Laptop as a PAL DVD player on NTSC LCD

Hi all. I have a lot of dvd-r PAL .img and .iso files on my HD and I'm wanting to back it up to DVDs. I'm from the states, so all the equipment will be ntsc.

Here's the setup I plan to have (I don't have the tv yet):
Toshiba regza 42" lcd. It can receive PC input up to 1080 resolution via HDMI input (DVI=>HDMI)
I plan to play the PAL movies from my laptop.

I've heard that playing the PAL .img or .iso files through VLC media player shouldn't be a problem. Correct? :huh:

However, if I were to burn them as a proper DVD using ImgBurn, will I run into problems using the laptop and NTSC tv combo?

I've tried burning a PAL DVD to test it out and it seems to play fine on my laptop screen, but I don't know if I'll run into problems when hooked up to the TV via DVI=>HDMI.

BTW, I read somewhere that you have to set your computer to either play only ntsc or pal dvds and you couldn't have both. I never set anything on my laptop, and it played the PAL dvd fine. Am I missing something? :blink:

Thanks everyone!

I have played PAL DVD's through my computer onto my 42" LCD front projection TV many times with no problems. I have used Media Player Classic and VLC a few times
also, most DVD players out there should be region free now.

1st up, HDTV is not NTSC. We are finally moving towards a global standard.

DVD drives don't care whether the disk is PAL or NTSC, and the software will play the contents back at the correct frame rate. The only potential problem would be with region codes, which is where the potential conflict lies. However, since you would be making your own disks you simply create them as multiregion disks (ie ALL regions, not NO region) and they will play quite happily on any drive.

You will find that most modern dvd players can cope with both NTSC and PAL movies too (as long as you don't try to mix both formats on the same disk), and play them back in your desired format, so there's a good chance that you could play them back that way if your laptop wasn't available.

If you have a newer dvd player it will play PAL discs. I have 3 dvd players and 2 play pal discs and only my first dvd player doesn't.