We are a small UK film production company.Looking to author our own films to DVD for playback in the USA.
One of our editors has suggested the only way to do it is to transfer the original mini dv tape to NTSC and then author to DVD using premiere.This seems a very long way round to do it,but simply using NTSC output on premiere does not work.We know because Americans have told us they can only play the DVDs on their PCs.
Anyone have a simple solution?
freddie@freddiesworld.com

Yup, premiere elements. £50 well spent. Basic menus (though I know a few cheats) and NTSC playback.

[pjclark1]

encode the files as NTSC mpeg using
TMPG encoder from www.pegasys-inc.com

Master and menu with
DVD author from www.pegasys-inc.com

both proggys can be used on a 30 day trial before you have to pay for em.

Originally Posted by Roy Mallard

Yup, premiere elements. £50 well spent. Basic menus (though I know a few cheats) and NTSC playback.

Premiere
elements is the stripped down version of what I've got, and yep it will
PB
NTSC without hassle, but you've still got to transfer it from 625 line
50hz
PAL into 525 line 60hz NTSC before you can get to that stage of
playback.
That's the route I initially tried using Adobe software inside the
package
to change the standard but didn't work as hoped.

Originally Posted by pjclark1

encode the files as NTSC mpeg using
TMPG encoder from www.pegasys-inc.com

Master and menu with
DVD author from www.pegasys-inc.com

both proggys can be used on a 30 day trial before you have to pay for em.

Had a look at the website, can't see anything relevant to me I'm
afraid.
Basically it deals with AVI/MPEG conversion to another format, ie:
you've
got an AVI file and want to convert it to MPEG or Windows Media Player.
Can't see any reference to standards conversion which is what we need?

[LV426]

It will convert standard, as it does the MPEG encoding. It will convert pretty much any readable media file type (including mpeg) to MPEG and, if you choose to do so, will create the (new) mpeg to a standard different from the original source. And do it all very well.

Whatever you use, there has to be a standards conversion done somewhere to get you from a PAL source to an NTSC DVD master. And if it is to be done well, it will take some time to process. Unavoidable.

[senu]

I am not sure this will work for you but I have authored dvds from PAL sourced material to NTSC by using Uleads Movie Workshop2 .It has an lite version movieworkshop express which may suffice for you
http://www.ulead.co.uk/dws/dws_express/features.htm
You could experiment by starting a new project specifiying ntsc ( as the finish product) and i then importing dv AVI or Mpeg2 from a Pal source. Movie Workshop will transcode from pal to ntsc in the authoring process. Quality and compatibility are issues you will have to find out but it is a workaround your problem and Finished results(ie dvd menus , navigation etc) from the program can look quite polished

[vonhosen]

Canopus Procoder will do software standards conversion for you.

http://www.canopus-uk.com/UK/product..._procoder2.asp

but TMPGEnc 3.0 Express is cheaper & supposed to do an even better job of it.

http://www.pegasys-inc.com/en/product/te3xp.html

[senu]

Originally Posted by vonhosen

Canopus Procoder will do software standards conversion for you.

http://www.canopus-uk.com/UK/product..._procoder2.asp

but TMPGEnc 3.0 Express is cheaper & supposed to do an even better job of it.

http://www.pegasys-inc.com/en/product/te3xp.html

I have tried on "loan", procoder 2 I found it rather expensive for my limited use ( may be ok for your purposes) I had to return it .You may need multiple copies as it is usb "dongle" protected but it does do a very good job and rather fast too. There is a cut down version Procoder express whose trancoding abilities i am not sure of .
In addition to using uleads movie workshop2 to transcode from pal to ntsc, I created for comparison a project with similar material converting a pal dv avi to an ntsc mpeg2 using TMPG Enc 2.5 plus and then imported the ntsc encoded mpeg2 into workshop to author a dvd . As far as I know the software used the transcoded mpeg2, unaltered.
I could not observe any difference ( on my computer and domestic dvd panasonic) in the output quality ( here in the uk )and both copies played on set top boxes in the USA which was the intended aim. I am not certain just how well but did not get any adverse reports.

[Kevo]

Canopus Procoder 2 is king when it comes to converting PAL to NTSC and vice versa.
Forget TMPGenc and Ulead, they don't even come close. I've tried all three and more (altough it was to conver NTSC and PAL) and Canopus Procoder 2 gave excellent results.

Ask the same question on videohelp.com and I guarantee you, pretty much all will recommend Procoder2 and another piece of software which I can't remember the name of!



[Sorry hit the wrong key, I haven't edited your post - vonhosen]

[vonhosen]

If you look on Canopus' own user forums though there are a few there advocating TMPGEnc over Procoder (for NTSC/PAL conversions, not other encoding).

I've got both (ditched Ulead a long time ago other than Cool3D which can be useful), but never had to do any PAL/NTSC conversions so couldn't say with any real authority from my own experience how good they are relatively.

[Kevo]

I must admot my version of TMPG 3 express and TMPG enc may be slightly older builds, so i'll try out the lastest versions.