0800

Using an American (NTSC) Xbox in Europe (land-o-PALS)? I have a 2008 XBox 360 Elite (120GB), bought in the US, NTSC. I'd like to bring it (and my NTSC games) with me to Europe to hook up to the television (which has already been provided) in my new apartment. My landlord was unable to answer me as to whether the TV was able to accept both PALS and NTSC, or only the former.
What I'm bringing: the XBox, the games, all of the cords that came with it (the AV cable, the HDMI cable, etc), a 1000-Watt step-up/step-down transformer (so as to, I hope, safely sidestep any power issues), and the other little peripherals.
Assuming, worst-case, that the TV is not HDMI and, for whatever reason, is PALS-only, do I have the basic physical bits necessary to eke even a mediocre picture and hookup out of the whole thing? Or should I buy some NTSC-to-PALS conversion kit before I leave? Any other problems with this scenario?
Any advice from anyone who's lived in Europe and made a U.S. video game system/XBox 360 work would be tremendous. I'm not disheartened by an imperfect picture, but if I'm missing a whole component I'm eager to know. Thanks, all!

Replace my ReplayTV with a PC Card

prodevel — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 18:17:40 -0800

I would like to buy a card/box to connect post-cable-box (like tivo) to connect to my computer and record whatever is playing on channel 3? I currently have a ReplayTV which is able to record from channel 3. I pay 13/mo for this and need to replace it with my computer's new 1 TB HD, etc. I have the means to download tv schedules myself as well as change the channel on my Comcast set-top box to coincide with my programming I want to record. What I don't have the means to do is to record from the cable box to my computer (w/out DVArchive.)

I have a Radeon 3850 card with a DVI-HDMI adapter so I can watch stuff on my 42" LCDTV.

I'm having trouble picking out which card or external box can read every channel I pay for and have my computer capture it.

I'd rather not use MCE as I'm on XP and would prefer GBPVR or some such.

I've a simple Motorola cable box sans cable-card.

Thanks in advance.

PAL DVD's playable on US computers?

paphun123 — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 14:20:26 -0800

I'm accustomed to watching DVDs produced for the United States market on my laptop using the VLC software player. Using this set up, will I be able to watch PAL DVDs made for the UK or European markets without any difficulties? I don't want deal with any ripping, conversions, flashing DVD drive memories to change regions etc.

Can you recommend a good SDI/HDMI monitor?

infinitewindow — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 12:07:22 -0800

Video engineers: help me out with choosing a QC monitor for all flavors of HD, SD and HDMI. We currently have a CRT for PAL/NTSC/SDI that syncs almost instantaneously and decodes and displays line 21 closed captions.

We have a JVC DT-V24L1 which takes about five seconds to sync over HDMI, and it galls me that a fifteen-year-old CRT can sync instantly while the LCD takes five seconds to get a lock and display a signal. It also doesn't decode closed captions, and these two issues are becoming major hassles.

What we want is an LCD that is about 24 inches or so, widescreen, decodes closed captions and syncs quickly to HD-/SD-SDI, composite/component/S-video and HDMI. Native display of 1920 x 1080 is also required.

Does such a beast exist? If not, can you recommend a monitor with fast sync and an SDI Line 21 decoder/displayer? Thanks!

Cheap camcorder - 6 years old

philip-random — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 19:12:00 -0800

What was the cheap cool camcorder to have in 2002? This question concerns some research I'm doing for a screenplay set in 2002/2003 (eve of the Gulf War). Setting is North America so we're talking NTSC. Other flashes of insight as to cool, cheap audio-visual gear of the period (and related extrapolations) welcome.

How do you watch George W. Bush without going blind?

Jimbob — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 01:50:42 -0800

Does NTSC look as bad on actual NTSC televisions as it looks on my PAL television? My evening news, here in Australia, just had a piece on Bush's State of the Union address, and it occured to me how fuzzy and old American television looks compared to Australian TV. Everything looks like it was filmed in the 70s or 80s.

America uses the NTSC standard, known to be a slightly lower resolution than the PAL standard that I'm used to, but is the fuzzy image I see the same as what Americans see when they watch TV, or does the process of converting to PAL mess with the picture and make it worse? Do PAL shows look awful on NTSC televisions? Will the shift to HDTV improve the quality? Input from people who've experienced both formats first hand would be much appreciated.

Any online sources of full resolution videos of the Democratic debates?

ranchocalamari — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 13:02:04 -0800

I'm gonna try to cut together a little political viral video and would love to get my hands on high quality video of the recent democratic debates. Does anyone know of a source on the net to download full resolution (720x480) quicktimes of the debates, or has anyone out there taped or tivo'ed the debates in the greater Los Angeles area who would let me either copy/borrow what you recorded? Thanks ahead of time for your help.

