PAL speedup

[Store Hadji]

I've been watching EU dvds on the computer, and several different players allow one to adjust the playspeed, so I've reduced it to about 93% for the PAL discs to get them to play at the proper speed. Makes a profound difference from my point of view, and dialogue which blurred by incomprehensibly is now perfect. Portrait of Gina in particular benefits from having the PAL speedup removed. So no worries about any EU discs in my future.

Also, I've been watching the Studio Canal dvd of Falstaff, and the infamous hum which buzzes through Mistress Quickly's speech at the end just isn't there; the sound is perfect. That's good news as it's a widely documented technical gaff of the film. Must just have been a glitch in some distribution prints.

[Kevin Loy]

Isn't PAL speed-up 4%? Granted, it is perhaps a bit odd to quibble over whether 93% or 96% is better, but I'm not entirely sure myself (which is why I'm asking).

Just out of curiosity, what software did you use?

(by the way, it is also possible that the speech went through noise processing. If a noise pattern is more or less consistent, and there are moments when the noise is isolated without dialogue or anything else, then it is possible to reduce much of the noise. This is at the expense, of course, of reducing overall fidelity...though in all honesty, or perhaps because I've never watched with really loud sound playback, I've never *noticed* the humming)

[Store Hadji]

Yeah, .96 is the ratio of the NTSC frames per second to PAL fps, so that's probably right. I went by the 1 hour and 51 minute run time of the PAL Falstaff to 2 hours, which I thought was the US length, but that was less exact math.

Windows Media Player does a good job with speed adjustment. And WinDVD has an option called "PAL TruSpeed."

I don't think the Studio Canal Falstaff was digitally remastered as there are enough other instances of crackling on the soundtrack which would have been removed during the same process. I usually wear headphones when watching films, which really enable one to hear the minutiae, even more so than blasting them over a set of speakers. I've heard the buzz on some prints, and it must be a matter of "it was alright when we did it originally but something happened when the distribution prints were made," which was the case with the US Othello.