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| GaySatyr Senior Member  Half dirty ol' man; half horny ol' goat! 1684 Posts 10/00 |  Posted - May 27 2002 : 8:27PMThis is a continuation of the PAL vs. NTSC formats thread. However, I'm devoting this one specifically to reprogrammable DVD players as follows:
Some definitions: A note on Regional Coding Enhancement (abbreviated as RCE ) - This was introduced by the Motion Picture Association of American (MPAA) as an additional mechanism to prevent CF operation of DVD players in the United States. It is not known if this feature will be adopted in other world regions. Its effectiveness depends on how the DVD player handles Region Code data - if a player never looks for the Region Code in the first place, then RCE has no bearing on operation at all. It appears that Sampo DVD players may be readily purchased stock in the United States and Canada as Multi-Format units but with Region 1 encoding enabled. They are quite inexpensive. There are currently several models: Here is a link to the Sampo Products page on BUY.COM. They are currently selling the DVE-631CF for $150 with free shipping ! These are MF , Region 1 units. They provide output for both NTSC and PAL format televisions so that you do NOT need to have a multi-format television set. These units may also be purchased with their eeproms modified for CF operation for a premium of about US$150 to US$250 over their Manufacturers Suggested Retail Price from a number of on-line retailers (See: DVE-611 Rip-Off , DVE-631 Rip-Off ). However, it appears that with a moderate level of computer skill, one can make all the modifications himself, saving the additional cost of the altered units. Plus there are a number of additional features that can be enabled and/or added. A note on the eeprom modification process - it is simply a matter of doing the following: The DVE-631CF seems to be the most sought-after of the Sampo models (& is the one I own). It has the most complex (read: versatile!) firmware and supports more unique features than any of their other units. Specifically, its CF Compact Flash card slot supports MP3, JPEG & MPEG-1 files, including long filenames. In addition, if you are so inclined, you can add a removable hard drive formatted as FAT-16 or FAT-32 (standard Microsoft/PC file structure) for enormous capacity, turning your DVD player into a 120+ gigabyte audio/video jukebox! Be VERY careful: a number of MF DVD players still require a multi-format television set (this is true of Panasonic, Pioneer and Sony models). Again, the Sampo MF DVD players do NOT require a multi-format television set. They will work with televisions that are standard NTSC or PAL only. A note on out-board television format converters: After talking with two friends whose businesses include providing video for broadcast, re-broadcast and videotape distribution the world over (they are not affiliated with each other), TenLab equipment is considered to be among the very best available. Unfortunately, it is not inexpensive. Origionally, I had planned to post a step-by-step how-to article on making the modifications needed to re-program the eeprom for CF operation. However, there is extensive information already on the web; therefore, I'm posting the relevant links in this thread. ~ GaySatyr Edited by - GaySatyr on May 28 2002  [Link] |
| BIGmike B-I-G-m-i-k-e 2335 Posts 3/01 | Posted - May 27 2002 : 8:42PM but here is a quote from Tenlab, which I understood: PAL... Developed in Germany. Leave it to the Germans to be difficult. (I am mostly German, in case you want to know.) So, GaySatyr, thanks for the re-post. I Hope you continue the research. ---BIGmike, over and out!--- Edited by - BIGmike on May 27 2002  [Link] |
Bill  All-Star Member 5334 Posts 6/00 | Posted - May 27 2002 : 9:34PM PAL is actually an improvement over NTSC. It has more lines of resolution. However, those lines refresh less frequently on the screen. The problem with being the first to develop a standard is that other groups (or countries) that wait to see what other people have developed are able to learn from what has already been developed and then come up with something better. Let me try to help you understand some of the differences. Basically, take away about 25 lines from each format to account for overscan (part of the picture that you really can't see). What you are left with is 500 lines for NTSC and 600 lines for PAL. Since both formats are interlaced, only half of these lines are displayed at any given time. Each of these halves are known as a "field". Two fields make up a "frame" NTSC refreshes approximately 60 times per second giving approximately 30 frames per second (I think the exact number is 29.94). PAL refreshes 50 times per second, giving 25 frames per second. Film is 24 frames per second. When converting a film to NTSC video, the manufacturer has to go through a process known as 3:2 pulldown. This basically involves re-dislaying some of the fields a second time to stretch the 24 frames to 30 frames. When converting from film to PAL, they don't go through this process. However, what this actually causes is film sources played in PAL actually play 4% too fast (what is supposed to be 34 frames/sec is actually played at 25 frame/sec. The biggest problem in trying to convert a PAL source to NTSC is that you get the worst of both worlds. Since the source is 25 frames/sec the conversion has to artificially fill the other 5 frames by repeating given fields (so you really only have the quality of 25 frames/sec and since NTSC cant display the 600 lines, the picture gets converted to 500. The problem with being the first to develop a standard is that other groups (or countries) that wait to see what other people have developed are able to learn from what has already been developed and then come up with something better. [Link] |
| paraglider Deactivated User 44 Posts 9/01 | Posted - May 28 2002 : 4:12AM That was the view of television engineers in the UK. [Link] |
| paraglider Deactivated User 44 Posts 9/01 | Posted - May 28 2002 : 4:27AM Scan2000 Yahoo group. It will convert from PAL to NTSC, or the reverse, and also play the DVD in whatever format it was mastered in. Plays any region. Plays CDS, MP3, VCD and SVCD There are several companies who produce machines based on it. Take a look at the group. To use a British term there are a number of anoracks who run the group, but they are helpful. Edited by - paraglider on May 28 2002 [Link] |
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