Viewing PAL DVD
 

A friend of mine gave me some European PAL format DVDs. One of my DVD players actually will play them, but the composite video output is in PAL format - no colour and have to adjust vertical hold to get it to synch. Is there an easy way to make this work short of buying a European tv?

Some of the cheapest DVD players can be hacked to play PAL.

I had a $29 (new) Cyberhome that just required a sequence of numbers to be pressed on the remote and it would play them.
They turn up at thrifts now and then and of course on eBay.

This model I think.

I have used a Coby DVD-224 to make the conversion, lots of info online about this and other hacks. Very cheap DVD player, my unit died in about a year, but I managed to transfer all of the PAL disks that I had to NTSC.

jr

Certain model Philips can be hacked. I have 2 that can be changed in the menu. No macrovision either

And using the above players, I can play discs on an NTSC television?

Possibly but doubtful. you would need to try it

The Coby 224 that I used did the video format conversion to display a PAL disk on an NTSC TV.... I believe that the output type was menu-selectable, but I had to use a "hack code" to change the region code to match the disk. Search on-line for "Coby 224 hacks" you will find several different sequences, for different models.
jr

Yes, the Cyberhome output NTSC, there was a slight bit of jerkiness in the video as I recall.

Many generic players can be set to output only NTSC (or only PAL) regardless of what format the DVD is in.

If the DVD player you have doesn't have this option you could always rip the DVDs on your PC and burn copies that are NTSC.

Okay this is fantastic news, thank you!. I am also happy to hear it's the cheapie which can be made to work. Now to find one locally.

This player - the Sylvania SVD1053 cost me $20 at London drugs and plays the movies without any setup - thank you all ! I am happy I don't have to watch the movie on my computer, can use my RCA console.

I buy a lot of PAL and convert them to .mkv video files. If you have a Mac, the best solution is to download Handbrake (freeware) and rip the PAL DVD to an mkv file, then play it via a USB external drive. No more regions to worry about. I have one plugged into a Western Digital TV box and watch PAL silent Soviet films on it. Works great. I can help you if you have questions about Handbrake and all its settings. Use the presets, much easier.