Region 2 Movies (1 Viewer)

[FrancisP]

There are some movies that are available in Region 2 that I am interested in. I know I need a dvd player that has a PAL converter in it. When I sit down and watch the region 2 disc, will I notice any difference between watching a region 1 disc versus a region 2 disc?

 

[Jeff Swindoll]

I'm not sure, might depend on the player. I've had some players that didnt interpret the widescreen right (ie some 2.35 films looked 1.85) but I dont recall much of a different in quality.

 

[Stephen_J_H]

The only thing I've noticed is that PAL video (meaning PAL material shot on videotape)tends to look a little more filmlike. Mind you, my Zenith DVB 410 (with region hack applied)is hooked up to my 19" Toshiba and is my only region-free player @ this point. Still looking for a region hack for my DVD/VCR combo.

 

[george kaplan]

The PAL dvd will play 4% faster than it should. In other words a 2 hour movie will be over in 1 hour 55 minutes.

As to whether or not you'll notice - well I certainly do, but there are some who claim that they can't tell the difference. To me it's a deal killer, but your mileage may vary, and you may not notice (or may not be bothered by) the sped up action, dialogue and music.

 

[AndrewWickliffe]

I watch about 50% PAL and have noticed the speed-up on 1 disc, "The Naked Island," from Masters of Cinema in the UK.

I used to (back when the Australia exchange rate was so complimentary) recommend getting a PAL-capable player all the time.

 

[Cees Alons]

The PAL image resolution is about 20% better (575 vertical lines vs. 480), so depending of the quality of your player/TV set, you may still see "some" of that!

Also, PAL doesn't have the 3:2 pulldown jitter.


Cees

 

[Jay E]

I own hundreds of DVDs from Region 2 and I have never noticed the speed-up on any DVD.

I am so happy that I made the decision to purchase a multi-region player 4 years ago....there are so many great films released in other regions that have not been released or have lesser editions here in region 1.

 

[john a hunter]

You often don't get the benefit of those extra lines given that there is usually about 6 to 10 (I'm not joking)different language tracks and that eats up the bits.Also lots of subtitles in different languages although that's not so bad on the bit rate. Also I heard that the macrovision encoding in Pal needs more bits than NTSC.
Although I live in a Pal country, I get NTSC DVD's for image quality.

 

[Carlos_M_Nash]

I've owned three region-free players and have had quite different experiences with them. My first one, an APEX, had an aspect ratio problem when displaying anamorphic discs. A 2.35:1 image looked like a 1.85:1 image. My second one, a Cyberhome, was okay but tempermental. My latest one, a Philips, has been absolutely brillant.

Now here's the catch. When displaying PAL material that was video sourced (interlaced), they will appear to look like material that was recorded in frames (like film) when converted into NTSC. The only way to get the 'video look' back is to bypass the DVD converter and simply display it on a PAL monitor. I think the converters in the players are so cheap that they will never do a good job of converting 25 frames/sec. > 60 fields/sec. [I have also heard another theory that the mpeg stored on DVDs is in frames. The frames are converted to fields by the player. So 50 field/sec are stored as 25 frame/sec. The 25 frame/sec. is then converted to 60 field/sec. I think the appropriate way of doing the conversion is to convert 25 frame/sec to 50 field/sec and then to 60 field/sec]. So, I opt to display all my region 2 discs (video or frame sourced) in PAL.

The other thing to consider is the slight pitch up due to the 24 fps > 25 fps conversion. It's easier to just speed up the film by an extra frame to convert into PAL. I'm only bothered by the speed up in films where I know the music very well. I guess I'm a bit sensitive to the slight pitch difference in music than I am with speech. However, newer discs are being made with a pitch down on the audio. The audio is still faster, but at least the pitch is correct.