Chinese DV burn DVD for USA OK?

dc3dc3
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
My father-in-law video'd our wedding with a Chinese DV camcorder. The camera won't display through my US VCR--as he explained to me, this is due to PAL / NTSC incompatibility. If I buy a new iMac (or G5?) with Superdrive--

1)Can I use the camcorder's DV stream in iMovie, and

2)Can I then burn DVDs for both US and China playback?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 4
    k_munick_munic Posts: 357member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by dc3

    My father-in-law video'd our wedding with a Chinese DV camcorder. The camera won't display through my US VCR--as he explained to me, this is due to PAL / NTSC incompatibility. If I buy a new iMac (or G5?) with Superdrive--

    1)Can I use the camcorder's DV stream in iMovie, and

    2)Can I then burn DVDs for both US and China playback?



    1) imovie does use the standard of your camera - so, if you connect ntsc standard, you got an ntsc imovie, or vice versa... doesn't matter, how your computers system is located (you can edit pal video on a us system e.g.)



    2) when you use iDVD, in perferneces you can choose, what video standard you want for your dvd - ?



    BUT:

    don't expect wonders! video standard conversion is allways? of low quality! and iDVD HAS to convert your material...-

    your computer has to change

    framerate from 50HZz to 60 Hz

    solution from 7hundredsomething to 5hundredsomething

    color scheme - which is... quite different, no idea, techno bubble





    i did it the way vice versa (i'm editing in PAL) and got some ntsc material, did the conversion in qt pro (maybe, you do a kind of "preview" here with some minutes of your material, try dark scenes!), cause it's offering the possibilty to export in both video standards...



    teh results didn't satisfiy me - but hey! it's wedding!!
  • Reply 2 of 4
    dc3dc3 Posts: 9member
    I don't understand:

    Originally posted by k_munic

    ?1) imovie does use the standard of your camera - so, if you connect ntsc standard, you got an ntsc imovie, or vice versa... doesn't matter, how your computers system is located (you can edit pal video on a us system e.g.)?



    Questions

    1A) Is DV encoded in PAL or in NTSC, or is DV universal, prior to the PAL or NTSC formatting? Put another way, would iMovie receive PAL data from camera, process PAL data, and then convert PAL to NTSC? Or would iMovie receive DV data, process DV data and then output DV, leaving the PAL or NTSC formatting up to a later device, e.g., the camera or iDVD?

    1B) Are DVDs encoded in PAL or NTSC or not?
  • Reply 3 of 4
    dobbydobby Posts: 797member
    Only very old DVD player don't convert between the two groups of Video formats PAL & NTSC.

    You will generally be burning a DVD+R video anyway which is supported on nearly all DVD players.

    So your answer is that is your burning the DVD then you can either choose the video format but the default should work on either type of TV anyway.



    Dobby.
  • Reply 4 of 4
    k_munick_munic Posts: 357member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by dc3

    I don't understand:

    Originally posted by k_munic

    ?1) imovie does use the standard of your camera - so, if you connect ntsc standard, you got an ntsc imovie, or vice versa... doesn't matter, how your computers system is located (you can edit pal video on a us system e.g.)?



    Questions

    1A) Is DV encoded in PAL or in NTSC, or is DV universal, prior to the PAL or NTSC formatting? Put another way, would iMovie receive PAL data from camera, process PAL data, and then convert PAL to NTSC? Or would iMovie receive DV data, process DV data and then output DV, leaving the PAL or NTSC formatting up to a later device, e.g., the camera or iDVD?

    1B) Are DVDs encoded in PAL or NTSC or not?



    1A) dv is encoded in PAl or in NTSC

    NO, it is NIOT universal

    NO, iMovie does NOT convert video format

    1B) DVDs ARE encoded in PAL or NTSC

    BUT:

    most dvd players over here in europe DO convert on a hardware level the video standard, so for us "old europeans" vdieo standard doens't matter.

    AFAIK in the us the dvd players just support NTSC, their hoem standard.



    so, when you master a dvd, you have to decide which video format - look under preferences in iDVD, you will a little radio button ntsc>pal



    iMovie does use the format of the original footage of the camera.. in your case the chinise PAL.. BUT you can process these .dv stream on a us computer! BUT you cannot watch the file on a us dvd player............



    any questions
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