Is R2 DVD better quality than R1 ?

Samson

I own a few Region 1 DVDs.
I have noticed that when I switch my DVD player from region 2 to Region 1 (from PAL to NTSC) the resolution seems to decrease (ie. the visble part of the splash screen is less).

Is there a big difference in the resolution between PAL and NTSC ?
Does this have a noticeable negative effect on picture quality ?

Would I be better off waiting for the R2 version of a film to enjoy the movie picture quality at its best ?

gandalf

Basic non techie answer is yes R2 Pal contains more lines that R1 NTSC. Also PAL has 26fps compared to NTSC which is 25fps. However PAL suffers from speedup because most films are filmed at 25fps and it needs and extra frame added.

TBH I hardly notice the difference as at least 50% of my DVD's are Region1's.

Gandalf.

(Waiting for the anoraks to explain it fully )

Saruman

Dont notice any difference to a complete DVD phreak i know says that region 1 dvd's have better sound.. he may be correct in that one... as in too much music and stuff drowning out the speech.. anyone else notice it?

Figment

Yes, but i discovered it was the sound settings on my dvd player and i could change them to work properly.

Krusty_Clown

But isn't it the case that when you watch NTSC DVDs on your PAL TV, your TV is emulating an NTSC TV, so you will naturally get some sort of degredation, just because its not a native NTSC TV?

Wow, as MSWord would say: sentence needs fragmentation...
:rolleyes:

EvilGeorge

Never really noticed myself anthing about quality differences but I might want to have a good telly before I start commenting.

koneko

There's a few differences. PAL is said to be better quality in general, but it depends on who you talk to (colour is better on R2). Myself I don't really notice is as I watch my DVDs on a projector ;P
Also buy a lot of mine R1 (and R3 as it's so damn cheap), though some in R4 (benefit of both PAL, more extras, and earlier release sometimes).

chernobyl

I though PAL was 25FPS and NTSC was 30FPS?

Shinji

Yes - but everything is filmed in 24fps so it's not like it matters a damn.

PAL is a better television standard - there's simply no argument about it. However, 99% of people will never notice a difference between PAL and NTSC encoded DVDs - and the fact that R1 DVDs tend (in general) to have better extra content and audio tracks, swings the argument a bit.

Cake Fiend

PAL = 50Hz = 25 fps
NTSC = 60Hz = 30 fps (well it's actually 29.7 or some ****, but close enough)

hudson806

Originally posted by Shinji
Yes - but everything is filmed in 24fps so it's not like it matters a damn.

Not sure I'd agree with that - to make a decent 25fps/PAL transfer from 24fps material, it just needs to be sped up by 4%, and then the (now faster) sound taken down a pitch so that people don't sound like smurfs.

Its basically impossible to get a decent 30fps/NTSC transfer off of 24fps source - 3:2 pulldown (a process where certain parts (fields) in every frame are repeated in turn) is the only solution, and it just looks horrible.

To see 3:2 pulldown in action, whip out any of your R1 DVDs and watch a shot where the camera pans from left to right across a landscape. The whole shot will be in Jerk-O-Vision(TM).

So in short, its anybody's guess which is better...

Samson's original question:
(ie. the visble part of the splash screen is less).

That's overscan. Lots of TVs overscan like crazy on NTSC material. I guess its not worth the manufacturer's while perfecting the picture quality in 60Hz mode when so few people use it.