chinese DVD players (apex for example) seem to have no problem doing Pal. some TV's wont do it unless the player converts to NTSC.

They can still run the DVD on a computer if they wanted though. Plus, since the US/Canada aren't Pal, they may not even be able to play a DVD because of region encoding... if the disk isn't region 0.

Thanks for the replies guys.

My disks are all region 0 and I always tell customers that either format will play on computers worldwide.

I'm assuming most DVD players will chuck out a PAL signal if it's playing a PAL DVD. So really I'm asking about the TV itself.

How about if one buys a new TV in the USA now? Can they display PAL correctly?

Some hidef LCDs and Plasmas play PAL just fine. The majority of people here still have CRTs that can only handle NTSC though. Cheap Chinese DVD players will usually convert PAL to NTSC on the fly, but many people stick with name brands which will only play NTSC zone 1or 0 though. American computers play PAL.

For the most part, Americans cannot view PAL DVDs.

Very interesting what you say about cheap Chinese DVD players converting to NTSC on the fly...

So when I'm scrutinising my PAL DVD on a $50 DVD player and multi-system TV here in Thailand or in the UK, I might not be looking at PAL at all!

Yeah that's right. There are also two problems with the way these DVD players convert PAL to NTSC. First, five times a second they double one of the frames. If the camera's stationary this is hardly noticable, but on pans or title animations it's pretty jerky looking. Second, usually they don't rescale the video. The extra horizontal lines are just lopped of the top and bottom and the video looks stretched vertically. This is preferrable to having the discs not play, but it is hardly a release format that is going to show off your work in a positive way. NTSC playback on a PAL DVD player / PAL TV is not nearly so mangled.

I've got a DVD player that'll convert both ways but the manual does say to do this only as a last resort. By default it plays out PAL off PAL DVDs and NTSC off NTSC DVDs. All my TVs are multistandard and my Sony monitor has a row of LEDs to tell me if it's getting PAL, NTSC, NTSC 4.43 or SECAM, very handy.
Then again I don't live in NTSC land!
Bob.

I can't imagine why any aveage person in the US or Canada would need a tv that plays PAL.There just aren't many sources of PAL progamming here.

Rob Mack

You could say a similar thing for people in Australia -- there are no broadcasts other than PAL. Guess we need multi-system-capable TVs because we're interested in what other nations are producing. NTSC is useful to have because a certain amount of it comes through the US.

I don't mean to make a value judgement about PAL-that would be kind of silly. When people here want to view PAL programming they would use an output device that converts to NTSC. Because we're out of range of any over the air PAL signals there's just no reason to own a dual standard TV.

Networks here definitely air programs form PAL countries but they convert to NTSC first. PBS is probably the prime example of this.

In Nick's case he should encourage US customers to buy NTSC versions of his products. His biggest problem with the PAL versions is that he'd get returns. Not something he'd want to have to deal with. I don't think that we'll ever need or want PAL compatible TVs here. There's just no need and it's an added level of complexity for most users.

Rob Mack

There might be a small percentage, very small, of people who can watch or even know what PAL is. The average TV viewer here knows nothing of formats.

To sell a video in the US, it should be NTSC. Anything else would need some type of conversion, either by a DVD player or TV. And as well all know, a lot (as far as quality) gets lost in a conversion, especially at the consumer level.

Dave T2