AFANA Footy BBS

I'm interested in buying that Wall to Wall Essendon DVD mentioned in the newsletter but I'm worried about compatibility issues. On the Sports Delieved website it says that "Our videos come in PAL format, if you need NTSC format check the box below. NTSC tapes are an additional $5.00 per tape. DVD's not available in NTSC. All DVD's are multi-zoned and PAL compatible."

I really don't want a video tape but I want DVDs. But I think I need NTSC DVDs since I have an NTSC TV (living in Canada), and a region 1 DVD player. However I did notice that in the setup screen for my DVD player there is an option to change the output from NTSC to PAL. Just out of curiosity I once changed the setting to PAL and when I do, the screen goes all funny when I play my NTSC DVDs. I'm assuming that my DVD player might be capable of auto-converting NTSC DVDs and outputting them as PAL video. Am I right in assuming that as long as I keep it on NTSC output, that my DVD player is also simply capable of reading a PAL DVD and outputting it as NTSC video so long as it's region free (which the Sports Delievers website itself seems to indicate)?

Phil

I did a little research and I have an answer to my own question. I think this his might be of interest to others who want to order AFL DVDs. Almost all APEX brand DVD players such as the AD-1225 will play PAL based DVDs as long as they are region-free and will convert them for NTSC playback on-the-fly. So these PAL DVDs from Sportsdelivered should work perfectly on your NTSC television if you have an APEX DVD player. However, it gets even better. You can make an APEX DVD player completely "Region Free" if you want to order other region 2 PAL DVDs. I won't mention the procedure here but you can find it other places on the net, it's a simple process of entering in a 4 digit code on the remote (I'll leave it at that). Apex DVD players are really inexpensive too.

Phil

> I'm interested in buying that Wall to Wall Essendon DVD mentioned in the newsletter
> but I'm worried about compatibility issues. On the Sports Delieved website it says
> that "Our videos come in PAL format, if you need NTSC format check the box
> below. NTSC tapes are an additional $5.00 per tape. DVD's not available in NTSC. All
> DVD's are multi-zoned and PAL compatible."

> I really don't want a video tape but I want DVDs. But I think I need NTSC DVDs since
> I have an NTSC TV (living in Canada), and a region 1 DVD player. However I did
> notice that in the setup screen for my DVD player there is an option to change the
> output from NTSC to PAL. Just out of curiosity I once changed the setting to PAL and
> when I do, the screen goes all funny when I play my NTSC DVDs. I'm assuming that my
> DVD player might be capable of auto-converting NTSC DVDs and outputting them as PAL
> video. Am I right in assuming that as long as I keep it on NTSC output, that my DVD
> player is also simply capable of reading a PAL DVD and outputting it as NTSC video
> so long as it's region free (which the Sports Delievers website itself seems to
> indicate)?

> Phil

> I'm interested in buying that Wall to Wall Essendon DVD mentioned in the newsletter
> but I'm worried about compatibility issues. On the Sports Delieved website it says
> that "Our videos come in PAL format, if you need NTSC format check the box
> below. NTSC tapes are an additional $5.00 per tape. DVD's not available in NTSC. All
> DVD's are multi-zoned and PAL compatible."

DVD's are a bit different than videos and many DVD players handle both PAL and NTSC output. Unlike with tape players, manufacturers of DVD players handle this in firmware and it's easier to make one player for many regions of the world than unique ones for each country. The video on the DVD is just digital bits not inherently one output form or another.

> I really don't want a video tape but I want DVDs. But I think I need NTSC DVDs since
> I have an NTSC TV (living in Canada), and a region 1 DVD player.

Not necessarily. You do need multi-region (zone) DVDs or a region free capable player.

> However I did
> notice that in the setup screen for my DVD player there is an option to change the
> output from NTSC to PAL. Just out of curiosity I once changed the setting to PAL and
> when I do, the screen goes all funny when I play my NTSC DVDs. I'm assuming that my
> DVD player might be capable of auto-converting NTSC DVDs and outputting them as PAL
> video. Am I right in assuming that as long as I keep it on NTSC output, that my DVD
> player is also simply capable of reading a PAL DVD and outputting it as NTSC video
> so long as it's region free (which the Sports Delievers website itself seems to
> indicate)?

Yes, you probably are. Typically, if the option exists that is exactly what will occur. AFANA had some reports on this in our media newsletters about two years ago I think. There are also old messages on this BBS on this subject.

-Rob de Santos
AFANA Chairman

AFANA Blog

> I did a little research and I have an answer to my own question. I think this his
> might be of interest to others who want to order AFL DVDs. Almost all APEX brand DVD
> players such as the AD-1225 will play PAL based DVDs as long as they are region-free
> and will convert them for NTSC playback on-the-fly. So these PAL DVDs from
> Sportsdelivered should work perfectly on your NTSC television if you have an APEX
> DVD player. However, it gets even better. You can make an APEX DVD player completely
> "Region Free" if you want to order other region 2 PAL DVDs. ...
> Apex DVD players are really inexpensive too.

Right, Phil. I have several Apex players of older models and they work well and can be "hacked" thru firmware mods generally. (Try seaching for One-Firmware-For-All and the "nerd" firmware info.) This was also mentioned in our older newsletters.

-Rob de Santos
AFANA Chairman

AFANA Blog

I do have a Daewoo region free DVD player and got some region 2 PAL disc (no AFL yet but it's coming soon ) and everything works fine on my NTSC TV.

However, please be aware that you are converting a 720x576 image (PAL) in 720x480 (NTSC) which means you will see some pixelations especially in the titles BUT you can watch all the DVDs you want

www.hotmail.com

> I am an Aussie and have been living in the US for a while. I brought my Pioneer DVD player with me from Aust and it plays the Us DVDS with no hitch. But I can not play my Aussie DVDs now. Any suggestions, or when I go home to Aust will my US DVDs be able to be played on my all region Player?:)

> I brought my Pioneer DVD player with me from Aust
> and it plays the Us DVDS with no hitch. But I can
> not play my Aussie DVDs now. Any suggestions, or
> when I go home to Aust will my US DVDs be able to
> be played on my all region Player?:)

This sounds like a configuation or setup issue. Some DVD players can be configured to be all region or region specific. Another possibility is that some DVD players are set to only allow region changes a certain number of times before "locking". Your best bet is to contact the manufacturer and find out what they did. You can also do an online search and I'll be there is a "hack" site where you can find out how to change this.

-Rob de Santos
AFANA Chairman

AFANA Blog