So I did some thinking with all the crap that BABA and Venus output on DVD with some others like Zee.

Now If owned an Indian company like Baba, Venus, or Zee and was lucky enought to own DVD rights to Hindi movies I would be pretty dam sure to make a high quality DVD regardless of a hit or flop.

For name sake we will just call my company KSingh Digital now say I owned the DVD rights to Aitraaz, Rain Coat, Hulchul, and other movies.

This what I would do.

I would contact BEI and take say Aitraaz to them and explain to Sandesh that I want the DVD of Aitraaz to be of the same quality as Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai or better with proper progressive 3:2 pull down, and gold DVD media dolby digital 5.1, and possible a DTS audio track if the movie had one.

Once BEI finished doing the DVD encoding and cut one DVD I would send 2-3 people who are into DVDs on the tech side to fully view the work BEI has done (call it quality control). If everything is done the way we told BEI to do it then DVD is replicated by the thousands prepackaged by BEI with a factory sticker seal on each DVD case that breaks on opening the case.

With that said is it really that hard for BABA, Venus, and Zee to do the same thing when they get DVDs made?

** Just my thoughts **

A DEI/ Hollywood standard NTSC DVD 'IS':

24 fps where it's the DVD player repeating every 4th field for 60 Hz displays.

It's from Original Negative. Not from PAL master, NTSC master, 8mm film print, 16mm film print or even a 35 mm worn out film print.

As you said Rana the DVD would be made from the Original Negative and for the NTSC regions we would make a true NTSC DVD. Now for the PAL world we would have DEI/BEI do a new transfer with the original Negative and have them encode it to PAL. with no NTSC to PAL converting or PAL to NTSC converting, so a true PAL DVD.

I guess all my DVDs would be region locked since I'm going to have DEI/BEI make true NTSC and PAL DVDs.

Looks like I'll have to hire you for my DVD tech team you'll be working in the DVD quality control part my company and flying to DEI/BEI's office in California on a regular basis who knows maybe we will send you first class, but for cost purposes most likely coach.

Only one proper DVD, whether PAL or NTSC, is or should be enough. NTSC DVDs are mostly playable on PAL TVs without NTSC to PAL conversion.

Why PAL DVDs are not available in NTSC countries and most NTSC DVDs are available in PAL countries is because somehow most PAL TVs are NTSC compatible. NTSC DVD (or video) playing in PAL countries plays as NTSC and there is no NTSC to PAL conversion. Why PAL TVs are able to play/ display NTSC is because NTSC scan rate is slightly lower than PALs. So, if a TV can scan PAL, it can scan a lower NTSC rate as well.

Why American TVs are not made for a slightly higher scan rate, so that they be able to scan PAL, is because as always, Americans think of themselves as the biggest market and don't want to accomdate other standards. They are still using British standard units where as even Britain switched to metric system long long time ago.

BTW, there is at least one Telugu DVD company that has started bringing out proper 24 fps NTSC DVDs (bettering DEI as no excessive DVNR used) including DTS audio.

For this same consideration, high quality/ high profile TV programs are originally shot on Film or on High Def and then converted to NTSC for NTSC broadcasts, converted to PAL for PAL broadcasts and to other TV standards for their respective formats, all from the original higher quality source.

I guess the question is now.. How much does it cost to get the rights to an Indian movie and how much would DEI/BEI charge us for making a DVD and replicating about 30,000 or so DVDs?