PAL/NTSC

A colleague at work told me that PAL was invented to overcome all the deficiencies of NTSC. Like the old US mobile phone systems in the ealry 90's, the USA persisted with the technology even though it was incompatible with the rest of the world.

NTSC was nicknamed "Never The Same Colour" due to its poor colour balance and inability to look the same on different screens.

Hence NTSC machines can rarely cope with PAL pictures - they have diferent line rates as well.

"Region free players has nothing to do with the PAL/NTSC ability."

I never said they did!

My nephew in Montreal replied as follows:

The model I have is a RJTECH 800. It's is a Chinese cheap-o model and although it does the job very well, it is very flimsy, meaning NO KIDS should touch it. My Spanish colleague at work bought the same one and his broke down shortly after (he uses it on a daily basis while I use it only for the rare occasion I need to view European DVDs. I have a "standard" JVC DVD player for "daily" use) . The RJ tech was only 100 CAN$ so I guess you can't expect that much. It comes with a manual in very poor English and the remote is tough to operate. Chinese menus on the screen, etc.... Having said all that I would NOT recommend this model although it does work for me. Have downloaded DIVX movies from the net and player could handle them with no problem.

I suggest you stick with the usual brands. Philips seem to have a model which is good value for money model and I regret not having bought that one at the time. Nowadays, more brands have multi-zone/NTSC-Pal features and your friend should have a look at the following website. He can pick the features he wants.

http://www.codefreedvd.com/dvd_dvdplayers.htm


Some (actually most) DVD players can be modified by some secret remote control touches.

Here is a list of some DVD which can be "hacked" to accept multizone DVD's

It really works!!!!

Check if your DVD is on the list and follow the instructions how to convert your DVD player. Not fully legal but it does work (nothing illegal about it in the UK, and it's only a number you punch in using the remote control!).

The site also gives information about MULTIZONE DVD players.

http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks

(and you can get similar information here, and all hacks are free:)

http://www.dvd.reviewer.co.uk/info/multiregion/

The RJTECH 800 does indeed have a built-in PAL to NTSC converter, but I say that is quite an uncommon feature even today. No Sony or Panasonic US DVD players can play PAL, for instance.

I suggest you stick with the usual brands

So would I, but you will have a hard time finding a US model that plays PAL. Especially if you go to the local store.

your friend

Actually it's my partner's US relatives, about 10 families we have contact with and neither can play PAL discs. And asking them to buy a new DVD player to play a single disc we sent them is asking too much. 😉

Converting to NTSC with JES Deinterlacer is quite easy, but it takes some processing time for the Mac.