Even though different countries follow different television systems, it is possible to convert your DVD.

North America follows NTSC (National Television System Committee), while most of Europe and Asia follows PAL (Phase Alternating Line). These television systems basically define the manner in which your television set displays the signal it receives. 

What this essentially means is that a video recorded by a NTSC camcorder will not play on a PAL television set and vice versa. The same principle applies to DVD as well; a PAL DVD will not work on most DVD players in North America. So if you want to share your videos with someone oversees, you face a frustrating situation. 

These are four separate methods of converting a PAL DVD to NTSC using different software.

These zip files contain the free software and exclusive DV Show tutorials in .pdf format:

• Convert video using DivxtoDVD
• Convert video using Dgpulldown
• Convert video using TMPGPlus

The fourth method is to convert your video using Digital Media Converter. 


 

Technically, NTSC videos have a resolution of 720x480 and a frame rate of 30 fps, while PAL videos have a resolution of 720x576 and a frame rate of 25 fps. This means that PAL videos have more resolution and hence better image quality. On the other hand, NTSC videos render motion better as the frames are refreshed faster. Either way, you need to convert your source video content to the other standard to enable playback.
 

MPEG 2 decoder required

Videos recorded on a DVD are MPEG 2 files. Hence, an MPEG 2 decoder must be installed on your computer to view and convert these types of files. We recommend you download free "Free MPEG 2 Decoder".

Conversion using Digital Media Converter

The first thing to do is to get your videos on to the PC. Moving the video on to the PC is simple if you have a camcorder by connecting your digital camcorder to the PC using the FireWire port. Before starting the conversion process, you need to configure a few settings in Digital Media Converter.

1. Start Digital Media Converter.

2. On the Tools menu, click on Settings.
 
3. Under the General Settings tab, specify the destination folder where you want to save your converted video.

4. In the Convert to format dropdown list, select the appropriate output option. You can select from amongst VCD / DVD and SVCD for both PAL and NTSC.





5. Click on OK.

You are now set to convert.

1. On the File Menu, click on Add files. Navigate to the video file to be converted and click on OK.
2. On the File Menu, point to Convert to, and click on DVD.
3. On the File Menu, click on Start Conversion.

Once the files are converted you can burn them on to any DVD using DVD burning software. A DVD stores video in files that are of type VOB (File extension is '.VOB'). If a DVD is not copy protected, you can usually copy and paste these files from the DVD to your PC. The DVD, containing the converted videos will play without any problems on your DVD player.

Last update: 10:08 PM Friday, April 13, 2007