Hello, I am not sure where to write this topic, so I try it here.
I have a small problem. I got my first 1000 copies of my new effekt some days go and they are in DVD PAL 25 fps, ***. In the internet I read a lot about NTSC and PAL. Some say you can watch PAL on the most Players and TVS in the US, some say NO.
Here is my question. Can you watch PAL DVDs at home? And where do you normally watch your DVDs? It doesn't matter for me PAL or NTSC because I watch all my DVDs on my laptop and there I can watch everything.
Would you be disappointed if you get a really good DVD with a really nice gimmick, but you can only watch the DVD on your computer? Or do you have PAL DVD players in the states.
You would really do me a big pleasure if you you help me.

Thanks a lot

Bye

99.9 percent of American DVD players only play NTSC but all computers in the America will play both NTSC and PAL.

I would prefer NTSC as I don't watch many dvds on my computer

I agree, I wan to watch DVDs on my television's larger screen with sound I can actually hear. It's easier to control, see and hear. So I would for sure say NTSC.

Actually, I'm not sure all computers can easily play PAL DVDs. Yes, if you hack the region coding, which is not hard to do, but I believe the DVD players in most computers purchased in the U.S. are set to Region 1. With Macs, you have an option to shift to another region, but you have a limited amount of times you can do that. So, short answer, if you are selling a DVD in the States, it should be NTSC.

You are confusing video format (PAL/NTSC) with regional coding. They are actually two different things. I believe most magic DVDs (most of the ones I own, anyway), are region-free, which means they can be played anywhere. However, they may be PAL or NTSC, so your player needs to be able to handle whichever video format the DVD has.

Many DVD players sold outside the US can play both PAL and NTSC; however, in the US few can. While you can "hack" most players to handle all region codes, you can't hack an NTSC player to handle PAL, unfortunately.

I am fairly certain I have hacked my dvd players to play PAL dvd's...I would have to check to make sure.

videohelp.com is handy when trying to figure out how to do this...

Nathan

Yep, I have hacked NTSC players in the US to play PAL dvd's....using the site mentioned above.

Nathan

That's interesting and new to me. Are you sure your DVD players weren't already multi-system (NTSC/PAL) capable, and you just hacked them to be able to play all regions?

E.g., I own an OPPO player, which can play both formats. I had to hack it to be able to play all regions, however.

I'm fairly certain that converting an NTSC-only player to be able to play PAL would require hardware changes, if it's even possible.

Of course I could be wrong!

Beats me but I have every David Blaine dvd from the UK and they play on my wal-mart purchased dvd players...I don't really care how but only that they do...

:)

Nathan

PS check that site out and see...

What kind of television system are you watching these on, Nathan? The NTSC coding applies to the television sets as well. It may not be a problem with digital television sets, but it definitely would be a problem on the older analog sets. The recent changeover did not eliminate analog sets, but did eliminate analog broadcasts in most cases.

Regarding the original post -- if you plan to sell your products to magicians in the US, you should consider having a separate batch made using the NTSC format. ALL DVD players and television sets in the US can play NTSC. Japan also uses NTSC.

Not to sound chauvinistic, but the US is the largest magic market in the world. If you want to break into the US market, you need to make products that work in the US market.

Also, ABK, if your DVD's are in a language other than English, make sure that any translations are done by people who are native speakers of English. I have seen and reviewed several DVD's in which this was not done, and which had very cumbersome, often unintentionally comical, translations.

I know many French-speakers and German-speakers who have tried this, at their own peril. If you have any questions about what I am stating here, send me a private message.

A regular TV...a few years old...amazing, I know.

Nathan

If you send some PAL DVD's in the package, people will return the entire trick claiming that the DVD doesn't work. They won't even try their computer...