I have been reading about PAL an NTSC types and had a few questions...

IF buy a stand alone DVD player (in the US) that says it is "Multisystem PAL/NTSC Convert", does that mean it will play a PAL DVD and can be seen on a US television? I have a 55" mitsubishi and a PAL DVD I am playing in a player that says it will play PAL disks (Panasonic s25). It dosn't work. The video will play, but it has lines accross the screen like the vertical hold is messed up. Now could it be an issue of my having the progressive scan on maybe (?). I haven't tried fooling with that yet. Or maybe it is the TV...

The store that sold me the TV says that there is no way a pal disk will work with my TV because it is the TV that dictates what kind of signal it will play. Mine TV was bought in the US spo it will only play NTSC, according to this guy. i think he iw wrong becaseu it seems like a lot of US people can play PAL.


Any ideas?

What the shop told u is correct- it is your tv that ultimately will decide if you can see a PAL signal.

Over in the uk, most recent tv's (bought in the last 4-5 years) you can play both ntsc and pal signals if the device outputing the signal can do both.

Over in the xbox forum we have alot of people saying "help i switched my xbox to pal (native mode ntsc), and now i can't see anything/ the creen is all messed up"

basically give it a try worst that can happen is you won't be able to play that dvd on that tv. I think over in the US there are tv's that can handle a pal signal- although maybe some of the guys in the US can verify this.

Thanks, nimbles
You may be right, but most of what I read is like what you said, that most newer tv's can play both. my tv is a $2500 Mitsubishi HDTV, so I would hope that it would, considering the cost and that Mitsubishi is supposed to make one of the best big screens available. But what I don't get is that the DVD players say "PAL to NTSC CONVERSION", conversion being the key word..if it was up to the TV, why would anything need to be converted? If you had a DVD plarer that could play both, would it not just say that the player dual format, or something else and not "muti system PAL/NTSC conversion", which is what all of these players say.

I plan on playing with it this weekend, but I just wanted to rule out the TV thing, because if it is the platyer, than I would take it back and get a different one but if it's the TV, then I won't waste my time.


thanks again.

you can buy pal to ntsc converters:
http://www.goldenshop.com.hk/AI-trad/Misc_htm/m_pal2n.htm

that was the first link i could find.

As for the player- I have one that can output both- it doesn't take the time to convert the signal- i'll get either ntsc or pal out of it- fortuenately my tv is fairly recent and can cope with both- now if your player specifically says Pal to ntsc conversion then yeah you should be able to see it on your tv, but are you sure it isn't meaning it can out put eithe- cos if thats the case either the tv has to be able to accept the signal or an additonal converter will be required.

Sorry i couldn't be of more help, I know there some more technically minded people on here that could possibly provide you with a better or more in depth solution

If it states "PAL to NTSC CONVERSION" then thats exactly what it'll do, Im in the uk but over here it works vice versa where most dvd players here will play ntsc movies and output the signal in pal, Just make sure the TV type is set to ntsc in the menu.

"I think over in the US there are tv's that can handle a pal signal- although maybe some of the guys in the US can verify this."


My Philips 724 will play PAL DVD's here in the states, and they play on any of three tv's I have hooked it up to, those being a 32" Sanyo, a 32" RCA, and a 52" Philips HDTV. Either I'm lucky with my choices of TV's, or the (likely) 724 is converting to NTSC automatically.

In the US it has to be the DVD player that converts the PAL signal to NTSC... The TV has nothing to do with it.... If I put a PAL DVD into my Apex player, it will play fine on the TV, but I also have a Sanyo player and if I put a PAL DVD into it you will get a signal, but the screen will just keep flipping.....