PAL->NTSC->NYC

lovejones — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 22:00:46 -0800

Can anyone direct me to a storefront in NYC where I can find a simple hardware PAL -> NTSC video converter (RF inputs)? A friend in Mexico has a PAL Wii from Europe and he wants to use it on his NTSC TV. He asked me to pick up a converter before I come to visit, but I don't know where they would have this. I checked J and R, B&H, Best Buy--no dice. Any ideas where I could find something like this/good stores for video junk?

Use only as directed.

nathancaswell — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 15:33:57 -0800

Making text a specific number of NTSC scanlines high in Final Cut Pro 5.1. I feel like there has to be an easier way of doing this.

Right now my method is to either:

A) Sit there with a piece of paper and count them on a broadcast monitor.

B) Divide 525 scanlines / 720 pixels, getting 0.729166666667 pixels per scan line, then multiply by the number of scanlines I need (22), resulting in how many pixels tall the text should be. Then screenshotting the canvas at 100% and counting pixels in Photoshop (does this method even work?).

Is there some sort of website that converts font face/point size to NTSC scan lines?

Am I missing something? Did they teach this in editor school? Should I have gone to editor school? Why does anyone even hire me if I don't know this sort of thing? Does filmgeek have the answer?

STAY TUNED TO FIND OUT.

How to play FFX on my US PS2?

Kemayo — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 15:00:26 -0800

PAL-to-NTSC-Filter: Help me play FFX:International on an American PS2. Cheaply, if possible. I'm in America, and have a PS2. I've imported from England a copy of Final Fantasy X. (The international version has a lot of extras compared to the domestic version, you see.)

I would like to be able to play this on my regular US PS2. Using a disk-switching tool (Swap Magic), I can get the game to run. But its video output seems to remain in PAL; the signal results in a rapidly flickering picture on my TV, which isn't at all playable.

So. How can I persuade my PS2 that it actually wants to output NTSC?

(I've seen PAL-to-NTSC converter boxes, but generally not at prices that meet my needs.)

My HDTV doesn't like my LD. Hope me.

eschatfische — Mon, 08 May 2006 20:46:47 -0800

So, I just hooked up my laserdisc player to the HDTV, and boy does it look bad. Looks like I'll need a scaler/upconverter, but they seem prohibitively expensive. Help! Now, this isn't the place for cheap laserdisc jibes. I've got a nice progressive-scan DVD player and a sizable DVD library that look great on the HDTV, but I've also got many LDs with material that never quite made its way to DVD. I've also got a realistic expectation for how good laserdisc can look (almost as good as DVD with a nice player and a well-mastered disc, both of which I have).

However, the deinterlacer built into my HDTV apparently isn't good enough to keep from displaying all kinds of deinterlacing artifacts when using the SD inputs, and reading the AVS Forum, it seems like this is a pretty common problem. To make matters worse, the common answer appears to be to buy one of the DVDO iScan or Algolith Dragonfly units, which run in the four figures, or to build an HTPC to do the conversion through with Dscaler, all of which seem rather absurd just to make things look as good as they did on my old SDTV set.

I did find this Startech unit for $200 which looks like it would suit my needs, but unfortunately, I can't find any reviews that speak to the quality of the unit.

Anyone have any <$300 suggestions for deinterlacing the output of the LD player? I have a free HDMI/DVI port on the TV I can use, and the laserdisc player will output either S-Video or composite.

Ugh, NTSC

sic — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 09:13:45 -0800

NTSC Digital Video Camcorder in Europe: how can I view my videos? I was given a Canon ZR 100 DV Camcorder as a gift from family in the US (in order to video my baby girl), but I'm coming to the realization that I have no way of viewing the videos as it is the NTSC version and my tv, vcr, dvd are all of the European persuasion. This machine uses mini-dv tapes if this is important.

I suppose that I can hook it up to my computer, but I have no DV input (at least I don't think so). I do have a dell 2005 FPW wich came with a DVI connector, but I couldn't connect to my video card because there is no input. What is an IEEE1394 terminal? Do I need it?

So obviously have no clue about DV Camcorders or video, so could anyone help me understand what I have to do to hook this NTSC camcorder to my European TV and my computer?

Please?

Not THOSE kind of home movies!

medium format — Tue, 17 Jan 2006 04:51:10 -0800

PAL v. NTSC Re:Mini DV. I need help choosing a new video camera, but have some concerns about my future. I'm from the US (the old US, not the new one) and am living in the UK. I have reason to be buying a video camera but need to make sure that I can watch my home movies either in the UK on PAL TVs or in the US on NTSC TVs when I move back there.
I am most interested in the MiniDV format or the newer HDR models. How much is the PAL/NTSC format going to come into play? Am I better off buying in the UK to play in the UK and US or vice versa? Is it even an issue?

