Converting Anime from NTSC to PAL any real point?

N

Neferpitou

Stand User
The UK Anime companies keep on mentioning that it cost a lot of money to convert PAL to NTSC for DVD releases and they have to share the costs of doing the encoding with MADMAN. But has anyone ever had a problem playing NTSC material on UK DVD players/TV?

(not including issue involving with the DVD player unable to play region 1 DVD's)
 
it's more to do with region 2 dvd's as it is region free ones

but yes along time ago i did have a horrible issue with an ntsc dvd because of the conversion
 
Now now. The 15 year-old television in my bedroom displays a monochrome image when connected to an NTSC signal. That's why our framerates must be adjusted.
 
The only trouble I'v ever had NTSC-wise is that of using a SCART cable with older TVs. I assume the same does not happen with LCDs and the such, not that I have tried it myself.
 
I'm quite sure the cost is more likely in the creation of new masters which costs, something that is still required just to make the discs region 2. I don't see American companies making it even easier for people to import cheaper anime...
 
megagold5 said:
The only trouble I'v ever had NTSC-wise is that of using a SCART cable with older TVs. I assume the same does not happen with LCDs and the such, not that I have tried it myself.
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I've used that myself for a while, but my TV set actually recognizes NTSC automatically and switch to NTSC mode on its own. I reckon that only PAL-only sets would have this problem and most newer sets would have both standards.
 
Zin5ki said:
Now now. The 15 year-old television in my bedroom displays a monochrome image when connected to an NTSC signal. That's why our framerates must be adjusted.
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So it's all your fault we have to endure the frame skipping and ghosting that results from the substandard conversion methods favoured by anime distributors? I'm glad you've confessed.

/cracks knuckles
 
I have a japanese NTSC region 2 DVD that came free with a figure and that plays fine. Which begs the question why does my region free NTSC dvd of Red vs Blue: Reconstruction not work =S
 
Zin5ki said:
Now now. The 15 year-old television in my bedroom displays a monochrome image when connected to an NTSC signal. That's why our framerates must be adjusted.
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...You could just buy a new TV. Heck, LG 1080p LCD 3000 models are getting sold cheap because of stock clearance [I've bought a couple of them for the house]
 
Ammish said:
Zin5ki said:
Now now. The 15 year-old television in my bedroom displays a monochrome image when connected to an NTSC signal. That's why our framerates must be adjusted.
Click to expand...

...You could just buy a new TV. Heck, LG 1080p LCD 3000 models are getting sold cheap because of stock clearance [I've bought a couple of them for the house]
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If you cna't buy, try freecycle. There's always TV's flying around there, specially now that people upgraded for the world cup.
 
i think most modern TV's are compatible with NTSC, so i don't think there's much point, but i guess they convert them to PAL for the people who don't have an NTSC compatible TV
 
I jested, as per usual.
I revert to computational methods to watch any and all DVDs these days; my software is painstakingly configured to provide all the settings I desire.
 
ilmaestro said:
Zin5ki said:
I revert to computational methods to watch any and all DVDs these days
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You mean you sit down and work out what would have been shown on the screen if you owned a decent TV?
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Personally I prefer proper TV over a monitor any day, but if you have a decent monitor then technically you can have a far better quality picture than on a TV. Monitor resolutions go way higher than HDTVs, so I'm sure someone who knows their stuff and can upscale things well could make the most of this.
 
butch-cassidy said:
I'm quite sure the cost is more likely in the creation of new masters which costs, something that is still required just to make the discs region 2. I don't see American companies making it even easier for people to import cheaper anime...
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Converting is the the massive cost behind it. As converting NTSC to PAL would not be cheap or simply process as it means ever frame has to be converted. With 24 frames a second that a lot to go through and can easily lead to DVD errors, so need to be throughly checked.

I don't think it would be that hard to change the region, sure you will need to create new batch of disc but its not going to the most complex or expensive thing to do.

Don't know what it got to do with Amierca, as it would be the choice of the UK companies to release stuff in NTSC and not PAL format.

memorium said:
i think most modern TV's are compatible with NTSC, so i don't think there's much point, but i guess they convert them to PAL for the people who don't have an NTSC compatible TV
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Truth be told most TV in the past had no trouble playing NTSC. The ones affected were generally European TV made only for the PAL market. I think near all UK DVD players had the function to convert the NTSC signal to PAL any way.

The DVD player converting the signal from NTSC to PAL can lead to problem for some granted, but as you said most modern TV can handle NTSC and people giving away NTSC capable CRT TV for near nothing or free. It make you wonder why bother with the process if it going to affect 1% of buyers who have a cheap way to solve the problem, when especially it could save the UK distributors a lot of money?
 
I dunno, I always make sure my players are multi region, a lot of them will play both these days. I remember the old days when you'd see an NTSC conversion on a fan video, those colours were crazy...it was awesome.
 
In 16 years of watching anime on video I only ever had one TV that couldn't display NTSC properly, squashing the image slightly between two small borders. Today I can't imagine that many people who aren't 90 and still using the same TV they bought in 1955 will have a problem with NTSC.

ADV released their first few DVDs, including Gunsmith Cats, in NTSC format. I wonder how many complaints they had...
 
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