So I am in the UK and so we use region 2 PAL here.
I just bought a DVD from the US which is region 1 NTSC.
I didn't expect to be able to rip/encode it at all.
But I tried anyway.
I fired up MakeMKV and ripped the disc as usual. MakeMKV showed lots of errors while ripping - "Region setting of DVD ROM drive does not match the region of the currently inserted disc, trying to work around..." so I didn't expect any success. But amazingly, MakeMKV was able to rip the disc seemingly perfectly. After some research, it seems that MakeMKV tries to strip the region coding and for this particular disc, it seems to have worked perfectly. Other people seem to suggest MakeMKV can successfully strip the region coding from most discs.
So now I have to use HandBrake to encode the ripped NTSC file for playback on my PAL system. I did a test with framerate set to 'Same as source' and it seems to work fine. The source resolution is 720 x 480 so I just left that alone.
Is it really that simple to encode a region 1 NTSC disc for playback on my region 2 PAL system? It seems that if MakeMKV is able to strip the region coding, then HandBrake will be able to encode it with the only requirement being that framerate is set to Same as source (which is the HandBrake recommended setting anyway). When I saw the region 1 symbol on the disc box, I thought oh no, that was a waste of money. I was just amazed it was so simple. Am I missing something?
If it's really this simple, it will make my DVD buying choices so much easier as some discs are only available in region 1 NTSC.
Many thanks.
HandBrake NTSC-PAL question
Re: HandBrake NTSC-PAL question
Where PAL vs. NTSC is a factor is when you are playing back on a device that can only display interlaced content in certain formats. Most computer players and monitors don't care. And, in fact, when you run either NTSC interlaced or PAL interlaced video through handbrake, you're gong to get a progressive (non-interlaced) output.
In other words, don't sweat it.
In other words, don't sweat it.
Re: HandBrake NTSC-PAL question
Awesome. I noticed something else too so I'll add it here just in case it helps someone else in the future.
After ripping the entire disc with MakeMKV, when I tried to play the movie files themselves in VLC, they constantly flashed off and on. Actually it seemed to be constantly flashing between the movie and a green screen. So one frame was the movie, the next was the green screen, etc. Over and over again.
So based on the help I've gotten here before and from your answer above, I tried setting the Deinterlace filter in VLC to off and that fixed the problem. So because, as you said, that HandBrake produces a progressive file, I tried encoding the file with HandBrake and it worked perfectly. No flashing at all.
This is awesome. Now I can get those region 1 DVDs from Amazon that I didn't think i could watch here in UK. Whee!
After ripping the entire disc with MakeMKV, when I tried to play the movie files themselves in VLC, they constantly flashed off and on. Actually it seemed to be constantly flashing between the movie and a green screen. So one frame was the movie, the next was the green screen, etc. Over and over again.
So based on the help I've gotten here before and from your answer above, I tried setting the Deinterlace filter in VLC to off and that fixed the problem. So because, as you said, that HandBrake produces a progressive file, I tried encoding the file with HandBrake and it worked perfectly. No flashing at all.
This is awesome. Now I can get those region 1 DVDs from Amazon that I didn't think i could watch here in UK. Whee!
Re: HandBrake NTSC-PAL question
Some of VLC''s filters can have weird effects. The anti-flicker filter makes my surveillance video look MUCH better when there is low light and horizontal lines, but makes everything else "jumpy". I actually think that's an issue with it trying to deinterlace non-interlaced video by detecting the the siding on the house...
Video can be tricky, even when it is simple.
Video can be tricky, even when it is simple.
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JohnAStebbins
- HandBrake Team
- Posts: 5723
- Joined: Sat Feb 09, 2008 7:21 pm
Re: HandBrake NTSC-PAL question
A couple other tips when encoding DVDs...
Depending on the type of the source, you may want to use a deinterlace or detelecine filter in HandBrake. Some DVDs are interlaced and you need to deinterlace them to remove comb artefacts. Some NTSC DVDs use a technique called soft telecine to encode content that was originally progressive into the interlaced format DVD requires. HandBrake detects and automatically reverses Soft telecine. If the framerate detected by HandBrake is 23.976 fps, then it's a soft telecined NTSC DVD and neither deinterlace or detelecine filters are needed. Some NTSC DVDs use *hard* telecine which requires a filter you would need to enable in HandBrake to reverse.
It's difficult to tell the difference between interlaced content and hard telecined content. One way is to play the video and single step through it, looking for a motion scene where combing is clearly visible. In hard telecined content, there will be a pattern of a sequence of combed frames with an occasional frame that is not combed.
When encoding interlaced content, I like to use HandBrakes decomb filter with comb detect enabled, the "EEDI2 Bob" decomb preset option enabled, and the framerate manually adjusted to double the sources original framerate. Enabling comb detect causes HandBrake to apply the decomb filter only to frames it detects comb artefacts in. So it doesn't apply any filtering to frames that don't need it. EEDI2 is very slow, but results in better quality deinterlacing. Bob creates one output frame for each input field. When you *don't* use bob, you lose some temporal (motion) information because each field is a snapshot of the image at a different point in time.
Depending on the type of the source, you may want to use a deinterlace or detelecine filter in HandBrake. Some DVDs are interlaced and you need to deinterlace them to remove comb artefacts. Some NTSC DVDs use a technique called soft telecine to encode content that was originally progressive into the interlaced format DVD requires. HandBrake detects and automatically reverses Soft telecine. If the framerate detected by HandBrake is 23.976 fps, then it's a soft telecined NTSC DVD and neither deinterlace or detelecine filters are needed. Some NTSC DVDs use *hard* telecine which requires a filter you would need to enable in HandBrake to reverse.
It's difficult to tell the difference between interlaced content and hard telecined content. One way is to play the video and single step through it, looking for a motion scene where combing is clearly visible. In hard telecined content, there will be a pattern of a sequence of combed frames with an occasional frame that is not combed.
When encoding interlaced content, I like to use HandBrakes decomb filter with comb detect enabled, the "EEDI2 Bob" decomb preset option enabled, and the framerate manually adjusted to double the sources original framerate. Enabling comb detect causes HandBrake to apply the decomb filter only to frames it detects comb artefacts in. So it doesn't apply any filtering to frames that don't need it. EEDI2 is very slow, but results in better quality deinterlacing. Bob creates one output frame for each input field. When you *don't* use bob, you lose some temporal (motion) information because each field is a snapshot of the image at a different point in time.