DVDs and NTSC vs. PAL

[John Goche]

Hello,

I bought a PlayStation 3 in the USA from Terrasoft/Fixstars
with YellowDog Linux 6.1 preinstalled. I use it in the UK.
I bought a DVD in the UK but when I inserted it to play
the GameOS system seems to have complained
saying that it does not support PAL.

Isn't PAL vs. NTSC only a distinction as far as the
television screen hardware is concerned? I use
my PS3 purchased from the USA OK with my
Sony Bravia TV purchased in the UK.

So what's the problem with the DVD incompatiblity?

More importantly, is this a hardware or software problem?

Thanks,

John Goche

[Doug Jacobs]

John Goche <johng...@googlemail.com> wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> I bought a PlayStation 3 in the USA from Terrasoft/Fixstars
> with YellowDog Linux 6.1 preinstalled. I use it in the UK.
> I bought a DVD in the UK but when I inserted it to play
> the GameOS system seems to have complained
> saying that it does not support PAL.
>
> Isn't PAL vs. NTSC only a distinction as far as the
> television screen hardware is concerned? I use
> my PS3 purchased from the USA OK with my
> Sony Bravia TV purchased in the UK.

Your video drivers are probably configured to convert from NTSC to PAL but
the DVD player software only outputs what's on the DVD. So that software
also needs to do the conversion, or see if you can force it to just output
a PAL signal.

However it may also be a region coding issue, where the PS3's DVD software
will only play region 1 DVDs, but UK and the rest of Europe is region 2.

Honestly, I'd just get a region-free DVD player that can handle the
NTSC/PAL format internally. OPPO Digital here in the US makes a darn fine
region-free, play anything DVD player for less than what the PS3 costs.
It also upscales - something else the PS3's DVD player doesn't do.

--
It's not broken. It's...advanced.