Are the cameras actually encoding the video differently or does the encoding occur when the DV signal is sent to the TV?

Any suggestions on specific models that might make this a non-issue? Also, are the HDR cameras worth the extra dough? My justification is that eventually I will own an HDTV (or the technological equiv. of the future).
Don't tell my wife I said that.

NTSC / PAL diagnosis

Anders Levant — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 12:11:16 -0800

I live in the US , and am trying to trade DVDs with a correspondent in the UK. They wish to know a quick and easy way to determine if their DVDs are in NTSC or PAL format. Not looking for an NTSC/PAL conversion, just a diagnostic tool. Any ideas?

DVD PAL NTSC

bright77blue — Sat, 17 Sep 2005 04:20:27 -0800

I would like to use my PC to convert a PAL DVD to an NTSC DVD in as few easy steps as possible. Is the a util? Thanks

Multi region DVD players for USA

cushie — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 13:51:06 -0800

Can you recommend a multi region DVD player for use in the USA? Amazon lists several all from third party sellers, it's not clear which ones have had their hardware hacked. I am looking for something that either plays discs from all regions right out of the box, or only needs a very simple hack via the remote, i.e. I prefer not to void the warranty.

PAL-to-NTSC on a Mac

AlexReynolds — Thu, 21 Apr 2005 19:11:30 -0800

My Sony DVD player is being obnoxious about playing Brit DVDs. I'd like to convert my BBC DVDs from their native PAL signal to the North American NTSC signal, region code-less, all on a Mac, so that I can create working DVDs... What tools (and commands, if CLI) would you recommend to this Mac OS X user? Thanks for all advice!

US TV for Australians

Dreama — Sun, 10 Apr 2005 19:41:59 -0800

What's the best way to get a copy of an American television program to someone in Australia? I'm going to be on a U.S. television show in a couple of months and some friends in Australia want to see me. This is not a program that is put out on the torrent networks. Is my best bet:
a.) to make friends with a torrent-maker and ask for a favor
b.) pay to have my videotape duplicated in the PAL format
c.) ask someone with a TiVo with built-in DVD burner and ask them to make a DVD (are those discs regionless?)
d.) ask someone with a TV card on their PC to make an .avi and burn it to a data cd
e.) something else?

Watching Region 2 DVDs

biscotti — Thu, 06 Jan 2005 20:26:05 -0800

DVDHellFilter: I live in Region 1, I want to watch a Region 2 PAL disc (or a copy of it) on my NTSC TV, how can I do this? I'm willing to either go with a new player or try to copy the disc and convert the region, or whatever will work. (further questions await your expertise inside) Also, where does the PAL or NTSC information come from? Is it in the way the disc itself is encoded, or does the disc just tell the player to put out PAL or NTSC, or what? Also also, are Japanese NTSC Region 2 discs different from other Region 2 PAL discs (if so, why are they both Region 2?)? Also also also, why is it that some films aren't made available in Region (foo), so that film buffs like me who just wanna see the frickin' movie have to ask experts like you questions like this?

How can I convert a video from Sony Mini Cassette to NTSC, PAL and DVD?

NotMyselfRightNow — Thu, 27 May 2004 09:36:23 -0800

I find myself in possession of a Sony Mini Digital Video Cassette tape that was taken while I was in Scotland a couple of weeks ago. I need to get it converted over to NTSC, PAL, and DVD, but am having trouble.... (I know you didn't see it coming, but there's more inside!) My office is in Boston, but I work in Scotland. The video I have was taken on a digital video camera in Scotland and taped onto a Sony mini-DV cassette. We watched the tape in Scotland by hooking up the camera to a TV, and it was fine. I popped out the tape, tossed it in my pocket, crammed myself into an economy class seat on a transatlantic flight, and seven hours and five time zones later, I was back in Boston with the tape.

(We won't talk about where BA sent my luggage.......)

I took the cassette into my Media Services department at work, who handle conversions like this. They either do it internally, or outsource the work, depending on how complicated the request is, and how busy they are. They took a crack at it, but didn't have much luck. Sent it to two of their vendors, who also weren't able to do anything with it. I'm being told that it is a "long-play PAL format" and that for whatever reason, they aren't able to convert it to the three copies that I need (NTSC, PAL, and DVD).

I need this tape.

Best I can tell, I have a couple of options....
1. I can buy a video camera to play it on in the US. This is a valid option, but a last resort in an effort to cut down on expenses.
2. I can try and get it converted next time I'm in Scotland (two weeks from now). This is also a valid option, but I would love to have it copied much earlier than mid-June.
3. Some lovely folks on AskMeFi can recommend a Boston-based company who can handle this.....

Anyone? Anyone? (Bueller? Bueller?)

Many thanks........