Hello - I have a disc which I am trying to convert from the PAL format to MPEG1 to play on my universal player. I have the Anydvd program running in my taskbar and when I place the source disc into the drive the info I receive is this:

Summary for drive E: (AnyDVD 5.9.4.1)
Drive (Hardware) Region: 0

Media is a Data DVD.
Booktype: dvd-rom (version 1), Layers: 1
Total size: 2286097 sectors (4465 MBytes)

Video DVD (or CD) label: New
Media is not CSS protected.
Video Standard: PAL
Media is locked to region(s): 1 2 3 4 5 6!

RCE protection not found.
DVD structure appears to be correct.
Structural copy protection not found.
Autorun not found on Video DVD.
Bad sector protection not found.
Emulating RPC-2 drive with region 1!

If I copy it nothing changes - Is this because the message states that the media is locked to regions 1 - 6? If so, is there any way to 'unlock' it? Is it because I am trying the trial demo? I have every intention of purchasing the product if I know it works correctly. What am I doing wrong? Thank you in advance for your help.

Then you'll need something like tmpg enc. or dvd author or just NVE.
You can't convert to mpeg1 with programs like anydvd.

LTheLipper,
Please forgive any ignorance on my part but I don't know what a "universal player" is. Is it standalone or computer based? How does MPEG1 fit into this scenario?

Do you mean you want to convert PAL standard DVD to an NTSC standard Backup to play on an, for instance, American TV and player?

AnyDVD is just making your backup region free. It is not converting formats. "Region restrictions" v.s. "video format standards" are two differnt things. PAL conversion, with software available on the consumer level, is a myth. One movie can take about 6-18 hours to convert, is prone to processing errors and is imperfect due to the frames-per-second differences between the PAL and NTSC formats. The converted backup may play with a jittery motion similar to, but not as bad as, the old silent movies which had "jerky" motion. I have also read that there are problems getting the playback of the audio track into perfect sync with the video.

Buying a cheap player that plays both is a better route. Or a higher end player that converts PAL on a hardware level. I'll suggest a place to get such a player if you post back that this is a route you want to take or if I am even on the right track as far as an answer to your issue.

BTW, within the AnyDVD info you posted:You asked:... all this means is that any player which is locked into only playing a disk restricted to one region code can now play a backup from all those listed regions. I.E. the backup is not region restricted like the original was. You should only worry if only one region is listed in that string of region codes. Other members: Did I explain that correctly?

Best regards,
Whisperer

whisperer, you explained it beautifully. saying the media is region locked to regions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 is like saying it is not region restricted at all since 1-6 are ALL consumer regions possible for pressed dvds.

your dvd will play on ANY region player thus your backups will be technically "region free"

your backups, however CANNOT be "format free" They will always be either PAL or NTSC. if you have a multiformat player you should be able to play any format disc as long as is is region free (or "locked to 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6").

if your player is not multi FORMAT then you must do a conversion. converting formats is neither easy nor fun. If you find an easy way, the quality will be lacking. Hell, the quality is even lacking when you do it the hard ways. the two standards have different framerates and you will not find a software conversion program that will make the video look natural. It will always seems "jumpy" as it's trying to catch up or slow down the frame rate of the video.

buying a multi format dvd player is the easiest way as it is a hardware solution and thus provides a more seamless viewing experience.