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Digital Media Converter
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Converting Between PAL and NTSC |
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Different countries employ different television broadcast systems. North
America uses NTSC (National Television System Committee), while most of Europe
and Asia uses the PAL (Phase Alternating Line) format. These television systems
basically define the manner in which your television set displays the signal it
receives. |
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What this essentially means is that a video recorded by an NTSC camcorder will
not play on a PAL television set and vice-versa. The same principle applies to
DVD as well; a PAL DVD will not play on most DVD players in North America. So
if you want to share your videos with someone overseas, you face a frustrating
situation. |
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You need to convert your videos |
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If you want to share video content with friends or colleagues on the other side
of the ocean, you can either invest in expensive multi-system hardware or
convert your videos between NTSC and PAL using software like
Digital Media Converter. |
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Technically, NTSC videos have a resolution of 720x480 and a frame rate of 30
fps, while PAL videos have a resolution of 720x576 and a frame rate of 25 fps.
This means that PAL videos have more resolution and hence better image quality.
On the other hand, NTSC videos render motion better as the frames are refreshed
faster. Either way, you need to convert your source video content to the other
standard to enable playback. |
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MPEG 2 decoder required |
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Videos recorded on a DVD are MPEG 2 files. Hence, an MPEG 2 decoder must be
installed on your computer to view and convert these types of files. We
recommend you download free
"Free MPEG 2 Decoder".
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Conversion using Digital Media Converter
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The first thing to do is to get your videos on to the PC. Moving the video on
to the PC is simple if you have a camcorder by
connecting your digital camcorder to the PC using the FireWire port.
Before starting the conversion process, you need to configure a few settings in
Digital Media Converter. |
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1. |
Start Digital Media Converter. |
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2. |
On the
Tools
menu, click on
Settings. |
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3. |
Under the
General
Settings
tab, specify the destination folder where you want to save your converted
video. |
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4. |
In the
Convert
to
format dropdown list, select the appropriate output option. You can select from
amongst VCD / DVD and SVCD for both PAL and NTSC. |
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5. |
Click on
OK. |
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You are now set to convert. |
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1. |
On the
File
Menu, click on
Add files. Navigate to the video file to be converted and click on
OK. |
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2. |
On the
File
Menu, point to
Convert to, and click on DVD. |
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3. |
On the
File
Menu, click on
Start Conversion. |
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Once the files are
converted you can
burn them on to any
DVD using DVD
burning software. A
DVD stores video in
files that are of
type VOB (File
extension is '.VOB').
If a DVD is not copy
protected, you can
usually copy and
paste these files
from the DVD to your
PC. The DVD,
containing the
converted videos
will play without
any problems on your
DVD player. |
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