A multi-region DVD player

[Adam]

That doesn't just play a region 2 disc, but also converts PAL to NTSC -- does such a thing exist? I see DVD players that say they're capable of both, but it's not clear if that actually means they can convert one to the other. Mostly just looking for an easy method of watching British DVD's on my old TV's.

[Electronic M]

Since the picture is stored digitally the composite video format is determined by the player rather than the disc.

Got a PC with a DVD drive? If so you just need VLC media player. If it has S-video output connecting it is easy, if not there are VGA and HDMI (Which is compatible with DVI and Displayport with cheap dumb cables) to composite video converters out there.

[TV-collector]

Hi all,

It is told, that it is possible to switch a DVD-player code-free, just take a look:

http://www.dvddemystifiziert.de/codefree/codefree.html

Until now I didn't try it, but have the same problem the other way round.

P.S. There is at the top left the small british flag to get everything in english!

Regards,
TV-collector

[Penthode]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

Since the picture is stored digitally the composite video format is determined by the player rather than the disc.

Not fully so. The UK SD video is recorded component Y/R-Y/B-Y but follows the format 625line 50fields per second. A UK DVD player with composite output will encode to provide a composite PAL on the output.

When playing on "an old NTSC TV" it depends upon how old. An old NTSC color TV will require the 625 interlaced 50 fields per second converted to 525 interlaced 59.94 fields per second. You could encode the 625 line 50Hz as NTSC color to provide color on an old NTSC color set although it would be unsatisfactory mostly from the loss of convergence due to the different vertical scan rate.

625 interlaced 50 Hertz monochrome video easily can made to play on a 525 60 Hertz TV and I do it all the time.

(I even have a few 405 line UK VHS tapes I play successfully on a 525 line set with only a very minor modification and adjustment. I can describe further if interested).

I bought one of these boxes on Amazon and it works pretty well. If you have a UK DVD player and use this box and attach it to a US/Canada Ch 3/4 modulator, you will get a relatively decent PAL converted to NTSC video on your old NTSC color TV.

https://www.amazon.com/JTLB-Converte...B0CX9718XB/ref

[TV-collector]

Hi folks,
According to the site I posted I h@cked a "DUAL" (Only the name is from the german recordplayer company) with success.
My DVD-player is now a region-0-player.
That means it plays all!

The DVD-box from "Naked City" is black & white, but the intro with the FBI-warning about illegal copies is in color.

Until now I watched the complete first season, picture and sound is without issues and stable.
No issues with 60/50 Hz vertical adj. or so!

There is no problem with the european DVDs.
I am using the SCART-connector.

The general problem is, that some h@cks are easy, some are complecated (Sony) and for some players no h@cks are known.

Regards,
TV-collector

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by Penthode

Not fully so. The UK SD video is recorded component Y/R-Y/B-Y but follows the format 625line 50fields per second. A UK DVD player with composite output will encode to provide a composite PAL on the output.

When playing on "an old NTSC TV" it depends upon how old. An old NTSC color TV will require the 625 interlaced 50 fields per second converted to 525 interlaced 59.94 fields per second. You could encode the 625 line 50Hz as NTSC color to provide color on an old NTSC color set although it would be unsatisfactory mostly from the loss of convergence due to the different vertical scan rate.

625 interlaced 50 Hertz monochrome video easily can made to play on a 525 60 Hertz TV and I do it all the time.

(I even have a few 405 line UK VHS tapes I play successfully on a 525 line set with only a very minor modification and adjustment. I can describe further if interested).

I bought one of these boxes on Amazon and it works pretty well. If you have a UK DVD player and use this box and attach it to a US/Canada Ch 3/4 modulator, you will get a relatively decent PAL converted to NTSC video on your old NTSC color TV.

https://www.amazon.com/JTLB-Converte...B0CX9718XB/ref

As I understand DVD, all video regardless of region/Video standard (NTSC, PAL, SECAM, mixes of them some countries use) is recorded as series of digital image files which is a grid of pixels. The grid of pixels has 3 digital numbers (each 0-255) for each pixel that represent Y, R-Y, B-Y luminance and color intensity of the pixel (like a jpeg in your computer). The grid is often 640x480 for NTSC, but 720x480 is used on the grid for NTSC widescreen DVDs. All players have matrix math capabilities that scale (remap) the grid to a new grid at the set output resolution (be it PAL, SECAM, NTSC, NTSC widescreen, 1280x720 HD, or 1920x1080HD). That digital output pixel grid is then either converted to analog composite video (at which point the scanning and color subcarrier frequencies are chosen and generated and the digital video is converted to analog component video and then to composite) or the digital pixel grid is passed to an HDMI tranciever that passes the digital pixel grid directly to the monitor. There's deinterlacing provisions that can handle frame rate conversion too.

