Anyone out there know how to transfer both VHS and DVD from European format to North American? I was over in Scotland this summer, and I bought both a VHS tape and a DVD - thought they would be useful for work. Lo and behold - I then find out that Europe has a different format - I guess kind of like BETA vs VHS. I've been told that there might be a way to transfer them. Anyone know?
Transferring video/DVDS - need help!
- Thread starter Maddog
- Start date
If you have a dvd player in your computer you can change the region, but you will have to watch them on there too uless you have a burner. As for the VHS I think yur farked.
There are lots of places that will transfer PAL to NTSC, but it's really expensive. Try calling Henry's or Vistek and ask them for references. (They might be able to do the transfers for you.) Alternatively Golden Electronics on Yonge Street (by the Pantages Theatre) advertises that they can do it. I can't comment on their service as I've never used them.
I suspect that for the DVD it would ultimately be cheaper to buy a new region-free, world DVD player. I bought one on eBay for $30 (shipping was $25!!). If you go to Pacific Mall @ Kennedy & Steeles there are various stores there that will probably have region-free in stock.
I suspect that for the DVD it would ultimately be cheaper to buy a new region-free, world DVD player. I bought one on eBay for $30 (shipping was $25!!). If you go to Pacific Mall @ Kennedy & Steeles there are various stores there that will probably have region-free in stock.
Yeah - figured it would cost money, however they are very useful, and they only cost 5 pounds each (about $12 - 14).
As for the DVD - I've got a Nero burner - will it do DVDs as well?
As for the DVD - I've got a Nero burner - will it do DVDs as well?
As far as I know nero doesn't convert PAL to NTSC it's only used to burn CD/DVD. Try dvdsanta (www.dvdsanta.com) for the conversion. You will still need a DVD burner and the type of DVD media to use DVD+R or DVD-R ,which is depended on the DVD player you are going to use.
Your transfer will cost way more than that! Transfers usually charge by the minute. You can easily expect to pay more than $1 per minute of tape.Maddog said:Yeah - figured it would cost money, however they are very useful, and they only cost 5 pounds each (about $12 - 14).
Another thing I forgot to mention is a store in Mirvish Village (behind the Honest Ed store). There's a guy there that sells lots of videos - mostly older movies from the 1950s but he also has a decent selection of hard-to-find things. It's entirely possible that he has an NTSC version of your tape, or he has access to one.
For the DVD get a player that will play both formats PAL/NTSC. Phillips DVP642 is a cheap player that will play both formats.
You can get a VCR that will play both formats as well but more expensive.
Nero will convert the PAL dvd to NTSC dvd but any conversion will take a long time. It will only convert the movie only and not the menus. It is pretty difficult to convert the menus as well but not impossible, way over the head of the average user.
You can try DVD Santa but it relies on whatever codecs are installed for the conversiion as the program itself is very small. DVD Santa does is quicker but quality suffers.
For any DVD conversion you want to do a 2 pass coversion as it is much better than 1 pass.
IF you had a VCR that played the PAL videotape and if you have a capture card then just capture the videotape to a PAL mpeg and convert that mpeg to NTSC mpeg using Nero or DVD Santa.
The conversion places have the hardware to directly convert the VHS tape to NTSC dvd so it is much faster but more $$$.
I personally would not use DVD Santa. I have been converting PAL to NTSC for a long time.
You can get a VCR that will play both formats as well but more expensive.
Nero will convert the PAL dvd to NTSC dvd but any conversion will take a long time. It will only convert the movie only and not the menus. It is pretty difficult to convert the menus as well but not impossible, way over the head of the average user.
You can try DVD Santa but it relies on whatever codecs are installed for the conversiion as the program itself is very small. DVD Santa does is quicker but quality suffers.
For any DVD conversion you want to do a 2 pass coversion as it is much better than 1 pass.
IF you had a VCR that played the PAL videotape and if you have a capture card then just capture the videotape to a PAL mpeg and convert that mpeg to NTSC mpeg using Nero or DVD Santa.
The conversion places have the hardware to directly convert the VHS tape to NTSC dvd so it is much faster but more $$$.
I personally would not use DVD Santa. I have been converting PAL to NTSC for a long time.
Tsk tsk tsk...
For the DVD, there IS a trick to fooling most stand alone DVD players in playing PAL formatted DVDs. You will need a PC with a DVD burner, a DVD ripping software like DVD Shrink or Nero with MPEG plugin and updates and an application called IFOEdit (freebee).
You will need to rip the DVD so that it is region free onto your HDD. You can use the RECODE option in Nero or DVD Shrink to extract the video_ts and audio_ts folders & files. Use IFOEdit and edit the IFO file.
