Converting PAL DVDs to NTSC,
Creating and Burning DVDs,
and Other Video Conversions

Converting and Creating DVDs

Method #1

Extract the data

Load the DVD into the drive, mount it as /mnt/cdrom. Then use dvdunauthor to extract the files:

$ mkdir /path/to/new/dvd
$ cd /path/to/new/dvd
$ dvdunauthor /mnt/cdrom 

Note that dvdauthor doesn't just copy the files. It reads the *.IFO files and others, and gives you a pile of MPEG files named vob* plus an XML file that describes the menu construction and how everything goes together. It dumps it all into the current directory, it does not build the DVD standard file system with AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS subdirectories.

Convert the data

Use ffmpeg to convert the MPEG files from PAL to NTSC. Allow plenty of time for this to happen.... Something like this:

$ for F in vob*
> do
>   ffmpeg -i $F -target ntsc-dvd -s 720x480 -r 29.970 new-$F
> done 

That takes about 30 minutes per 1 GB file on my system, so you're looking at maybe two to three hours of compute time.

At this point you need to see how much data you have created:

$ du -h .  

Some DVD burning drives can read dual-layer discs but can only burn single-layer discs. Since dual-layer-burning drives are slightly more expensive, and dual-layer media is significantly more than twice as expensive, that's a common scenario for many.

If you have less than 4.4 GB of data,
Or if you have less than 8.5 GB of data and a dual-layer drive and media:

Create a new directory in which to build the new DVD file system:
$ mkdir newdvd

Create one large "title" or DVD program from that collection of MPEG files:

$ dvdauthor -o newdvd -t new-* 

This runs much faster than the ffmpeg conversion, just a minute or so per file. If you have a collection files that you want to put into the program in some specific order, then simply list them all on the command line in that order.

If you have more data than will fit on one disc:

You will need to create two (or more!) subdirectories and use dvdauthor as shown above to convert some of the MPEG files into each directory.

Build the main table of contents

You need to set an environment variable VIDEO_FORMAT to either NTSC or PAL. This table of contents file won't be a menu but will make it auto-play. For the Bash shell:

$ VIDEO_FORMAT=NTSC dvdauthor -o newdvd -T 

Or, for tcsh:

% setenv VIDEO_FORMAT NTSC
% dvdauthor -o newdvd -T 

Since you poured a number of MPEG files into the DVD in the first dvdauthor command, the result should be one long auto-playing program.

Now, the documentation tells me that I *should* have been able to instead edit the XML file and then just do this:

$ dvdauthor -o newdvd -x whatever.xml 

The result would be the original menus, now in the new video format.

However, dvdauthor complains about XML syntax errors, and it seems (at least with these two DVDs) that dvdunauthor produces something that dvdauthor cannot immediately use. That's surprising, since they're part of the same package...

Burn the resulting file system data structure

Letterboxing

Let's say you have a video file that's 720x376, a little wider than 16:9, and you want to create a letterboxed 720x480 4:3 video stream, as it's to become an NTSC DVD. Do a little math and then do the following, where inputfile.mp4 is the input and outputfile.mpeg will be created:

$ ffmpeg -i inputfile.mp4 -r 29.970 -padtop 52 -padbottom 52 \
		-target ntsc-dvd -s 720x376 outputfile.mpeg 

That pads the top and bottom with black bars 52 pixels tall. It sets the frame rate and format for NTSC-DVD, but then the explicit size parameter -s 720x376 controls the overall height — if the video itself stays 376 pixels tall, plus those two 52-pixel bars, the total height will be the correct 480 pixels.

DVD Disassembly and Reassembly

Now, my DVD/VCR deck (the infamous one I partly disassembled the night I purchased it in order to dub some old brittle VHS tapes to DVD) can do the PAL->NTSC conversion in its chipset. These PAL DVDs play fine on it, sending output to my NTSC-only TV. It's a fairly no-name Insignia NS-DRVCR. Goldstar (or whatever their name really is in Korea) makes them as the house brand for Best Buy.

I had to disassemble the tape cases, using the bottom half as a carrier to place the two tape spools and tape run into the correct relative positions. With a bit of manual "help", I could get the deck to load the tape. Then I could dub it onto a DVD.

The DVDs created with the above process have some artifacts. Motion of objects within the frame looks OK, but pans of the camera cause some artifacts on edges perpendicular to the direction of pan. Some is flicker of the entire edge, some is an exaggerated square saw-tooth effect. I think this comes from the conversion done by ffmpeg.

Ask Google something like: dvd region-free ntsc pal
and you see that there are a number of models available in the US that ignore the region code (or at least they claim to) and also have the PAL->NTSC chipset.

Also see another page of mine for a related project.