is there an faq somewhere for the PAL/NTSC conversion differences?
 

I thought that I used to understand all of this stuff but now that I have a no region dvd player that does PAL conversion I find that I am confused. Is there a good FAQ somewhere that could answer all of my questions?

My questions are about the 25 vs. 24 fps stuff, the %4 speedup and exactly when it occurs, and other things (such as does this 4% problem exist if I play a PAL dvd on my computer).

Thanks.

I don't know of a PAL faq offhand, although I'm sure there is one around on the internet somewhere. I'm not sure exactly of the technical details of why this happens, however I am fairly sure that the increase of speed on a PAL DVD will remain regardless of whether you are watching it on a computer or a PAL television.

If I understand your question about when the 4% speedup occurs, the slight increase in speed is a constant throughout the film.

Also, what kind of player do you have? And is it a standalone player, or is it a DVD-Rom in your computer?

I have a dvd-rom in my computer that is region free and I have a Malata stand-alone.

Really? I never knew.

If this is the case, how does the increase of speed affect watching it. I would imagine that it's pretty irritating.

As someone whose planning on buying a region-free player soon, I need to know these things. :-P

The 4% NTSC-PAL speedup is correct. But, in all reality, its very hard if not impossible
to notice on a standard movie. About the only way to "notice" is to compare the runtimes
of the PAL and NTSC versions. NTSC is always a few 2-4 minutes longer and this has
nothing to do with the movie being edited or cut.

However, I found this MP3 file on a German site which claims to prove that it
can have dramatic consequences. But, I don't speak German.

http://mathematik.uibk.ac.at/~andreas/dvd/

Click on boot_alarm.mp3

P.S. I have a Region-Free Apex and a Region Free DVD-ROM drive in my PC.
My comments above apply to both----In short, don't worry about the speedup.

When film is transferred to PAL it is usually played at 25fps so each video frame is the same as each film frame. This speed up is not noticable to most people. Watching PAL from a dvd-rom drive or converted by a Malata should be the same speed as everyone in Europe normally watches videos.

I hope that helps.

But what about non-film sources? And how about an NTSC source that is converted to a PAL disc and then is later watched on an NTSC tv (via a Malata et. al.)?

Thanks.

I played my first PAL dvd on my Malata the other night---'Sexy Beast'---and I can say either my eyes and ears are not as finely attuned as the other cinephiles and audiophiles around here, but I can honestly said I was not able to detect that nasty 4% speed up as everything was in perfect synch....

Off the subject, why do more people not seek out an all region player? I do not know what I would have done over the last almost four years without one and now with the Malata and its perfect conversion, what is stopping people? Everyone complains about not being able to see this or that, sell the old player and buy a new one....Heck my ol' Sammy 709 was a beauty....But it seems like people would rather buy an overly expensive progressive scan player raved about at the new 'Shootout' then experiancing great films being made around the world...Anyway...

Try a film you know. Try listening to the 20th Century Fox logo theme in PAL. You'll hear the speedup.

does this mean that watching pal is like watching something fast forwarded?
 

I'm slightly confused, does this mean that watching pal dvds are like watching a film slightly fastforwarded? And wouldn't that be a different experience for Europeans then?

Basically, yes. The film is run 4% faster. So everything is sped up slightly.