[Dixielandjazz] US vs UK DVD's

[Andy.Ling at quantel.com]

> I am aware there are differences in video systems between the United 
> States and the UK and/or Europe.  Does this carry over into DVD's?  Can 
> a DVD burned on a US  video recorder or computer be played on a UK 
> player or computer and vice versa?  Can US commercial DVD's be played in 

> the UK?  Is there conversion software for such differences?
> 

Several have given answers to this including a very detailed description
from Ulf, but I just want to add and hopefully simplify a few points.

First a quick mention of PAL and NTSC. These are essentially a 
transmission
format. As Ulf's description says, they do differ in frame rate and number 
of
lines, but the real bit that makes one better than the other is the way 
the
analogue video signal is encoded. So if your DVD player uses the aerial
socket on your TV, this matters. If it uses something like a SCART
connection, it probably doesn't.

Most TVs built in the last 10 years or so can cope with all the frame
rates. So they will happily display the 24, 25 & 30 Hz systems.

They will also automatically fill in the black top and bottom if the
vertical resolution is less than expected.

So the only real problem is the region code. Most DVD players sold
in the UK are multi-region. Some DVD players on computers only let you
change the region a limited number of times before it is fixed,
but you can get software to get round this.

So if you are buying commercial DVDs, to be sure, make sure the are 
either for your region or are not region locked.

If you are producing DVDs, if you have the option, turn off the
region locking. Then choose the best resolution for your biggest
customer base and assume others will be able to cope.

If you are producing DVDs on a computer you can "just save a
video file" to the DVD rather than creating all the proper
DVD menus and stuff. You'll then get an mpg, avi, wmv or
whatever file. This will play on a computer, but will
also play on lots of current DVD players. You can get
much better quality in a smaller file going this route, but
it's not as compatible.

You can then get into the world of HD. Just google for stuff
like 720p, 1080i, h.264, DVI, mpeg4 and AVI. That should
keep you busy for a while.

Andy Ling


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