[rocky2]

My son has an NTSC prosumer level Sony mini-DV that is about 6 months old (2 million pixles) that he took to college in the UK (where TV is PAL). He is doing a degree in digital video and film and although he has access to good pro level DV cameras at the uni, they are all PAL standard and have to be booked out of the equipment room. He wants to be able to carry the NTSC mini-DV cam around and shoot street scenes from the hip so to speak.
However, the uni wants all footage in mini-DV to the PAL standard so the question is how to get one to the other. Short of buying a converter, is there any easy way to do this using a Powerbook (1.3 GHz) and Toast 6.07, which has a PAL setting? Could he save the footage from his NTSC cam to the PB via firewire and then use Toast to output it in PAL format to the uni's PAL mini-DV? What would be the quality loss issues?
Is it possible to shoot NTSC and then connect the output of his camera to the PAL uni camera and record directly in PAL between the cams?
Perhaps he could save the footage using Toast to DVD in PAL format and then take the DVD into the uni and output it from one of their G5s to the PAL mini-DV.

From my uniniated perspective, why is the NTSC or PAL encoding put on the DVD in the first place if it is all digital? Why isn't it the actual DVD player or camera that does the format encoding at signal output to the TV, monitor, etc?

Is there anybody on this board who can suggest a decent solution that won't cost one of my arms and legs!

[k_munic]

Originally posted by rocky2:
…
Q1)
Short of buying a converter, is there any easy way to do this using a Powerbook (1.3 GHz) and Toast 6.07, which has a PAL setting?

Could he save the footage from his NTSC cam to the PB via firewire and then use Toast to output it in PAL format to the uni's PAL mini-DV?

Q2)
What would be the quality loss issues?

Q3)
Is it possible to shoot NTSC and then connect the output of his camera to the PAL uni camera and record directly in PAL between the cams?
Perhaps he could save the footage using Toast to DVD in PAL format and then take the DVD into the uni and output it from one of their G5s to the PAL mini-DV.

Q4)
From my uniniated perspective, why is the NTSC or PAL encoding put on the DVD in the first place if it is all digital? Why isn't it the actual DVD player or camera that does the format encoding at signal output to the TV, monitor, etc?

Q5)
Is there anybody on this board who can suggest a decent solution that won't cost one of my arms and legs!

A1)
no, this config doesn't do converting…

A2)
the quality of software converting, esp. in the direction of NSTC>>PAL is very lossy.

A3)
no, both, the analog (export via cinch) AND the digital (export via FW) signals are too different, because of video standards (e.g. framerate 30 vs 25, lines 500something vs 700somethings, colorrooms, etc.pp.)

A4)
… because, finally, the tv set is doing analog - with different frames per seconds, different lines per pics… ok, we had that
BUT: Many/most/all EUROPEAN dvd standalones accept NTSC dvds and are able to play them back… in your case, this is not an option, because your son needs mini-dv/wants to edit his projetcs…

A5)
Many . e.g. ask Daniel, one of the Geniuses in the Apple forums:
http://www.danslagle.com/mac/iMovie/...cks/6017.shtml

I do see two possibilities:

buy a cheap, PAL dv camcorder; you get new sonys for less then 400€.

search for a tool called JES Deinterlacer.
this converts movies, imported via fw into a mac NTSC<<>>PAL.
again: if quality is in issue, forget converters (hard&soft), buy a new camcorder (your son doesn't need mio of pixels - a video doesn't have so much pixels, this is just for stills; you don't need effects, etc.- this can all be done better with FCE or whatever.

[dlefebvre]

Here something on the subject I posted a few months ago:

Convert Pal DV to NTSC

This can be a long process, depending on the length of the material to convert.

As far as quality, there will be a loss. The PAL signal has a better resolution and handles colors a lot better than NTSC. The Europeans often refer to NTSC as Never Twice The Same Color. PAL use a frame resolution of 720x576 with a pixel aspect ration of 1,07 and NTSC use a frame resolution of 720x480 with a pixel aspect ratio of 0,9.
Plus the «frame rate» is different, NTSC is 30 frames/second and PAL is 25 frames/second. This is related to the difference in our electrical systems 60hz in America and 50hz in Europe. So in the conversion from NTSC to PAL there will be a pull-up (meaning some frames will be removed to get the 25 frames/second rate) and and the image will be stretched to fit.
If your son has to shoot a lot it's definitely worth it to get a PAL camera otherwise he'll spend 90% of the time doing conversions.

[rocky2]

Thank you both for the very comprehensive and complete repiies. I guess, I'll be inheriting his NTSC mini-DV camerra for use here in Japan and he'll be needing a new PAL model--whcih can be bought here too. There goes the bank balance again.

[brianb]

before running to the local electronics store you might want to see if there is a menu setting that would allow a Pal Format to be recorded. Many upper level camcorders have settings that can be switched. You might be able to dig and find a menu setting to change

[k_munic]

Originally posted by brianb:
… Many upper level camcorders have settings that can be switched. …

just for my records:
a camcorder doing BOTH standards, just by switching????
never heard of that…
maybe you have a link…?
that would be really some kind of improvement…!

[Paul UK]

In iMovie you can set preferences to import the footage in either PAL or NTSC, just remember to change settings before import.