Region 1 NTSC issues

[JimDriver2]

I just got my first multi region player so i'm new to all this stuff and there's a few things i'm wondering about.

Whats the best mode to watch region 1 discs in? My player is by default set to PAL (Grundig 620-ht) and so is the TV (a tosh 28W39b) and that plays the region 1's which appear in colour and look pretty good. Yet when I change the player to send out NTSC, and the TV to accept NTSC, on one of the TV's NTSC settings I get black and white and the other colour. It doesn't appear to look as good on that NTSC setting. Which one is the best to watch in though? I've heard there's some "shuddering" issues on pans. What exactly is it and is it noticeable?

is there anything else I need to do to properly set everything up to get the best region 1 play back?

cheers

[Simes]

The best image from Region 1 DVDs should come if you let your DVD output NTSC.
Your Tosh should automatically switch to NTSC (i have the 28w93b and it does).Use RGB through scart 1 though ;)

The quality of the PAL picture depends on whether it is PAL50 or the more common PAL60. NTSC is 60 frames per second, PAL60 is 60 frames per second too and should be a good picture.PAL50 is 50 frames per second , so your DVD player is losing 10 frames per second - this is why its possible that you could notice jerkyness with panning scenes (though some players do it very well and you probably would not notice).
PAL50 is usefull because it is the UK standard (same as Region 2 DVDs).So if your player does output PAL50 it is compatible with your VCR (macrovision permitting).If your player only outputs PAL60 or NTSC - your VCR wont record it .

[JimDriver2]

The image doesn't look anyway as good if its on NTSC though, skin colours look quite strange. Whats the advantage of having the player output NTSC and the TV display NTSC?

[GarethR]

NTSC is 60 frames per second

Uh-uh. NTSC is 60 FIELDS per second, which is 30 frames. Similarly, PAL is 50 fields/25 frames.

Whats the advantage of having the player output NTSC and the TV display NTSC?

You're seeing everything in its native form without any type of standards conversion going on. Standards conversion is bad, and you want to avoid it as much as possible.

In any event, you don't want to watch your discs in either PAL or NTSC - you want to be using RGB. RGB is independent of the line/field rate, so it applies to either 625/50 or 525/60, and you don't get any of the colour artefacts that are an inherent part of both the PAL and NTSC colour encoding systems.