[ale] OT - DVD player NTSC/PAL Region Free

[aaron]

On Monday 03 December 2007 11:55, James P. Kinney III wrote:
> On Mon, 2007-12-03 at 10:45 -0500, James Sumners wrote:
> 
> > I doubt MythTV cares about region codes, and any old PC DVD reader
> > will read NTSC and PAL.

So long as your Player software ignores the regions and supports format 
transcoding.  Player software from the commercial arenas, like Apple DVD 
Player and anything Mafia$oft, tend to be Region Restricted (which rules
out any transcoding of any kind).

> Maybe I'm being boneheaded here (stop snickering Aaron!) but I thought
> the DVD disk was irrelevant to the electrical signal output - NTSC vs.
> PAL. So the headache is getting a region-free DVD drive and a PAL format
> signal to a TV set.
 
> Not a local source but this fits the bill otherwise:

No bonehead - this is correct.  Because the video data is digital, DVD
players can inexpensively include the ability to transcode (correct
technical term for this...) material to the selected PAL or NTSC output
format. The caution is that, because of the subtleties of properly dealing
with the different Fame Rates and Vertical Scan Line counts between
PAL / NTSC, the transcoding quality can vary.  Some units may not
smoothly interpolate the frames or maintain proper aspect ratio.

I replaced my DVD Player recently and easily found several on line
retailers that specialize in Region Free and Format Transcoding
units.  My current unit is Region Free (no corporape media industry
Destructive Restriction Mechanisms)  and it can transcode PAL disks
=>NTSC output (as well as play NTSC disks =>PAL output, which
only matters because I happen to have a pro video monitor that
supports NTSC, PAL and SECAM signals).

I also have a Region Free DVD Recorder / Player that supposedly
supports writing PAL DVD's from it's NTSC inputs, though I haven't
had a need to confirm this capability yet.

>From memory of my DVD Player / Recorder shopping of a few

months ago you can expect quality region free and transcoding
models to cost between $50 and $100 more than their format
restricted and region locked counterparts.

HTH !
peace
aaron








 
http://bargainoffers.com/catalog/coby-dvd514-dvd514-all-region-free-code-free-dvd-player-p-780.html
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