The Look of NTSC to PAL

Crellin Sound wrote on 5/18/2012, 10:50 AM

Hello There,

I have an NTSC Sony VG-20.

And I'm using VMS Platinum 11, which I understand, as someone else so aptly put it, is format agnostic. It doesn't care if the output is NTSC or PAL.

If I shoot in NTSC and output as PAL, what will the viewer see? Will there be a noticeable difference between shooting in NTSC and outputting to PAL as opposed to shooting in PAL and outputting in PAL?

If there's a difference, are there any workarounds to correct it?

Thanks,

BT

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 5/18/2012, 11:58 AM

Vegas is one of the best NTSC<->PAL software-based converters available, so just go for it. Personally i far prefer having resampling disabled. I'd rather have the occasional frame dropped or duplicated than have frames blended together.

However, the other bit of sage advice is that most PAL DVD players can also play NTSC discs and do a hardware conversion on the fly, and that this conversion is often superior to what software-based converters can do.

I'd follow both sets of advice and render both PAL and NTSC versions, then tell your PAL viewer to use which ever one looks better to them when they play it on their equipment.

Jack S wrote on 5/18/2012, 4:49 PM

Hello.
I have a son who lives in America so every time I visit and shoot projects I have to convert them from PAL to NTSC back home so I can send him a copy. I agree that most DVD players nowadays can convert on the fly but he hasn't one. With my old software (Media Studio Pro) everything was OK until there was a slow pan or objects moving across the shot. Because MSP copied every 5th frame to make up the 30fps from 25 there was an annoying jerkiness to the sequence. I don't know how VMS manages it, but there is no noticable difference from the original when it produces a NTSC copy. I get the same results if I convert from NTSC to PAL. Because of the difference in resolution and colours used some people will notice a difference (NTSC has a lower resolution but I believe uses more colours).

Crellin Sound wrote on 5/22/2012, 3:40 AM

Hmmmm,

Very interesting. I wish I had enough equipment to do some tests to see if there's much of a visible difference between NTSC and PAL in regards to both color and resolution. It sounds like there's really only a difference if someone's looking for it. Correct?

Thanks,

BT

Chienworks wrote on 5/22/2012, 9:08 AM

Jack, dual-format players are only common in PAL areas. Players sold in NTSC areas generally are capable of only NTSC playback. Sometimes we can find a dual format player to order from womewhere, but the price is usually astronomical.

On the other hand, your son should be able to play back your PAL DVDs on his computer with no trouble whatsoever. And if he's got VGA or HDMI output to a TV monitor then he should be able to watch anything his computer can play on that TV as well.