Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Family around the world

A

aussie_in_uk

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 29, 2005
10
0
Need some help and advice here. I am an Aussie with an American fiance - we are now living in the UK.
I need to buy a new DV camera to start making some DVDs for the family back in the US and Aus of our travelling adventures through Europe.
The tricky parts are:
- do I buy a PAL or NTSC camera
- Once I have the footage in either format - can somebody in the other country read the other format. The Aussies are probably more likely to have a NTSC compatible DVD player.
- What about DVD region issues – can both countries view a DVD that I produce on my Mac.
- Can I easily produce separate DVDs for both countries in their respective format (PAL or NTSC) and the correct region.
- Can all this be done in IMovie or do I need to use Final Cut Pro
- Can the DVDs be produced out of IDVD.

Any clues as to what to do would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks
 
M

mpw

Guest
Jun 18, 2004
6,363
1
aussie_in_uk said:
...
- do I buy a PAL or NTSC camera
- Once I have the footage in either format - can somebody in the other country read the other format. The Aussies are probably more likely to have a NTSC compatible DVD player.
- What about DVD region issues – can both countries view a DVD that I produce on my Mac.
- Can I easily produce separate DVDs for both countries in their respective format (PAL or NTSC) and the correct region.
- Can all this be done in IMovie or do I need to use Final Cut Pro
- Can the DVDs be produced out of IDVD…
Click to expand...

iMovie will be all you need for home movies I’d say and using it and iDVD you’ll be able to produce DVD which are region free so anyone can view them.

As far as PAL/NTSC goes I’d never thought to consider it when making mine for family in New Zealand and they’ve never had a problem, but I’m sure someone will be more helpful on that issue. I reckon you'd be better off with a PAL camera as I think you can convert to other formats on your Mac and I believe PAL is slightly better quality.
 
WinterMute

WinterMute

Moderator emeritus
Jan 19, 2003
4,776
5
London, England
If you're staying in the UK, buy a PAL camera, there may be some dual standard ones, but i think not.

You can do all your editing in either iMovie, or if you want something a little more sophisticated, use Final Cut Express, FC Pro is way too complex and expensive for your needs.

It doesn't matter which standard you use, as the DVD's will be burned into one or the other.

You can burn PAL and NTSC DVD's from iDVD or DVD Studio Pro. DVD SP will enable you to make region free DVD's to send anywhere. I'm pretty sure that iDVD operates in region free mode, but it may be locked to the point of sale region. If you're lucky, it may be region free, I've never had to worry about it though.
 
A

aussie_in_uk

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 29, 2005
10
0
UK No problem

mpw said:
iMovie will be all you need for home movies I’d say and using it and iDVD you’ll be able to produce DVD which are region free so anyone can view them.

As far as PAL/NTSC goes I’d never thought to consider it when making mine for family in New Zealand and they’ve never had a problem, but I’m sure someone will be more helpful on that issue. I reckon you'd be better off with a PAL camera as I think you can convert to other formats on your Mac and I believe PAL is slightly better quality.
Click to expand...


Yeah - going from anywhere in this part of the world (including Jersey) won't be a problem. The Americans however, are a different story. That is the tricky part.
 
A

aussie_in_uk

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 29, 2005
10
0
WinterMute said:
If you're staying in the UK, buy a PAL camera, there may be some dual standard ones, but i think not.

You can do all your editing in either iMovie, or if you want something a little more sophisticated, use Final Cut Express, FC Pro is way too complex and expensive for your needs.

It doesn't matter which standard you use, as the DVD's will be burned into one or the other.

You can burn PAL and NTSC DVD's from iDVD or DVD Studio Pro. DVD SP will enable you to make region free DVD's to send anywhere. I'm pretty sure that iDVD operates in region free mode, but it may be locked to the point of sale region. If you're lucky, it may be region free, I've never had to worry about it though.
Click to expand...


In Imovie is it as simple as clicking on Project > Project Info and changing the Video Stanard pulldown menu - seems very easy if that is the case!!!!
I am pretty sure iDVD would be region free - at worst, my family in Aus would be able to view the DVD on Dad's Mac - the computer was purchased in the US so that should allow DVDs to work on a US DVD player. Thanks
 
WinterMute

WinterMute

Moderator emeritus
Jan 19, 2003
4,776
5
London, England
aussie_in_uk said:
In Imovie is it as simple as clicking on Project > Project Info and changing the Video Stanard pulldown menu - seems very easy if that is the case!!!!
I am pretty sure iDVD would be region free - at worst, my family in Aus would be able to view the DVD on Dad's Mac - the computer was purchased in the US so that should allow DVDs to work on a US DVD player. Thanks
Click to expand...

I really wouldn't bother, stay with PAL in the edit, and if you need to convert, do it at the DVD stage, at the very worst you could export an NTSC version using QuickTime, then burn in native.

I've no idea about quality issues here, as everything I do stays PAL (which is a better looking system) I assume that iDVD will simply downgrade the PAL to the lower line-count NTSC standard by pulling lines from the source.

I'm an audio bloke, what do I know? ;) :D
 
M

macapple

macrumors member
Jun 5, 2005
50
0
Switzerland
all my idvd dvd's are region free but now i am getting dvd studio pro how is that encoded?

And i have trouble playing idvd dvd's on a winblows pc
 
WinterMute

WinterMute

Moderator emeritus
Jan 19, 2003
4,776
5
London, England
macapple said:
all my idvd dvd's are region free but now i am getting dvd studio pro how is that encoded?

And i have trouble playing idvd dvd's on a winblows pc
Click to expand...

You can set individual regions in DVDSP, or as many as you like, it's a set of check boxes in the disc menu.

iDVD DVD's do have a habit of being a bit non-standard, they tend to work in Macs and most commercial DVD players, but PC's can be a bit hit and miss.

DVDSP is much more reliable, especially if you build a VIDEO_TS folder and burn using Toast.
 
CmdrLaForge

CmdrLaForge

macrumors 601
Feb 26, 2003
4,633
3,112
around the world
I might be wrong here, but I have a Sony DV Cam (some years old by now) and I think I can change the settings from PAL to the other format. Anyway – in iMovie you can change the settings as well. It could be that you need to create two DVDs (not because of the region code but the formats but I am really not sure about that. It could be as well that it just depends on the DVD player and the DVD itself is more or less the same (thats my guess).
Anyway – I would buy the DV Cam in the country you will use it togehter with a televsion or if switchable to record it in that format. So that you can view your movies directly from the camera.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom