Sex and the City

[Otto]

Okay, why on earth is the Region 2 DVD released in NTSC format??? Hello??

Will this be re-released in PAL any time soon? And what of subsequent series... what format will they come out in?


:confused:

[Hobbs]

Yes I noticed this too. I was going to buy this for my girlfriend recently but she does have a somewhat ancient Toshiba TV which I'm pretty sure wouldn't handle NTSC. I'm not even sure if it would handle PAL60 and wasn't certain at the time if her player could output PAL50 from NTSC.

In short, I decided against buying it as there was as good chance I'd have to spend an evening explaining international television standards to a pouting woman who just wanted to watch the damn thing.

Anyway, does anybody know why this was done.... and is it more common than I thought?

[Brian F]

I expect it was done to save money, just a re-regioned region 1 disc no new transfer/re-authoring fees.
Still it could have been worse (don't know if the series was editied on film or video) if they had used a non DEFT conversion from NTSC masters.

[Chris]

Originally posted by Otto
Okay, why on earth is the Region 2 DVD released in NTSC format??? Hello??

Will this be re-released in PAL any time soon? And what of subsequent series... what format will they come out in?


:confused:

No re-release.

It's NTSC because Warner have been experimenting with NTSC releases (mainly in Austrailia where many back cat films are being released on DVD as NTSC). Warner are doing it because it's cheaper and it saves doing a standards conversion that would have resulted in a PAL version which would have a poorer quality picture than the NTSC version.

They did it with 10th Kingdom as well.

[Otto]

Well, I haven't bought it as a result and refuse to do so. What's the point if NTSC is not playable on most TVs here?
What rubbish!
:mad:

[kcxdev]

Originally posted by Otto
What's the point if NTSC is not playable on most TVs here?
:mad:

it's very close though (probably most can)

[Otto]

But can I play an NTSC DVD on a pc or laptop here???

[kcxdev]

R1 NTSC plays on my PC (pioneer dvdrom using powerdvd for playback) :)

[Otto]

So it's a hit-or-miss affair with these NTSC disks.... Well, these studios can just get stuffed... I'm not buying it!! I'll wait until the cows come home if I have to... I'll wait for PAL!!
:mad:

[Otto]

PS. Thanks for your help anyway kcxdev
:)

[dangermouse]

I got the French region 2 of Sex in the City - thats PAL and also comes in a much nicer box than the horrid region 1 + 2 versions, check it out here (http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005M6S4/qid=1010968902/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_16_1/171-9215759-6355445)

[Chris]

Originally posted by Otto
So it's a hit-or-miss affair with these NTSC disks.... Well, these studios can just get stuffed... I'm not buying it!! I'll wait until the cows come home if I have to... I'll wait for PAL!!
:mad:

So you would wait for the PAL version even it was a poor quality standards conversion of the NTSC version, which would give a picture that was worse than the NTSC version ?


Warner got lots of complaints in the past about using standards conversions with their early discs, thats why they are experimenting with NTSC releases in Austraila.

[Otto]

Thanks Chris for your advice. It's not that I have anything against good picture quality, it's the fact that NTSC is not compatible with my DVD player. I don't want to buy it and not be able to watch it.

I will go with Danger mouse's idea and order it off Amazon.fr as it's PAL.

:)

[Chris]

Originally posted by Otto
But can I play an NTSC DVD on a pc or laptop here???

Yes, the NTSC/PAL issue doesn't affect PC Playback, as only the line stucture and frame rate of the tv format is used not the colour encoding system are used on dvd. PC decoders work with the YUV colour standard which all dvds are encoded as.

[Otto]

I ordered the french PAL version from Amazon.fr for £23 (that includes postage). It sells for around £30 in the UK. We get ripped off bad here!!