DVD Reigon Questions?

[dskodj]

Hey all, I figure I'll post this tech question over here in this comuntity to see if anyone may be able to give me some info. Im just recently getting into the whole DVD thing as I just got a DVD player as an early Xmas gift a few weeks ago. I only own 1 DVD at the moment (Actualy it's 6 cause it was a boxed set LOL). Now, this reigon shit..my DVD player says NTSC/PAL Region 1. What I wanna know what is and isnt playable in my DVD. Also, if its possible to convert other regions (mainly reigon 2) to play in my player. Can anyone teach me on this?

 

[tommytikl]

Basically dskodj, since you live in Arizona, you really don't have to worry about Regions or video standards.
If you buy a disc from Wal-mart or anyother place that SELLS to the US market then every disc is Region 1 AND NTSC.

However, you can order Region 2-6 titles from off-shore web sites that sell titles for those countries or regions.
Sometimes other regions will have more(not usually) or different content then there US conterparts.

PAL is the same way, You can order a PAL DVD from off-shore however good luck getting a TV in the US that is PAL...
Region 2 and PAL are Europeon standard.
Canada follows the Region 1/NTSC format for the most part.

The other thing is your player since it was bought in the US is set to only read Region 1 titles. Some players on the US market can be reconfigured(usually requiring a messy software download) to be ALL region or NON region.

I hope this helps.

 

[dskodj]

Hi and thanks for the info...that has answered alot of questions..however, I have my eye on a dvd thats stated as pal region 0 (will play in all countrys). Is that really true?

Jimmy

 

[ShadowFyre]

Region 0

Yes, it is true. A DVD that is marked region 0 is considered to be "region-free" and will play anywhere. I hope that answers your question!

SF

 

[tommytikl]

Yes what SF said is true about Region 0 being region free, however I have to ask Why do you want a PAL video standard?
There aren't ANY places local that sell good PAL TV sets.

 

[dskodj]

Ok question about these PAL TV Sets..I dont understand, I was always thinking NTSC and PAL were some kinda video format only which had to do with a video player. If I was to watch a PAL video on a regular TV from here would it not look right? Explain this to me if you can so I dont make a mistake and purchace this DVD and not be able to watch it LOL.

Jimmy

 

[ShadowFyre]

ahhh, I missed the PAL/NTSC part of the question.
To get a little technical:

PAL stands for Phase Alternation by Line, and was adopted in 1967. It has 625 horizontal lines making up the vertical resolution. 50 fields are displayed and interlaced per second, making for a 25 frame per second system. An advantage of this system is a more stable and consistent hue (tint). PAL-M is used only in Brazil. It has 525 lines, at 30 frames per second.

The NTSC standard has a fixed vertical resolution of 525 horizontal lines stacked on top of each other, with varying amounts of "lines" making up the horizontal resolution, depending on the electronics and formats involved. There are 59.94 fields displayed per second. A field is a set of even lines, or odd lines. The odd and even fields are displayed sequentially, thus interlacing the full frame. One full frame, therefore, is made of two interlaced fields, and is displayed about every 1/30 of a second.

To make it a little clearer, the resolution and frame rates are different on PAL and NTSC, and both the TV and DVD player would need to be able to display whatever standard you're using. On the bright side, there are places out there that do sell players and tv's that will display both, just let me know and I can give a heads up.

SF

 

[dskodj]

Where can I get a TV that will do both and what would it look like if I played a PAL DVD on a basic TV set..would it be unwatchable or would there be only minor things? Happy Holidays!

 

[DutchTickler]

Here in Europe all current TV systems are PAL/NTSC compatible. I don't think regular (= affordable) TV sets are available in the USA that can play PAL.
Usually when you play a PAL medium on an NTSC-only TV, you simply get random noise (snow) since the TV simply doesn't understand the signal the DVD-player is sending to it.

 

[Oddjob0226]

From what I understand, if you play something PAL on a modern NTSC tv, the video resolution of something moving (like a car chase) isn't as good, while more static scenes (mountains scenes, etc.) look very good. On the other hand, I've never actually tried this.

 

[Battousai]

I live in New Zealand, and I own a multi-region DVD player. My TV is PAL (Which is what we use her), but I play DVD's from America, Japan -- Heck, here half the DVD's are region 2 and half are region 4. I don't think the TV makes a difference, so long as the plugs are the right shape.

 

[MrMacphisto]

Always... always....

buy a region free player... That way, you can be chillin like our Kiwi friend Battousai... and yeah, those will play any DVD stuff you got. And if you get really lucky, you might find a player that supports DivX, so you can play pirated... ahem... backup copies of movies. The sad thing is... DVD players that only play specific regions are becoming more popular these days, since corporations want you to only buy products that are "domestic." That way, they can re-release an overseas movie for the region specific to your country and (at least, in the case of the U.S.) charge more for it.

 

[DutchTickler]

From what I understand, if you play something PAL on a modern NTSC tv, the video resolution of something moving (like a car chase) isn't as good, while more static scenes (mountains scenes, etc.) look very good. On the other hand, I've never actually tried this.

This is wrong.

There are two options: either you buy a multi-system TV set, or buy a multi-region DVD-player (which converts an NTSC signal to a PAL one and vice versa, so a proper signal is sent to the TV set).