converting PAL to NTSC

[sixto]

I have some PAL DVDs that I can only watch on my PC. I have a mobile Blaupunkt player that will send audio and diagonal lines to my US-spec Sony TV. The Sony DVD player and PS2 won't have anything to do with the DVDs.

Is there affordable DVD mastering software that will make NTSC copies of these DVDs?

Are there cheap off mainstream brand DVD players that will play PAL DVDs? With a flash upgrade? Will anything show on my US-spec Sony TV?

Other options?

Thanks,
Sixto
95 S420
91 300SE
87 300SDL
83 300SD

[Botnst]

Originally posted by sixto
I have some PAL DVDs that I can only watch on my PC. I have a mobile Blaupunkt player that will send audio and diagonal lines to my US-spec Sony TV. The Sony DVD player and PS2 won't have anything to do with the DVDs.

Is there affordable DVD mastering software that will make NTSC copies of these DVDs?

Sixto, it may be that the issue is not PAL/NTSC but the DVD region code. Each DVD has an optional regional code that restricts its playability to DVD players with a matching code. This keeps folks from buying legit, cheap DVDs in say, Beijing and importing them for use or legit sale in the USA, where we have players and DVDs with a different code.

There are some cheap DVD players out there, no longer sold commercially, that had hidden accessibility to the various copy protection schemes. Apex made one that is a hackers dream. For a while they could be sold on Ebay at more than the orig sale price. I think Apex avoided lawsuits by rendering the hidden screens inaccessible in later versions of the player.

Anyway, I think that defeating the region code is your best bet.

The thing that p***es me off about DVD's is the near impossibility of making what I think is legit backup. You gotta hack the disk and I think hacking the disk is illegal, though copying is not.

But, I lucked into one of those old Apex DVD players a year ago. The downside of the Apex is that it is not an electronically clean player. Its framing is not reliable and it cannot play some disks with non-standard copy protection. But, you can do some stuff that the movie industry really, really doesn't want you to do.

Google it for detailed info.

Botnst

[yal]

The good thing about DVD player is once you hack the region code system you can play any region dvd on your NTSC TV. Unlike a VHS player and video which have to match systems with your TV.

There are some who have posted on the web how to defeat the DVD region code on the PS2.

[DuckMuck]

There are actually many cheap DVD players that you can find at KMart and Walmart that are capable of playing PAL DVD's on a NTSC television...might I suggest you go to www.nerd-out.com which is a small forum like this one where people discuss cheap brands of DVD players that you can hack to make region free, and many also support the PAL format...I once owned a Daewoo DVG-9000N which was capable of playing PAL DVD's properly resized to fit NTSC television screens...however, the machine wasn't very reliable and developed problems in about 6 months...