yes, this was my point in question.
I should have explained more.-
Can I calibrate my PAL TV properly (it has NTSC capablilty) with a US NTSC calibration DVD?

All of the below is garnered from the depthas of my increasingly fuzzy memory so take it with a small pinch of salt!

From what I remember, the NTSC discwill allow you to calibrate a PAL tv better than randomly mucking around with the various settings. However certain calibrations just don't work properly due to the differences of NTSC and PAL - I think that getting a true black was one of the tests mentioned as well as certain pattern tests. If you have a multi-standard TV (i.e one that will accept both PAL and NTSC inputs) then calibration for region 1 DVDs passed as an NTSC signal to the TV will probably work fine - however, the settings for PAL will probably be screwed up. Bear in mind that most UK multi-region DVD players output converted PAL of some sort rather than pure NTSC.

Cheers
Marco

Cheers Marco.
I've just got some more info here from Joe himself if you're interested. It seems there are quite a few variables we have to take into account.-

PAL and NTSC Players: I own a multi-system TV. If I calibrate it for NTSC, will it adversely affect the quality of picture in PAL? "That depends...." If the set is designed as a true multi-standard display device it will have individual memories for PAL and NTSC. Even that’s not all good, and the reason many sets don’t have individual memory for each system. Having individual memory means that each rate must be individually set up. Video Essentials will only provide calibration information for the NTSC system. (A PAL version of the program is on the drawing boards at Joe Kane Productions, but no release date has been set.)

Let’s take the case where the display device doesn’t have individual memory for NTSC and PAL and address the main question of adversely affecting the quality of the PAL picture. There are still many possible answers. What level of black is being made available from the player? The American NTSC system sets black level at +7.5 IRE. The Japanese NTSC system and the worldwide PAL system uses 0 IRE for black level. Many American DVD players offer the option of setting black at 0 or +7.5, so there is a possibility that such an option might also be available on multi-standard players. What’s available form your individual player? Ideally you would want both NTSC and PAL to have a 0 black level. That’s easy to accomplish from the point of view of what’s recorded on the disc. The level of black is at 0 IRE. If it is at any other level, the player is making the change. If there aren’t separate memories for the two rates and NTSC is at + 7.5 IRE and PAL is at 0 IRE then the single setting of the brightness control will be wrong for one or the other system.

What color system is being delivered by the player? If the PAL color system is being used for both the NTSC and PAL rates, a single setting of the color control should be correct for both. The PAL system should not provide control over Tint and Sharpness.

Since Brightness and Contrast are often interactive, a set with a single memory for both systems may also have a problem with these levels.

Even gray scale calibration could be different between the two systems, although that is less likely if the PAL color system is being used for both signals.

With these and many more factors going into "It depends..." the two systems are close enough together so that calibrating a set for NTSC from Video Essentials may improve the performance in PAL, even though PAL is still not correct.

Another update from Joe.-


Rob,

It is my hope to make a suite of PAL test patterns available to all PAL DVD titl
es
before the end of the year. They will be the basic test patterns needed for PAL
.
Everything else you'll be able to get from the DVD of VE. I'm not confident of
how
long it will take to get the full version of the PAL program out.

You'll find some basic answers about using VE for PAL sets in the DVD FAQ,
[Link: videoessentials.com] I don't know enough about your
particular DVD player, TV set combination to provide specific answers. I know f
rom
the European sales of VE it is a significant help to a lot of people.

JK

Mango,

Thanks for posting that -sounds like Joe thinks VE will help us PAL owners even if the picture improvement won't be as accurate as for NTSC.

Nice to know that Joe Kane has time for us punters.

Cheers
Marco

Mango,

According a German website ([Link: areadvd.de] for the German speaking) when your DVD player can convert NTSC to "pseudo PAL" or "PAL-60", like the Pioneers for example, you can use all the calibrations on this DVD as well for PAL. Except of course the ones typically for NTSC.
There is also a French HT magazine called "Les Annees Laser" that bundled a demo DVD sometime ago with one of its issues. On this DVD are also a few calibration images included but only for the very basic stuff. If you order the backissue n°60, the DVD comes automatically with it and it will cost you only 35FF wich must be around £3 I guess. I have ordered it and I'll let you know if it is worthwhile or not.

Cheers,

John

Sounds good...
I shall await your post.

I finally received the collector DVD from "Les annees Laser" and the calibration images are really nice. No explications included how to use them but this is not so difficult. The test image for convergence/geometry is really good and did the trick for me. I mean for just £3 you can't go wrong and you'll have all the DD trailers as well. For tweaking contrast/brightness, I used the THX optimode on the T2 spec ed. in NTSC and to answer your question Mango, the settings remain the same in PAL for my TV (32FX60B).
If any Q's just let me know

Cheers,

John.

Just receieved the Avia disc and I have to say, it has made a fantastic difference to my TV setup. The calibrations usggested that I reduce the contrast from about half the bar to a quarter, wack the colour three quarters of the way up the scale and reduce sharpend to almost 0 - to say I was dubious was an understatement, but to my extreme surprise, the pciture qulaity is greatly improved.

The only downside, is that the TV is now calibrated for night time viewing - i.e a softly or unlit room - viewing in bright sunshine really loses a lot of detail, but then I hardly ever watch the TV in daylight hours.

THX optimode on Toy Story 1 & 2 has basic video calibration I thing it's on the R2 version as well as R1.

rgds
steve