Use the settings in IFOEdit:
Standard: NTSC or PAL (you will want NTSC)
Resolution: 720x480 for 720x576 PAL to NTSC format
or 720x576 for an NTSC to PAL format
Static: Set this to Automatic Letterboxed
Click OK and Save the changes.
Use Nero to "Burn Video Files to DVD" and enjoy. The drawbacks are, because PAL fps is different to NTSC, you MIGHT notice very slight jerky motions.
For smooth video transfer for your PAL VHS and/or DVD another option is to get a region free DVD player (Pacific Mall for cheap ones) and/or international VHS player. Well no other conversion required 'cause now you can play 'em both. BUT if you want to make a "BACKUP" copy to leave at a friend's home... pick up an Analog-to-Mpeg2 converter box OR if you happen to have a nice highend Mini-DV cam with analog to mpeg2 conversion pass through then you're set! Connect the DVD/VHS player analog out to the converter/camcorder and the converter/camcorder to the respectable port (USB2 or Firewire IEEE1394). Use the video utilities that came with the external converter or if you have Adobe Premiere, MediaStudio Pro, Video Studio etc. application, use that to do your capturing to your HDD. Hopefully the application you use can convert/compress the captured video (about 23-30GB for 1.5hrs uncompressed... may vary). If your uncompressed video file is roughly 24GB for 1.5hrs then use a 2-pass with variable bit rate (VBR) of roughly 4500kbps so that it can fit on a standard DVD-/+R. Your file size would come out to roughly 4GB leaving you room for a menu etc. You will not be able to transfer your DVD menus if you go this route.
The rest you can read up... enjoy.
For the DVD, there IS a trick to fooling most stand alone DVD players in playing PAL formatted DVDs. You will need a PC with a DVD burner, a DVD ripping software like DVD Shrink or Nero with MPEG plugin and updates and an application called IFOEdit (freebee).
You will need to rip the DVD so that it is region free onto your HDD. You can use the RECODE option in Nero or DVD Shrink to extract the video_ts and audio_ts folders & files. Use IFOEdit and edit the IFO file.
Use the settings in IFOEdit:
Standard: NTSC or PAL (you will want NTSC)
Resolution: 720x480 for 720x576 PAL to NTSC format
or 720x576 for an NTSC to PAL format
Static: Set this to Automatic Letterboxed
Click OK and Save the changes.
Use Nero to "Burn Video Files to DVD" and enjoy. The drawbacks are, because PAL fps is different to NTSC, you MIGHT notice very slight jerky motions.
For smooth video transfer for your PAL VHS and/or DVD another option is to get a region free DVD player (Pacific Mall for cheap ones) and/or international VHS player. Well no other conversion required 'cause now you can play 'em both. BUT if you want to make a "BACKUP" copy to leave at a friend's home... pick up an Analog-to-Mpeg2 converter box OR if you happen to have a nice highend Mini-DV cam with analog to mpeg2 conversion pass through then you're set! Connect the DVD/VHS player analog out to the converter/camcorder and the converter/camcorder to the respectable port (USB2 or Firewire IEEE1394). Use the video utilities that came with the external converter or if you have Adobe Premiere, MediaStudio Pro, Video Studio etc. application, use that to do your capturing to your HDD. Hopefully the application you use can convert/compress the captured video (about 23-30GB for 1.5hrs uncompressed... may vary). If your uncompressed video file is roughly 24GB for 1.5hrs then use a 2-pass with variable bit rate (VBR) of roughly 4500kbps so that it can fit on a standard DVD-/+R. Your file size would come out to roughly 4GB leaving you room for a menu etc. You will not be able to transfer your DVD menus if you go this route.
The rest you can read up... enjoy.
That is NO TRICK in fooling the Dvd player to play the PAL to NTSC. You are actually converting PAL to NTSC.Master Baiter said:Tsk tsk tsk...
For the DVD, there IS a trick to fooling most stand alone DVD players in playing PAL formatted DVDs. You will need a PC with a DVD burner, a DVD ripping software like DVD Shrink or Nero with MPEG plugin and updates and an application called IFOEdit (freebee).
For smooth video transfer for your PAL VHS and/or DVD another option is to get a region free DVD player (Pacific Mall for cheap ones) and/or international VHS player. Well no other conversion required 'cause now you can play 'em both.
BUT if you want to make a "BACKUP" copy to leave at a friend's home... pick up an Analog-to-Mpeg2 converter box OR if you happen to have a nice highend Mini-DV cam with analog to mpeg2 conversion pass through then you're set!
