DVD-can I play both pal and ntsc?

[arman]

Hi,
I have a toshiba laptop with a DVD. My ntsc DVD's work fine, but I spend a lot of time in a pal format area and would like to watch pal DVD's. Is it the video card or software that would handle this and how can I get my laptop to play both?
Arman

 

[brianF]

most video card software allow you to choose either ntsc or pal.
To play either you have to have the correct dvd version and the correct reciever.

PAL(european version) uses different signal than ntsc(american version). But if you have a pal dvd and a pal reciever your video card software should allow you to choose pal output.

Compatibility


DVD has the same NTSC versus PAL problem as video tape and laserdisc. The image on a DVD is stored in the MPEG digital for one of the three television systems, NTSC 525/60, PAL 625/50 or SECAM 625/50. There are two differences between NTSC and PAL namely picture size and frame rate. NTSC has a picture size of 720 x 480 and a frame rate of 29.97 frames per second. PAL/SECAM has a picture size of 720 x 576 and a frame rate of 25 frames per second.