Hi There,
I'm a newbie I couldn't find anthing on this topic by searching so I'm raising a flag.

I'm using Clone DVD2 and Any DVD to try and copy two concert DVDs for The Netherlands. The disc coding is region free. Clone copies the discs with no visible errors. But, neither the original or the copy will play in any DVD player.

I'm guessing that the video format is wrong. Euorpe uses PAL format whereas, USA uses NTSC. Any help on changing the format?
http://club.cdfreaks.com/newthread.p...ewthread&f=74#
Confused

dvd santa will do it but people have had ranging complaints about speed/quality/etc.

some are satisfied with the result, others are not.

if you routinely purchase discs from other countries it may be worth it to purchase a multi-format (ie PAL and NTSC) dvd player and just worry about backing up as normal rather than converting.

if this is a one time thing then dvdsanta will probably be satisfactory.

others may contribute with other programs that have worked for them, but you can play with dvdsanta's free trial while you wait for other responses.

not sure if there are any free programs that will do that conversion.

I had some discs that a friend brought back from overseas. They are PAL and just sat on the shelf as I "knew" I could not play them in my dvd player. Well, awhile ago I was reading up on converting PAL to NTSC and found a post from someone that said he had good luck playing PALs in his dvd player as alot of the newer players also support PAL now EVEN IF THEY DO NOT SAY SO.

Hmmmm. I have 3 JVC players (all different models & years but no more than 3 years old) and a cheap Wally World player. I tried the PAL discs in them and all 3 JVCs played it just fine - the Wally World cheapo would not.

I dug out my owners manual and found that it does say that it will play R1 PAL discs as long as it is outputted to a NTSC tv. I did not pay more than $75 for any of the JVCs.

No where on the box or labeling does it say this (I still have the boxes). So, you may just try your player or invest in a better quality model. You don't have to break the bank to get a PAL capable player.

The best way is to go with a PAL compatible dvd player as goober22 suggests
many of the the cheap korean deals will do this and many JVC will too

If you want to convert, there is really only one really good software that will do this with fewest errors and that is the DVFILM ATLANTIS PAL/NTSC converter. it costs about $200 and takes about 2 hours per 1/2 hour of movie to convert
you can get a tagged fully workig demo to test it out
check this OUT HERE

personally I would go with the PAL compatible dvd player
will save time and money

The patch method works for me. According to the author it doesn't work for all players though.

Thanks for the help. I wasn't aware of PAL compatable DVD players. Good option. But, I'm going to try the patch method first to see if I can do it. If I can get my two DVDs done this way, I'll be a happy boy!
Thanks Again,
boingo

sikoone
how long does the patch method take?

FWIW, I tried the "patch" method. It's just ripping the files to the HD and editing the IFOs from PAL to NTSC (using IFOedit - pretty simple). Only takes about 15min (rip & patch), then just reburn.

If you do movie only, I guess it will work but here is what I found:

On my JVCs, all 3 played the patched version but since I did full disc, the highlight area in the menus no longer lined up with the area they were supposed to highlight (I guess because PAL is a different screen size). Also, the cheapo Wally World player woudl sort-of play it but it was blocky and half green! Not worth the effort.

As a test, I ripped the PALs to my HD. making them region free, and tried them again in my JVCs. They all played fine. I did this as the manual said they would do R1 PALs only but it seems region free work as well. Just FYI if you have other region discs.

is there such a thing as R1 PAL discs?

also, it doesn't surprise me that region free worked...it means there is no region restriction on the disc so of course it worked in a region 1 machine.

turns out you're one of the lucky ones that owns a multi-format machine. whenever you make a copy the region restriction will be removed so all you have to do for your PAL dvds is make a backup and that backup will play in your dvd player.

if you wish to play the originals, it's possible that a hack is available to make your dvd player region free. I'm not sure if this is available for JVC players, but it's worth checking on google or something.

and one last thing...i'm VERY surprised that your wal-mart palyer doesn't play both formats. many times it's the big expensive models that are limited and the $20 cheap-o models that will play a damn frisbee if you tried!

here's some, the OP will have to check to see if there's is there

http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks.ph...&Search=Search

@reasonsnotrules,

"is there such a thing as R1 PAL discs?"

I don't know, you'll have to ask JVC, they put that in their manual!

As far as hacks, if you look at the link Bjproc posted, there are very, very few hacks for JVC and most are for region code. But i have not needed any I have never had a disc that the JVCs would not play (+/-R, +/-RW). I did have an older JVC (2000?) that was made before burnable discs started hitting the shelves, it would not play them.

".i'm VERY surprised that your wal-mart palyer doesn't play both formats. many times it's the big expensive models that are limited and the $20 cheap-o models that will play a damn frisbee if you tried!"

I have tried 3 of them. Two were basically same thing, differnet name (Magnavox/Symphonic) and an Apex model. The Mag/Syms play most discs but there are few they choke on. I have to unplug them to get them to eject the discs. The Apex would not even play the first 3 -Rs I tried in it. I took it back. All these discs played fine in the JVCs so I gave up on any others. My last 2 JVCs I only paid $50 & $58 for.