Regional Coding on BLU RAY

[Chappers]

technically, SECAM's pretty good. When it was originally created, it offered pretty much High Definition images from the outset, only when things went colour, the airwaves couldn't carry the signal, so they pushed the definition down to PAL standard.

Of the three, PAL is probably the best. But of course I suspect Not wanting to adopt German technology may have played some part in France and USA's unwillingness to go with it. Just my opinion of course

[Knight-Errant]

Originally Posted by Chappers

technically, SECAM's pretty good. When it was originally created, it offered pretty much High Definition images from the outset, only when things went colour, the airwaves couldn't carry the signal, so they pushed the definition down to PAL standard.

Of the three, PAL is probably the best. But of course I suspect Not wanting to adopt German technology may have played some part in France and USA's unwillingness to go with it. Just my opinion of course

My problem with PAL for movies (as opposed to PAL for PAL programmes) is that it speeds up the footage by 4% which creates both a higher pitch (I can hear it) and seems to interfere with carefully determined pacing.

For me, it doesn't give an accurate reproduction of the film maker's intent, and for me, that's a problem.

[Chappers]

If the moviemakers would care to shoot in 25fps instead of 24fps in the first place, then we wouldn't have that problem though would we! hehe

And from my research, PAL will do a DV-to-film conversion with ease whereas NTSC has to be run through conversion to remove redundant frames and work with it's spurious "29.97fps" writing speed, which can cause audio synching headaches.

[zombie]

Originally Posted by Chappers

If that really was the case n2blu, then France would not be included in Region 2.

The major NTSC regions in the world are NorthAmerica, Canada and Eastern Asia (Japan, South Korea and the Phillipines).
http://www.high-techproductions.com/ntsc.htm

I was unaware that France had SECAM TVs but their DVDs are in fact PAL, are they not? At least the handful of titles I used to own (which I had imported directly from France) were PAL.

[thunderhawk]

Originally Posted by n2blu

I was unaware that France had SECAM TVs but their DVDs are in fact PAL, are they not? At least the handful of titles I used to own (which I had imported directly from France) were PAL.

PAL and SECAM are both pretty well supported in France I believe. Most broadcasts itself are in SECAM, however a lot of content is PAL I think. I also imported some pre-recorded VHS cassettes in the past from France and couldn't see any color because of the SECAM recording and my TV set didn't accept it (although my VCR did). If it's correct that most DVDs out there are PAL, then most TV sets will accept both standards.
Right Gorkab?..

[Gorkab]

Originally Posted by thunderhawk

PAL and SECAM are both pretty well supported in France I believe. Most broadcasts itself are in SECAM, however a lot of content is PAL I think. I also imported some pre-recorded VHS cassettes in the past from France and couldn't see any color because of the SECAM recording and my TV set didn't accept it (although my VCR did). If it's correct that most DVDs out there are PAL, then most TV sets will accept both standards.
Right Gorkab?..

Absolutely right, before the PS one, games were in SECAM (Like SONIC CD for instance), but since the DVD and this game console broke out, the only SECAM remaining is the TV Broadcast and the VHS also. DVD & Video Games are in PAL.

The first time I saw no color on a TV Screen while there should have been was when I first had my Nintendo 64 in December 1997. I plugged the console in an old 50 Hz TV and the same effect as Thunderhawk happened

[mainman]

But I thought PAL, NTSC and SECAM would be history after you buy an HDTV.

What I am trying to say is, I thought that HDTV's were region free, arent they?

I mean you can watch imported NTSC DVD's in color if you live in Europe on your HDTV, right?

[Blue]

Originally Posted by mainman

But I thought PAL, NTSC and SECAM would be history after you buy an HDTV.

I mean you can watch imported NTSC DVD's in color if you live in Europe on your HDTV, right?

The first statment correct - however there is SD that although all monitors and palyers should be able to handle both, tuners are a differnt matter, although hopefully will become smart enough to handle everything they encounter. Voltage and frequency are no longer an issue.

In Australia - another PAL country the very old TV sets won't touch NTSC the middle aged monitors will play NTSC in B&W and almost all modern TV's are multimode and will switch between being a PAL or NTSC set I think all Modern monitors are multimode. The above applies to Video Tape or if the DVD player is locked to NTSC output.

DVD players will convert between each format as well so your statement for DVD is correct, providing it's set to only output PAL - if left to automatic it will not convert from the format on the disk.

Regional encoding is an unrelated issue (it actually belongs with copy protection - not with the display standards for example a region locked DVD player in Australia (region 4) will NOT play DVD's from the UK (region 2) however both are PAL countries and video tape works fine between the countries.

[exmk]

I'm a movie collector and I'm not going to suddenly stop buying DVDs until I can actually afford to buy a blu-ray player in like 5+ years. The only this is, what about all my overseas movies? Will the blu-ray players have multiregion playback for DVDs? I'm far from ready for new movie tech.

[Blue]

Region encoding is a good question all around. Most probably DVD's will not be locked as most DVD players don't implement it now. T

he region for Blu Ray is totally different it apparently only has 4 regions, so it won't presumably automatically inherit the region from the DVD and act on it .

As you are a movie collector, I'm amazed you are wanting to wait 5+ years. I would be suprised if you will be able to buy DVD's within 3 years, maybe less.

Not to mention the massive jump in picture quality, assuming the screen is larger than 60cm (20"). It seems Blu Ray movies are being released as 1080p, so that should future proof your investment for some time to come.

[exmk]

It's not like I want to wait but the fact that I'm only 15 plays a big part (it will take me a while to save for a player since I'm sure they will cost mega $ here). I assume that they wont be released in Aus 'till after the US too, so thats more time I'd be missing out on DVDs.. I just can't help buying them. I've only just started hearing about blu-ray so I was worried my current DVDs won't work (plus I have a lot on order). I guess I'll have to get a job and start saving now lol.

[Blue]

Do what a number of people on the forum here have done (including me) and stop buting DVD's - especially if you are on a tight budget (which is a fair assumption). I won't be buying the first generation BD players - but waiting for the 2nd or 3rd Generation which should be out within 9 months to a year - even in Oz. I'm confident that you won't have seen HD set up correctly. I have seen supposed HD working in numerous places in Melbourne and only one small place in Box Hill could set it up correctly. In most places in the city, HD looks Nasty - but the main reason is the TV's are NOT HD but down converted to normal PAL (no matter what the advertising and sales people say - just look at the specs and Native resolution) and they don't even set them up correctly for PAL. Please please just wait a little longer - it will be REALLY worth it

[thunderhawk]

http://forums.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=1106

[zombie]

Originally Posted by thunderhawk

http://forums.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=1106

Thanks, I've merged the two threads into one.