Convert PAL to NTSC

cmcdonald wrote on 9/24/2007, 3:47 PM

Forgive me if this has been covered before but I could not find it. Can I use VMS Plat 7 and DVDA to convert a DVD in PAL format to a DVD in NTSC format?

Comments

vincej wrote on 9/24/2007, 4:15 PM

Sure - I am a Brit in Canada and have the same need. However I would caution you a bit re the work flow in so far that some work flows seem to take alot longer than others.

Persoanlly I always start by converting the Pal AVI into NTSC avi. once in NTSC I will then do all my edits and build menues etc as though it had been produced by an NTSC camera. The conversion process shold take about 2-3 hours for a 60 min tape. Doing yor edits in PAL AVI and then converting takes a lot longer and I guess coudl be prone to errors.

However, for historical reasons I do not use VMS for Pal - NTSC conversions. I use a outstanding product called Procoder which is faster and produced arguable the best PAL > NTSC conversion available. Unfortuneately they have recently dispensed with their amature ( cheaper & stripped down) product called "Express" and so only the Pro version isnow available at big $$$.

cheers Vincej

vincej wrote on 9/24/2007, 5:08 PM

I forgot to tell you how to do it :

Put your Pal AVI on the time line as though you were editing it
Go to Make Movie
Go to advanced > custom
Set you video properties to NTSC
Set best rendering qualities
check your audio properties
check directory

Go watch TV for 2 hours

cmcdonald wrote on 9/24/2007, 6:46 PM

Thank you very much. That is exactly what I needed to know. I love these forums!!!

cmcdonald wrote on 10/1/2007, 8:33 PM

OK. I managed to take my PAL DVD and use a ripper program to create an AVI file. Everything went fine and I could view the resulting AVI with no problems using Windows Media Player. When I tried to import the file into VMS Plat 7, it would only go onto the voice portion of the timeline but not onto the video portion. I then tried to import the same AVI into Windows Movie Maker and it seemed to work fine. I was able to create an AVI output file in NTSC format using Movie Maker.

What am I doing wrong that won't let me make an AVI that will work with VMS? Please keep your answers simple (like me).

Eugenia wrote on 10/1/2007, 8:49 PM

The ripper program doesn't necessarily create .avi files that are compatible with vegas. I supposed it created divx files instead of the .avi files that vegas supports? You have to find a ripper program that outputs mpeg2 or a format that VMS supports.