reading PAL in North America

[jwixson]

Could someone please explain what it takes to read PAL media?

I am trying to play a DVD video i got in England, but Media Player "encounters a problem" and dies without further comment, and CinePlayer says "the DVD volume is invalid." All i want to do (right now) is just play the video - on my computer.

I have heard all sorts of explanations, such as that my DVD player (a Plextor 740A) won't play it, or that my Windows XP, registered in North America, rejects PAL media - but
1. i am using the latest AnyDVD, and
2. i can see the files on the disk (with explorer, for instance).

AnyDVD says Media Standard is NTSC, by the way - maybe it is confused?

What is going on? Can someone point me to an article or blog on this?
(Not even SlySoft seems to know.)

[DrinkLyeAndDie]

Originally Posted by jwixson

Could someone please explain what it takes to read PAL media?

I am trying to play a DVD video i got in England, but Media Player "encounters a problem" and dies without further comment, and CinePlayer says "the DVD volume is invalid." All i want to do (right now) is just play the video - on my computer.

I have heard all sorts of explanations, such as that my DVD player (a Plextor 740A) won't play it, or that my Windows XP, registered in North America, rejects PAL media

I find these explanations to be odd. I have 3 PAL DVDs that I play just fine on my XP Pro SP2 system with Media Player with my Plextor PX-708A and Plextor PX-760A drives.

- but
1. i am using the latest AnyDVD, and
2. i can see the files on the disk (with explorer, for instance).

AnyDVD says Media Standard is NTSC, by the way - maybe it is confused?

What is going on? Can someone point me to an article or blog on this?
(Not even SlySoft seems to know.)

If AnyDVD says it is NTSC then I believe it. I've never had AnyDVD misread the Video Standard of any DVD I've watched on my computer. Are you saying it's PAL just because you got it from England? Check the box and/or the disc and see if it actually states it's PAL.

As for the error message, I can't explain that one. The last I knew WMP was pretty said when it came that error message because it was somewhat of a catch-all.

[jwixson]

DrinkLyeAndDie:

thanks for the input.

The mystery is deepening - i tried another (german) DVD, and AnyDVD recognized it as PAL, region-free, and it plays!

My television rejects both of these - says "this disc cannot be played, check the TV," which is what it says about the first (english) DVD. (My NTSC videos play fine.)

AnyDVD has this to say about it (the english DVD):
Media is a DVD.
Booktype: dvd-rom (version 1), Layers: 1
Total size: 1885248 sectors (3682 MBytes)
Video DVD (or CD) label: No Label
Media is not CSS protected.
Video Standard: NTSC
Media is region free.
RCE protection not found.
DVD structure appears to be correct.
Structural copy protection not found.
Autorun not found on Video DVD.
Bad sector protection not found.
Emulating RPC-2 drive with region 1.

But it won't run!
Cineplayer says "the DVD volume is invalid."
DiscCopy says of it:
book type: DVD
content: ROM/audio
space: 3.6GB
file system: UDF
tracks: 1
sessions: 1
title: DVDROM
layers: 1
copyright protection: none
region playback: 1,2,...8
signature: 1885760

Media selector says: screen format 4:3, PAL. And shows a snapshot from the video.

I hesitate to say that this is a bad disk - too easy. More likely some strange format, as yet unknown to AnyDVD and/or Cineplayer.
I am as puzzled as ever, will write the publisher of the video.

But i can play the other PAL - thanks for the tip.

[DrinkLyeAndDie]

Originally Posted by jwixson

DrinkLyeAndDie:

thanks for the input.

The mystery is deepening - i tried another (german) DVD, and AnyDVD recognized it as PAL, region-free, and it plays!

My television rejects both of these - says "this disc cannot be played, check the TV," which is what it says about the first (english) DVD. (My NTSC videos play fine.)

Have you ever played a PAL disc on your standalone player before? It's possible and likely your player can't and this is why you are having the problem with the German release.

I hesitate to say that this is a bad disk - too easy. More likely some strange format, as yet unknown to AnyDVD and/or Cineplayer.
I am as puzzled as ever, will write the publisher of the video.

We definitely have a conundrum. I would suggest sending in the IFOs to Slysoft and see if they can figure something out. If it's a retail release then sending the IFOs will help out everyone.

Refer here for how to send the IFOs.

[jwixson]

DrinkLyeAndDie:

My television's DVD player rejects all PAL disks - says "this disc cannot be played, check the TV," which is what i expect from it. (works fine with NTSC)

As said, i can play the german disk on my computer (i.e. with my Plextor) - what puzzles me is that i cannot play the english (PAL) disk - and that AnyDVD does not recognize it (altho CopyDVD does recognize it as PAL).

I have written the publisher to see if they have any explanation - maybe some new format designed to baffle us - and hope we can get an intelligent answer from them.

i will definitely send info to SlySoft - in fact, i would send the disk to them if i knew where they are hiding.