FAQ to Flamenco guitar DVD

About PAL and NTSC formats PAL is the broadcast standard for Australia, United Kingdom, Germany, Singapore, and Hong Kong. NTSC is the broadcast standard used in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Japan. For information on the standard appropriate for other countries please check the list below, or click here: The International Society for Optical Engineering

	These data are without guarantee.

FAQ
1. Why is there a comment about PAL and NTSC. My DVD player runs all DVDs regardless of whether they are a Hollywood film or a Thaiwan production.	2. n/a
3. In France and a few other countries, the standard is SECAM though.	4. Can FLAMENCO GUITAR DVD be played on a computer?
5. Are all the tracks on the FLAMENCO GUITAR DVD the same as the CD of FLAMENCO GUITAR METHOD?	6. The intros (Medios, Nuevos, Schott) might be interesting the first time round and the copyright advice is required, but after the fifth time it gets annoying. Why can't this be skipped?
7. What does the running clock top right mean during the titles	8. Why are the notes so unclear? (Fixed in second edition - SE 2007)
9. How were the multi angle pictures of the Rasgueado made. Was a camera built into the sound hole?	10. Why 2 DVDs. It's possible to fit 4.7 GB on one DVD
11. I would like to review (repeat) some tracks, that are very short. Why does no loop button appear on the screen?	12. Why does the language option have to be chosen each time?
13. Mr. Graf-Martinez - is there as much talking on your DVDs as on the DVDs of your much esteemed Spanish colleagues?

Why is there a comment about PAL and NTSC. My DVD player runs all DVDs regardless of whether they are a Hollywood film or a Thaiwan production.

Worldwide there are only two DVD standards. PAL and NTSC. Almost all players that are regularly sold in Europe can play PAL and NTSC. Recent TV sets can even handle these signals. What must be mentioned though is the loss of quality,as there is no proper conversion of the video signal. What this means is that the vertical resolution remains at 480 (PAL = 576) and the refresh frequency stays at 30 fps (PAL = 25 fps) or to put it another way, NTSC = 60 half frames per second (PAL = 50). In technical jargon,this is the so called "pseudo PAL-signal".

In NTSC regions the situation is completely different. Apart from very few exceptions, players bought there can't play PAL, let alone TV sets.

2.	n/a
	n/a

3.	In France and a few other countries, the standard is SECAM though.
	The French Standard SECAM is identical to PAL on the DVD.

4.	Can FLAMENCO GUITAR DVD be played on a computer?
	Yes, as long as the required Software (DVD player) is present and working. Unfortunately no information is available about the countless Windows version and above all their configurations. With old machines, picture wobble can occur as the images are de-interlaced. There are no problems on Macs with either OS 9 or OS X.

5	Are all the tracks on the FLAMENCO GUITAR DVD the same as the CD-Audio of FLAMENCO GUITAR METHOD?
	The chapters in the books (Flamenco Guitar Method Vol. 1 + 2) correspond to the lessons on the FLAMENCO GUITAR DVDs. Tracks 1 - 93 are exactly identical.

6.	The intros (Medios Nuevos, Schott) might be interesting the first time round and the copyright advice is required, but after the fifth time it gets annoying. Why can't this be skipped?
	It can be - there are so called easter eggs built in: simply press <Enter>.

7.	What does the running clock top right mean during the titles ?
	Whilst this clock is ticking, it is still possible to return to the previous title (only in PAL version)

8.	Why are the notes so unclear? - Fixed 2007 in second editon
	Unfortunately, due to the interlace of the TV (CRT) picture, this can't be better represented. The note player is only there as guide. The sheet music (Flamenco Guitar Method by Gerhard Graf-Martinez) should be used for practice and not the TV or computer.

9.	How were the multi angle pictures of the Rasgueado made. Was a camera built into the sound hole?
	Es un secreto ;-)

10.	Why two DVDs. It's possible to fit 4.7 GB on one DVD
	Only 4.3 GB to be precise. To get the content of both DVDs onto one DVD, the videos would have had to have been compressed so much that the picture quality, and above all the quick movements, would have been awful or unacceptable.

11.	I would like to review (repeat) some tracks, that are very short. Why does no loop button appear on the screen?
	It would have been possible to programme the DVD in such a way that all the buttons of the remote appear on the screen. However, the screen would have been cluttered or filled up with buttons. Simply use the loop button on the remote control.

12.

Why does the language option have to be chosen each time? (only in PAL version)

Because a DVD is not a computer. To clarify; a DVD player has a temporary memory, therefore, after the DVD is ejected, this memory, or the variables that are stored in it, are cleared.

The preferred language can be set in the set-up of the DVD player. Only, a programmer can't assume that the user has chosen their language in the setup. What that means is that a player purchased in Germany isn't necessarily set to language option <German>. With the DVD Flamenco-Guitar, this question is built in. If the language option menu appear and no button is pressed, an automatic skip command is directed to the language option in the set-up. If everything appears in German, then the player set-up has definitely been set to German. If the English version appears, the player has definitely not been set to German.

These language options buttons were added to get around these set-up uncertainties.

13.	Mr. Graf-Martinez - is there as much talking on your DVDs as on the DVDs of your much esteemed Spanish colleagues?
	On the table of contents 1 and 2, it is possible to recognise from the symbol <i> when there is an explanation. These explanations are mostly not too detailed i.e. are not as long as the text in the books (Flamenco Guitar methods 1 and 2) as the spoken word together with moving images generally doesn't require as much detail as a written description.

Thanks to Kieron Wise, Cambridge for translation.

What's the difference between PAL and NTSC?

There are two television display systems in commercial use: PAL (common in Europe and parts of Asia) delivers a scanning/frame rate of 25 fps (frames per second) with 625 lines, while NTSC (used in the U.S. and Canada) delivers a scanning/frame rate of 29.97 fps using 525 lines. A TV signal is made from interlaced half-frames, hence the 25 fps in 50 Hz countries, and 30 fps in 60 Hz countries. The color information of the signal is also encoded differently. Although most TVs have the ability to display both 50 and 60 Hz signals, without proper decoding of the PAL or NTSC signal the color information will be lost and the picture appears black and white. These technical differences are the reason for an intrinsic incompatibility of PAL and NTSC video DVD, respectively.

European TVs
- Generally, older TVs are PAL only
- Newer and more expensive ones tends to be multi-standards (PAL and NTSC).
- All European TVs can do PAL.
- Most European TVs also support PAL 60.

Viewing NTSC titles on a European TV
- If a TV is PAL only, it will display NTSC pictures in black and white, due to the lack of colour signal.
- TV that supports PAL 60 can display NTSC video signals (in colour) provided the source is providing PAL60.
- Conversion from NTSC to real PAL may produce some stuttering in the image. Thus when viewing NTSC videos, PAL 60 is preferred to that of PAL.

FAQ to Flamenco guitar DVD

About PAL and NTSC formats

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