convert DVD from PAL format to NTSC format

When I take the burned DVD to the US, will it show on a normal DVD player?

No - but it will play in computers which will be your best bet for viewing in the US.

If not, can I recode the project to NTSC by changing the preferences and burn again?

iDVD doesn't do a good job in format conversion. Something like the JES Deinterlacer will do a better job. You will then need to start a new project and switch to the NTSC format before you add any content.

Your Mac should play both PAL and NTSC DVDs with no problems. HOWEVER, if it is a commercial DVD you may run into Region Code issues. You are limited to the number of times you are allowed to change the region setting of your Mac.

VLC media player allows region free playback which should get around having to switch region on a DVD player.

http://www.macos.utah.edu/documentation/multimedia/foreigndvd_playback/region_freeplayback.html

VLC media player allows region free playback which should get around having to switch region on a DVD player.

That was true on older Macs, but I believe it is no longer true. (Which is why I didn't mention it.)


From http://www.videolan.org/support/faq.html?en/index.html#id239426

Does VLC support DVDs from all regions?
This mostly depends on your DVD drive. Testing it is usually the quickest way to find out. The problem is that a lot of newer drives are RPC2 drives these days. Some of these drives don't allow raw access to the drive untill the drive firmware has done a regioncheck. VLC uses libdvdcss and it needs raw access to the DVD drive to crack the encryption key. So with those drives it is impossible to circumvent the region protection. (This goes for all software. You will need to flash your drives firmware, but sometimes there is no alternate firmware available for your drive). On other RPC2 drives that do allow raw access, it might take VLC a long time to crack the key. So just pop the disc in your drive and try it out, while you get a coffee. RPC1 drives should 'always' work regardless of the regioncode.

Message was edited by: F Shippey

I have made a DVD in PAL format from my iMovie project. When I take the burned DVD to the US, will it show on a normal DVD player? If not, can I recode the project to NTSC by changing the preferences and burn again? Or should I first duplicate the iDVD project and then change the preferences on the duplicate project

That was true on older Macs, but I believe it is no longer true.

VLC plays R1 and R2 on my new Mac Pro.

Better Blu-ray, (and standard DVD) players are “Multi-region”, they can play DVDs designed for ANY region in the world. This is nice because there are many great movies that are not available as R-1.

Most multi-region DVD players will automatically convert a PAL DVD to NTSC seamlessly.

As an example, I have a Multi-Region Oppo BDP-80. It will play ANY Disc, from anywhere in the world, PAL or NTSC.

Most multi-region DVD players will automatically convert a PAL DVD to NTSC seamlessly

Perhaps some DVD players will do that but my high end Panasonic won't play PAL and certainly the $29.95 'Walmart Specials' won't. You obviously went looking for a DVD player that would do what you wanted; most people just look at price.

But the DVDs I have -are meant for PAL format available in India (or region 5). I want to convert these on an imac with ilife 10 - so that they can be played on a dvd/blu-ray layer that can handle NTSC/region ONLY.

iDVD will NOT let you work with commercial DVDs. It can not break copy protection and can not work with already encoded MPG-2 content.

The first thing you need to do is to change the mpg-2 compressed video content on your DVDs to another format that can be used in iDVd (mpg-2 content CAN'T).

iDVD will convert PAL content to NTSC content BUT NOT WITH HIGH QUALITY. You would be better off using something like the JES Deinterlacer. In any event, standards conversion PALNTSC is not something easily done on home computers if you want decent quality.