NPU vol 4 DVD

Uilleann Pipes
1

Anyone ordered this DVD? I have had the strangest problem: received a copy a while agoand it wouldn’t play in my DVD player. Returned it for another one … same problem. How strange is that? My DVD player returns an error message … something like “unplayable disk”. No problem playing other DVDs…

Anyone else experience this?

DJones

2

I had a similar problem with the reed making DVD, The Heart of the Instrument, but NPU was very quick to make it right, and the second copy they sent me worked fine.

I have Art of UP Vol 4 and it played fine for me right from the start. How old is your DVD player, and are you talking about the one in your computer or the one with your TV? The one for your TV might be less capable. Try it on your computer.

djm

3

I checked with my local DVD guru today. Seems there are two DVD formats, one used in North America and one in Europe. Some DVD players play both types. Mine doesn’t. Not sure what I’ll do (buying another DVD player seems extreme…), but wanted to update this post with new info for anyone else buying the new NPU DVD.

DJOnes

4

  1. You should probably let NPU know so they can pre-warn future USA customers

  2. Play it on your computer, it should work there.

Boyd

5

I don’t want this coming out like “haha, mine works” …but NPU Vol. 1, which just arrived for me, plays fine in my 5+years old Samsung…

6

I didn’t know about this new DVD from NPU. How is it?

Nick

7

Needs a bit of salt, but not bad as an appetizer.

Actually, it is all about regulator playing. Sean McKeown shows different reg patterns and methods of practise to get comfortable with each type. It is not in depth, i.e. they don’t go into anything heavy like chord structure or music theory, and there is no big foreworks show of technical mastery, but it is a plain, straight-forward set of instructions to make sure you learn the basics of traditional accompaniment patterns on the regs.

djm

8

If you or someone else has a DVD burner, rip it and reburn it :wink:

/MarcusR

9

Well, local audio-visual guru says burning it will just burn the format over… :frowning:

Actually, I’m thinking this is a good excuse to replace my crappy old DVD player… :smiley:

We’ll see what the better half says… Her fiddle instruction DVDs work just fine…

DJones

10

Then you are refering to NTSC and PAL formats, different resolution and different frame rate between US and Europe and related to how the video is displayed 720x480 (US) or 720x576 (Europe). If that’s the case they must have been shipping the wrong DVD to you. The DVD player you have is digital so to be able to see the DVD you will need to buy a new TV not a new DVD :wink:

You can convert from Pal to NTSC but it is a bit of a hassle, you will need to reencode the video, change the framerate and stretch audio and change pitch, then re-author :astonished:. There are some free apps and scripts you can use but it’s still not worth the effort, in my opinion. For an automatic conversion DVD(PAL) 2 DVD(NTSC) you will need something like Canopus Procoder 2 and that will cost some $$$.

Are you sure is just not the region code that is not supported by your player? If so, then reburn, change region or convert the DVD to anything you like.

Here are some good guides


Cheers!

/MarcusR

11

PAL and NTSC are misnomers, applied to DVDs. There is, strictly speaking, no such thing. Unfortunately even DVD manufacturers sometimes misuse the terms ‘PAL’ and ‘NTSC’ in this way, to refer to DVD frame rates and resolutions (PAL and NTSC are video output formats, and have nothing directly to do with the format as stored on DVD).

However DVDs created for use in regions that use PAL vs NTSC do tend to have different resolutions and, I think, frame rates. Many, but not all, DVD players can handle both. In the US, players which can handle the ‘euro’ formats are somewhat less common.

There are also numerous different DVD video ‘formats’ even within discs targeting the US market - i.e. widescreen, various different aspect ratios, different audio formats, etc. etc.

There is really no simple answer other than “try it and see”, unless you have the detailed spec sheets for your DVD player on hand.

Bill

12

LADS !!!
have you never heard of the 3 regions???
all you have to do is to unlock your player.
Change your region from 1 (US) to 2 (Europe) or 9 (all regions) and it will work fine. by the way, region 3 is the east Japan, China, Burma, Sikkim etc
kindest
etc

13

Bill has this right. The NPU videos aren’t region coded but my Sony DVD players still won’t read them because of the frame rate. If in doubt play in your PC.

14

So how is the DVD anyway? No ones talking about what it has to say on Regs… Any thoughts?

15



16

Bill usually is right :smiley:

My point was that even if you buy a new DVD player that can play both PAL and NTSC video formats you still cant see anything unless your tv set also supports the resolution and frame rate. In order to display a PAL DVD on a NTSC tv you 'll need a DVD player with a built in video format converter. That way you can display any supported video format on your tv. I guess most of the DVD players in the $100-200 range has this feature now days.

/MarcusR

17

I have bought a player to do specifically that. It will play any region and output to PAL or NTSC TVs so I can watch anything. There’s no reason that every DVD player couldn’t do this, it’s just that companies like Sony want to control who watches what, where.

18

I have found the trick is to buy the cheapest DVD player made in China you can get your hands on. It has nothing to do with your tv set (mine is over 20 years old). I have gone through all the fancy, expensive DVD players, rotary decks, stacked disks, the lot. They all break down within a year, and they all choke on one format or another. The one I have now is $30 and handles just about anything, as long as the disk isn’t too scratched up.

djm