Video Asylum

Posted by Christine Tham (R) on February 18, 2007 at 00:10:20

In Reply to: Re: "The PAL/NTSC 50/60 Hz issues should both be dead." posted by David Aiken on February 17, 2007 at 23:01:25:

If an Australian player is playing back an Australian Bluray of a film at 60Hz, then it's potentially a bug. This is because BluRay is supposed to encode films at 1080 24p, which should then get expanded to either 50Hz or 60Hz depending on region.

I suspect these first generation players are finding it difficult to convert 24p to 50Hz, so they are using 60Hz instead. converting 24p to 60Hz (also known as 2:3 telecine) results in judder, however, it takes a very experienced eye to detect the judder. It's unlikely you'll notice it unless you know exactly what to look out for.

We may see some true 50Hz titles in the future, particularly with locally produced content, mastered from HDV at 50i.

Actually even for SD NTSC/60Hz has never really been an issue in Australia as most TVs sold are multi-format. Every single TV I've owned (even one bought in the eighties) has been able to play back NTSC.

There are a few units that don't support 1080i 50Hz and 1080p 50Hz though. These are typically early model projectors. Anything bought in the last few years should be fine though (fingers crossed).