PAL-NTSC Problem/question (1 Viewer)

[Jim Bivins]

2 questions, actually.

First, I have a Malata player (DVP-520) and have noticed on the PAL DVD's a 'shimmer' effect, especially on bright scenes with sharp details and the edge's of the letterbox. This is only present on PAL DVD's and not on NTSC. It is quite annoying, and only tolerable because of my small collection of PAL discs. I have a Sony rear projection 4:3 TV, about 5 years old.

Any idea what this may be, or do I just have to deal with it?

Second, I am looking at getting a newer (PAL-NTSC, REGION FREE) player for myself and have a couple of friends interested...what brands and models would you recomend, within the $200 range, give-or-take?

Currently eyeing up the Malata DVD-806RF, at a $100, it seems to be a good deadl...any thoughts?

Thanks
Jim

 

[Rich Malloy]

I'm sure you're seeing artifacts from the PAL>NTSC conversion. Unless your monitor can display a PAL image, I think you'll have to suffer with this to a greater or lesser degree (depending, I think, entirely on the capabilities of your DVD player).

I use a Toshiba SD-4900 for PAL>NTSC conversion -- a very inexpensive player -- and it does a decent job. However, my player misreads the flags (or perhaps the flags are wrong) on two PAL DVDs I have, and deinterlaces as "VIDEO" rather than "FILM" when I have it in AUTO mode. I have to forcibly select "FILM" mode for the image to de-interlace correctly (I believe "de-interlace" is the correct term for what it's doing here). The two titles are the R2/PAL WB release of "RAN" and the R2/PAL Tartan release of "THE MAGICIAN". The jaggies and other artifacts are really obvious when in the wrong mode, though I'm not sure I'd describe the defects as "shimmering". But if you happen to notice alot of jaggies when you're watching a PAL disc, try this solution as perhaps you're player is misreading the flags like mine.

 

[andrew markworthy]

It's almost certainly a conversion/decoding problem - it certainly isn't the norm for PAL DVDs watched on PAL systems.