How can I convert a PAL DVD to an NTSC DVD and still keep the menus if possible?

You can't.

But $25 at your local Best Buy gets you a cheapo player that does the conversion in hardware!

Well are there any good guides on how to convert a PAL DVD to an NTSC DVD. The best guide I found was a guide to make a PAL DVD an NTSC SVCD.

This never fails Google it....




By the way don't be offended by the pick I just saw it and thought it was funny.

if you're converting PAL to NTSC the least of your problems will be menus and extras...

Gurm is right. it's not worth the aggravation for a (usually) crappy result.

I know DVDSanta is supposed to be able to do it, but I'm not sure how well. maybe take a look at that program and see how it does.

and your question certainly isn't dumb, but that simpsons pic is kind of funny haha.

This may look intimidating but here are some for your reading pleasure:

http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?t=56599
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=107573
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=106502

This results in movie only. You can use the IfoEdit patch method, but this does not guarantee that it will play on all dvd players.

Converting PAL menus to NTSC menus will be even more complicated than just movie alone. And I won't go into details.

If you're patient enough, wait for future version of DVD Rebuilder Pro.

The header patching method... well, if your player could do the hardware sampling, it's unlikely it would NEED the headers patched. I maintain that the subset of players that work with header hacks like the PAL/NTSC or SVCD/DVD header hacks... is pretty small. Less than half, to be sure.

Someone in the general software forum claimed to do NTSC->PAL all the time... with NERO. This person is blind. Any all-in-one program that will do this will do a HORRIBLE job of it.

DVD Santa does an ok job with lots of things, so it wouldn't surprise me if it were... ok.

But it'd be MOVIE ONLY, and it'd take a LONG time (hours).

Seriously, why not just spend the $25?

Nero vision express is free if you already have Nero

........and sucks for this purpose. Creates jumpy nasty video because it doesn't do the appropriate pulldown and time compensation!

plus saying that it's free is like saying microsoft word is free if you already have office haha

Well the only reason why I dont just go buy the player is because some of them are for other people. I have no problem doing many steps to achieve a good copy of a DVD. I have googled my question many times too......and to my luck all I found posts of people using programs like Nero Vision, which I have used....and it does do a crappy job just as the patch method does. Both resulted in jumpy video during action scenes. I knew I was asking too much to keep the menus intact but I'll settle for just the movie to be converted.

Well in that case, you STILL have a lot of work ahead of you.

You have to get the data out of the VOBs and into MPG2 elementary streams.

You have to demux the audio and video.

You have to resample the audio (48khz vs 44khz).

You have to change the framerate on the video, AND resize it, using a good encoder like Procoder, CCE, Mainconcept, or TMPGEnc. And don't forget to do the 3:2 pulldown!

Then you have to load it all into an authoring program to remux and rebuild the VOBs...

Then burn it.

It's a LOOOOOOOT of work. I have done it a time or two, but I just decided that the hours and hours of my life were NOT worth it. I have a policy about stuff like this. If it's not MAKING me money, it's COSTING me money. If I spend literally 20 hours doing something, I could instead have worked 10 of those hours. At $25 an hour, that's $250 I could spend on a solution for the problem.