Making a PAL DVD - is it this easy?

[karavite]

Hi. I need to burn a DVD of family movies for some family in the "old country" and it needs to be PAL. Is it as easy as it seems to be?:

From Final Cut Pro, choose PAL when I export, then in iDVD set it up for PAL in its preferences and make a DVD as usual.

That seems to be it, BUT does it matter that the FCP project was set up as NTSC? I just wanted to check before I do this and ship it out. I'd hate for the little disk to go all that way and end up being a flop.

Is there any way to take an existing NTSC iDVD project (let alone FCP or iMovie too) and "make" it PAL without having to start over?

 

[Ceroc Addict]

Hi. I need to burn a DVD of family movies for some family in the "old country" and it needs to be PAL. Is it as easy as it seems to be?:

From Final Cut Pro, choose PAL when I export, then in iDVD set it up for PAL in its preferences and make a DVD as usual.

That seems to be it, BUT does it matter that the FCP project was set up as NTSC? I just wanted to check before I do this and ship it out. I'd hate for the little disk to go all that way and end up being a flop.

Is there any way to take an existing NTSC iDVD project (let alone FCP or iMovie too) and "make" it PAL without having to start over?

I'm not sure I understand your question i.e. What's a NTSC FCP project?

The way I understand it (I use iMovie), you should basically have DV footage in your FCP project. You don't make the decision of NTSC/PAL till rendering (or exporting).

Kap

 

[karavite]

Oh - in FCP you have audio video settings for capture and sequence that can be set to NTSC or PAL (and other things). Of course all mine are set to NTSC. I doubt I could simply change these settings to PAL, rerender and export to iDVD.

 

[texanpenguin]

NTSC and PAL are both different sizes, so the footage will look peculiar unless (like most people in PAL countries, like myself) their DVD player is dual-mode.

Most DVD players (even throw-away ones) are PAL with NTSC functions. TVs too, these days. I'm speaking as an Aussie.

One thing you can try (if I'm right) play it in DVD Player. If it's set to NTSC, it should whine about regions; if it does, don't switch it, play it in VLC, and at least chances ARE it's PAL.