PAL format, Anybody done this?

Eigentor wrote on 10/5/2009, 5:05 AM
I need to create a DVD for Germany. Is it just a matter of picking PAL output either in VMS or DVDA (or both), or is there more to it? How can I tell if it worked. I tried it once and the result played on my PC as well as my TV. I would not have expected it to play on my TV. And what about the regions setting?

Comments

Richard Jones wrote on 10/5/2009, 6:45 AM
As I understand it there are no regional settings on a DVD created using Vegas and DVDA.

If you render and burn in PAL there should be no problems although you will need to consider aspect ratios.

Incidentally, most European DV D Players wil play an NTSC disc as well as the home grown PAL discs although there might be a problem as to whether the menu appears but this seems to vary from box to box.

Richard
Eigentor wrote on 10/5/2009, 7:59 AM
Richard, thanks.

W/R/T apsect rations, how would it differ between the two formats? I guess I would have hoped that this would be handled by selecting the format.

Also, should I be able to play and view a PAL on my TV? I really expected that my cheap portable DVD player would choke on it, but it plays it just fine. That's why I was concerned that I wasn't really generating PAL.
Chienworks wrote on 10/5/2009, 10:16 AM
You do have to make sure you're creating a PAL project in DVDA. If you don't change the project properties there then DVDA will happily take the PAL file from Vegas and convert it back to NTSC.
Eigentor wrote on 10/5/2009, 10:30 AM
I think I got that right. But just to make sure I output PAL from VMS and then from DVDA. I would have felt better though, if in fact it had not played on my DVD player.
What exactly is the difference between PAL and NTSC, anyway?
Chienworks wrote on 10/5/2009, 11:44 AM
NTSC has a higher frame rate, PAL has larger frames.

NTSC: 720x480 @ 29.97fps
PAL: 720x576 @ 25fsp

There are also some differences in the way color is encoded and stored.
Eigentor wrote on 10/6/2009, 4:33 AM
Chienworks, Vielen Dank.