I had wondered why DVDs even had a NTSC/PAL/SECAM tag on them as it
seemed irrelevant until I discovered this header information but there
is no reason why a player cannot ignore these headers and output DVD
content in any format. The key thing here is it is up to the player
manufacturer whether it will ignore the headers or not. I have two Sony
players that don't which is not surprising considering their ties with
the film industry.
I was out shopping the other day and saw a NTSC/PAL/SECAM, region-free
player for under ¥9,000 which is obviously the best way to go if you
want to enjoy film from elsewhere.
Kyle
On 2003 Nov 22, , at 23:39, Julien Quint wrote:
> On Nov 22, 2003, at 9:59 PM, Kyle Barrow wrote:
>> Sure, but there are headers in the DVD MPEG file which tell the player
>> to output the original movie in a format compatible with either NTSC
>> or
>> PAL formats so if you pop your PAL region 2 DVD into a Japanese NTSC
>> DVD player from Sony et al. you get a nasty message that you can't
>> play
>> the movie.
>
> Hmmm... I bought a DVD player in Japan, and brought some DVDs from
> France. They play perfectly; the only problem I have is that when the
> aspect ratio of the program is wider than 4/3, then the image is
> stretched vertically. I thought this had something to do with PAL/SECAM
> having more lines than NTSC. Fortunately, my 4/3 TV has a so-called
> 16/9 mode which shrinks the image back to a ratio close to the intended
> one.
--
http://pukupi.com
Received on Sat Nov 22 18:33:58 2003