A trick would be to edit the mpeg header to fool the DVD player to play a mpeg 1 (Vcd) or mpeg 2 (Svcd) without converting to DVD specs (1/2 DV - 352x480, 702x480, 720x480). This is easliy done. Lots of people have multiple moves in vcd or svcd and want to put them onto a Dvd+-R to play on a Dvd player.
For region free, don't confuse that with Dvd player that will play both formats (PAL/NTSC). You can have a region free dvd player that only plays NTSC discs. You want a Dvd player that is region free and has an internal PAL/NTSC converter inside.
As for smooth video transfer, whatever hardware you use has to convert the PAL to NTSC. Some are better than others. When ripping the DVD you may have video and audio sync problems. You should rip the video and audio separately.
As for making the BACKUP, the mini-DV cams do not have PAL to NTSC converters in them. Most have firewire pass thru so you can put the unedited AVI video to you computer for editing or for conversion to mpeg.
As for the analog to Mpeg2 converter box, most of the capture cards or external boxes will not convert PAL to NTSC. It is only the high end boxes that will convert VHS PAL to NTSC Dvd.
Low end caputre cards either internal or external allow you to capture the PAL video tape to PAL mpeg2 (All you need is a videoplayer that wil play the PAL videotape). You then convert the PAL mpeg 2 to NTSC mpeg 2 and burn.
Wow - thanks for the advice (mind you most of it went over my head - Oh, oh - I don't know what he's talking about! I wish I was at home with a big bag of potato chips! Hmmmm, potato chips!)
Getting the new DVD or VCR isn't an option for one video or DVD. I'll try the Nero thing - was checking it out last night. Thanks.
Getting the new DVD or VCR isn't an option for one video or DVD. I'll try the Nero thing - was checking it out last night. Thanks.
You know, I just wish for once that some people would ACTUALLY read what is written and not what is implied with regards to postings...
I'm sorry but I spend my 30mins typing up info that might help the chap who asked for it only to have someone misread my posing and badger it.
Editing the IFO file is NOT re-compressing the video from PAL to NTSC... Nero on its own will not convert PAL to NTSC. The IFO file is a list of instructions that is used by the DVD software in order to decipher what type of video is going to be played.
Anywho, sorry I even bothered to help...
I'm sorry but I spend my 30mins typing up info that might help the chap who asked for it only to have someone misread my posing and badger it.
Editing the IFO file is NOT re-compressing the video from PAL to NTSC... Nero on its own will not convert PAL to NTSC. The IFO file is a list of instructions that is used by the DVD software in order to decipher what type of video is going to be played.
Anywho, sorry I even bothered to help...
What do you think the RECODE option is in Nero ? It will not convert PAL to NTSC but will recode your DVD, reduce it to fit on a single side DVD, remove menus, strip audio, etc.Master Baiter said:You know, I just wish for once that some people would ACTUALLY read what is written and not what is implied with regards to postings...
I'm sorry but I spend my 30mins typing up info that might help the chap who asked for it only to have someone misread my posing and badger it.
Editing the IFO file is NOT re-compressing the video from PAL to NTSC... Nero on its own will not convert PAL to NTSC. The IFO file is a list of instructions that is used by the DVD software in order to decipher what type of video is going to be played.
Anywho, sorry I even bothered to help...
Dvd Shrink will not doing any recoding from PAL to NTSC. There is a REAUTHOR mode in DVD Shrink. The reauthor mode allows you to strip off any menus, audio, etc and fit it all on a single side dvd.
Nero recode and Dvd Shrink are written by the same author. READ THE DVD SHRINK FORUMS AND YOU WOULD KNOW THIS.
He is going to have to decrypt the PAL DVD using dvddecrypter or something similar. He can then use Nero Recode or Dvd Shrink Reauthor and strip everything but the movie.
The movie will still be in PAL format.
He will then have to extract the PAL mpeg and convert that to NTSC and burn to disc.
If you have a PAL mpeg, Nero will convert that to NTSC framerate for whatever format he chooses vcd, svcd, or DVD.
Ifoedit is not going to convert PAL to NTSC either. Using infoedit is unneccessary unless there is problems in the vob,bup, ifo structures.
Lastly you dont know what you are talking about, dont post unless you do.
Well obviously you know what you're talking about because you're basically saying what I've said in the first place and reading things I didn't even imply. Comprehension skills is so lacking in today's society.
If you follow your advice, nothing is converted at all. Infoedit is not going to do the TRICK and FOOL the dvd player. The only fool is you.Master Baiter said:Well obviously you know what you're talking about because you're basically saying what I've said in the first place and reading things I didn't even imply. Comprehension skills is so lacking in today's society.
Anyone who knows how the above programs works knows that what I said and what you wrote are two vastly different things.
and lastly the only thing lacking is your comprehension of video standards.
