PAL vs NTSC

Eigentor wrote on 12/8/2009, 5:23 AM

Ok, I'm producing my third project. This one will be for some German Exchange students, It's about 53 minutes. To be played in Europe.

I'm wondering if there is any advantage to rendering in VMS PAL, since I apparently can do that in DVDA anyway?

Since PAL is fewer f/s, does this mean that it would be choppier than NTSC?

Do I really need to do it in PAL, or do CD/DVD players (Here and in Europe) typically support both anyway?
(I know I can play both on my old DVD player and on the PC CD drive.)

I also notice that there are several different NTSC and PAL formats, when/why would I use each?

Comments

Eigentor wrote on 12/14/2009, 7:44 AM

OK, since no one answered on this on, I did some investigating and experimenting.

It definately pays to use a PAL rendering from VMS as source for a PAL DVD. And vice versa for NTSC. Otherewise you get a lot of flickering and loss of detail (sorry don't really know the technical terms here).
I.E. Don't use PAL from VMS as input to DVDA if you plan to produce an NTSC DVD, and vice versa.

Using VMS PAL as input to DVDA for an NTSC, forces DVDA to delete some reolution (down convert) and then interpolate/duplicate (up convert) from 25 to 30 FPS.
Using VMS NTSC as input to DVDA for a PAL, forces DVDA to interpolate some resolution (up convert) and delete some FPS (down convert).

The PAL format is inherently better, resolution wise (and overall) but not as good as NTSC W/R/T FPS (25 vs ~30). So PAL will show better detail (resolution) but plays a scene in fewer frames per second so I guess the moving picture would be a little more jumpy.

In case anyone else was wondering.