DVD doesn't capture the composite video signal, the sync, or color burst of the original signal source of the program material on it. Only a grid of pixels of a varying size that gets mapped to the selected output resolution (most players support several output resolutions) inside the Player on playback.

So DVD playback unlike pure analog recording formats is not locked to the resolution standard the DVD was mastered from...If it was then NTSC widescreen DVDs would be unplayable on non-widescreen NTSC TVs (they play fine) and 480P progressive scan monitors would have compatibility issues too.

[Penthode]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

As I understand DVD, all video regardless of region/Video standard (NTSC, PAL, SECAM, mixes of them some countries use) is recorded as series of digital image files which is a grid of pixels. The grid of pixels has 3 digital numbers (each 0-255) for each pixel that represent Y, R-Y, B-Y luminance and color intensity of the pixel (like a jpeg in your computer). The grid is often 640x480 for NTSC, but 720x480 is used on the grid for NTSC widescreen DVDs. All players have matrix math capabilities that scale (remap) the grid to a new grid at the set output resolution (be it PAL, SECAM, NTSC, NTSC widescreen, 1280x720 HD, or 1920x1080HD). That digital output pixel grid is then either converted to analog composite video (at which point the scanning and color subcarrier frequencies are chosen and generated and the digital video is converted to analog component video and then to composite) or the digital pixel grid is passed to an HDMI tranciever that passes the digital pixel grid directly to the monitor. There's deinterlacing provisions that can handle frame rate conversion too.

DVD doesn't capture the composite video signal, the sync, or color burst of the original signal source of the program material on it. Only a grid of pixels of a varying size that gets mapped to the selected output resolution (most players support several output resolutions) inside the Player on playback.

So DVD playback unlike pure analog recording formats is not locked to the resolution standard the DVD was mastered from...If it was then NTSC widescreen DVDs would be unplayable on non-widescreen NTSC TVs (they play fine) and 480P progressive scan monitors would have compatibility issues too.

The decoded MPEG2 video, European SD DVDs are 720 x 576 and North American SD DVDs are 720 x 483. That is the SD spatial format for both 4x3 and 16x9. SD video, unlike HD video does not have square pixels. Also it is the associated Active Format Descriptor that automatically determines the display is 4x3 or 16x9.

But back the the issue of playback, the recording on DVD is component Y/R-Y/B-Y. It must be PAL or NTSC encoded to be applied to to an analog vintage color TV. I would be curious how the hacked DUAL DVD player, playing an NTSC region DVD would handle the video via the composite analog video output? Will it encode the 525 59.94 video as PAL with 4.43MHz color subcarrier? This would mean a PAL set should be able to display the video in color. The only downside I pointed out is that the convergence would be bad because of the 59.94Hz vs the 50Hz vertical scan difference.

The best bet with the hacked DUAL DVD player to play an NTSC DVD on a vintage PAL color set would be to take the component Y/R-Y/B-Y output of the DUAL, feed it to an NTSC color encoder and then to the NTSC to PAL standards convertor (the one from Amazon). The composite PAL would then feed an RF Modulator to the vintage PAL TV set.

[Adam]

I've done the method where you use a computer and an HDMI -> composite converter - it works (for watching stuff like YouTube on your TV too) but I was just looking for something with less fuss.

I looked, but neither of the players I had were on that list: RCA RC-5210P or Magnavox MDV2100. If I ever pick up a player that's on that list I'll try it.

But I did pick up a player, a Philips that says region-free and output appears switchable between PAL and NTSC -- it seems to work fine with British discs, but I'm also watching a B&W program "Quatermass and the Pit" - the DVD menu is in color and seems to display ok.

[Penthode]

Originally Posted by Adam

I've done the method where you use a computer and an HDMI -> composite converter - it works (for watching stuff like YouTube on your TV too) but I was just looking for something with less fuss.

I looked, but neither of the players I had were on that list: RCA RC-5210P or Magnavox MDV2100. If I ever pick up a player that's on that list I'll try it.

But I did pick up a player, a Philips that says region-free and output appears switchable between PAL and NTSC -- it seems to work fine with British discs, but I'm also watching a B&W program "Quatermass and the Pit" - the DVD menu is in color and seems to display ok.

The HDMI to composite convertor does not rescale. The original question is playing a DVD from say the NTSC region on a vintage PAL television receiver.

A region-free DVD player seems the best solution since it would eliminate the need for a series of boxes and would perform better too.