Quick note: PAL DVDs are not necessarily better than NTSC DVDs

Posted by Christine Tham (R) on February 22, 2008 at 20:53:34

In Reply to: Welcome back :-) posted by Ole Lund Christensen on February 21, 2008 at 10:14:45:

*** Remember many of my DVDs are PAL, much better than NTSC. ***

Yes, PAL as a video standard has a higher frame resolution than NTSC, but unfortunately life is not quite so simple.

I have reviewed hundreds of PAL Region 4 DVDs (which are often the same as Region 2 DVDs), and in many cases compared them directly with Region 1 NTSC DVDs.

PAL DVDs theoretically should be better than NTSC DVDs, apart from the following issues, which are rather common:
1. Many PAL DVD transfers originate from an NTSC source. If you freeze frame many PAL DVDs, you may notice NTSC to PAL conversion artefacts - typically combing due to a two NTSC frames being composited onto a single PAL frame (as PAL has a lower frame rate than NTSC).
2. Many (in fact at one stage almost all) PAL DVDs are authored with the progressive flag turned off, which confuses many deinterlacing algorithms. Worse still, some PAL DVDs are encoded in interlaced mode even though the source is progressive. If you have a good DVD authoring tool, you can rip DVDs and inspect their encoding parameters. What you discover for PAL DVDs may shock you.
3. All PAL DVDs authored from 24 fps film suffer from a 4% speed up in audio. Many people, including myself, notice a difference in audio quality caused by this speedup. Even some DVDs that try to compensate for the pitch shift (eg. Lord of the Rings PAL version) introduce additional artefacts from the pitch normalization process (which is audible to people with good ears).

Because of the above problems, I generally avoid buying PAL DVDs unless they are really cheap and I'm not that fussed about quality. I have seen PAL DVDs that look better than the NTSC equivalent, but I have never encountered a PAL DVD that sounded better than NTSC, and sound is pretty important to me.

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Follow Ups Full Thread

Topic - and then there were none - Joe Murphy Jr 22:52:29 02/20/08 (29)

Steve Jobs may bury physical media yet ;-) - 4season 21:28:58 03/22/08 (0)

RE: and then there were none - Duilawyer 12:26:54 02/21/08 (2)

Did You See The Link I Posted? - Robertc88 13:13:03 02/21/08 (1)

sorry nt - Duilawyer 16:04:24 02/21/08 (0)

Aftermath - Robertc88 10:17:02 02/21/08 (0)

What took so long? (nt) - Jack G 06:08:52 02/21/08 (0)

yep, just read that one! The world is blu - Jazz Inmate 22:59:35 02/20/08 (22)

It is a wonderful day for all Blu ray supporters - Ole Lund Christensen 04:15:23 02/21/08 (21)

anyone whose day is made by adoption of a video format needs to get a REAL life. nt - Duilawyer 12:28:05 02/21/08 (1)

losers weepers(nt) - Ole Lund Christensen 05:13:30 02/22/08 (0)

Yes it is - racerguy 07:17:00 02/21/08 (17)

Welcome back :-) - Ole Lund Christensen 10:14:45 02/21/08 (9)

Quick note: PAL DVDs are not necessarily better than NTSC DVDs - Christine Tham 20:53:34 02/22/08 (4)

In many cases you are right, but in many DVD are better than that. - Ole Lund Christensen 13:11:42 02/23/08 (3)

RE: In many cases you are right, but in many DVD are better than that. - Christine Tham 16:30:31 02/23/08 (2)

Your "Boss" have written a very nice guide to PAL and NTSC - Ole Lund Christensen 07:33:52 02/24/08 (1)

Sorry for taking so long to respond - Christine Tham 18:42:05 03/22/08 (0)

Thanks :-) - racerguy 12:15:03 02/21/08 (3)

video versus audio - Ole Lund Christensen 09:43:29 02/22/08 (2)

RE: video versus audio - racerguy 10:43:37 02/22/08 (1)

thank you - Ole Lund Christensen 14:26:10 02/22/08 (0)

I made a few posts about the black level and contrast ratio of the new Pioneer 5010 - Jazz Inmate 09:44:04 02/21/08 (0)

Good post - Jack G 07:22:26 02/21/08 (5)

Thanks - racerguy 08:38:54 02/21/08 (4)

very nice choice - Ole Lund Christensen 10:36:39 02/21/08 (0)

Interesting comments - Jack G 08:50:56 02/21/08 (2)

RE: Interesting comments - racerguy 12:40:15 02/21/08 (1)

RE: Interesting comments - Jack G 14:05:16 02/21/08 (0)

Player & Software Prices Need To Drop - Robertc88 07:02:45 02/21/08 (0)

Follow Ups

Quick note: PAL DVDs are not necessarily better than NTSC DVDs - Christine Tham 20:53:34 02/22/08 (4)

In many cases you are right, but in many DVD are better than that. - Ole Lund Christensen 13:11:42 02/23/08 (3)

RE: In many cases you are right, but in many DVD are better than that. - Christine Tham 16:30:31 02/23/08 (2)

Your "Boss" have written a very nice guide to PAL and NTSC - Ole Lund Christensen 07:33:52 02/24/08 (1)

Sorry for taking so long to respond - Christine Tham 18:42:05 03/22/08 (0)

Quick note: PAL DVDs are not necessarily better than NTSC DVDs

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