Buying foreign region dvds

[WillsBabe]

I have a question for folks who buy dvds. I've noticed in a few threads that folks from the US (although sometimes from other countries, too) will lament that a particular tv show isn't available in their dvd region. Recently I've seen folks mention Blakes 7 and Six Million Dollar Man. Do folks from the US not buy dvds from overseas? Do you not have multi-region dvd players? I ask this because I quite often buy region one dvds even though I'm in region two area. I know quite a few other people who do, too. Is it a cost thing? An import tax thing? A tech thing?

 

[ATimson]

Do folks from the US not buy dvds from overseas? Do you not have multi-region dvd players?

Not as readily available in Europe or elsewhere, no. Some players can be modified via hidden menu options or similar, but "multiregion" is not a feature found on any of the boxes in our local stores.

Part of the problem is that, while PAL TVs will generally readily handle NTSC signals, the reverse is not the case. So while your DVD players can just dump out whatever signal they get, multiregion ones sold here would have to include PAL->NTSC conversion circuitry.

 

[Brendan Moody]

I think that, because of the factors Andrew mentions, playing foreign DVDs often seems like more of a hassle for US buyers than it actually is, especially for those of us who are technologically illiterate. I've spent the past couple years bemoaning the "fact" that R2 DVDs were out of reach without modifications I thought were beyond me, but once I actually did a little looking around I found out that the cheap DVD player I bought at a major chain store last year can play R2 PAL DVDs after a small, idiot-proof adjustment using the remote.

 

[Kryton]

One of my players was hackable with an EEPROM chip I ordered. An older one was hackable via the remote.

The new Blu-Ray doesn't have a known hack yet and it's a bit "twitchy" about certain types of discs, so I keep at least two players in service...the regular DVD player also plays high-bitrate DTS audio and SACDs and DVD-Audio discs, so it's a keeper. I just ordered a replacement remote for it.

 

[TrekAlliance92]

I have a player that you simply had to input a code and boom--it was region free, and played PAL region discs flawlessly. This allowed me to import the Power Rangers season sets from Germany, the Tick sets from the UK, and the Johnny Bravo and Dexter's Lab season sets from Australia.

 

[PKTrekGirl]

Multi-region players are not nearly as available as they are overseas.

Here, the best way to get a multi-region player is to buy a R1 player and find the codes to crack it on the internet.

That's what I did.

I was pretty highly motivated, however, because I'm a collector of classic films...and the only classic films for sale over here are Hollywood films...with a few of the really large David Lean epics and Powell & Pressburger films thrown in for variety only here and there. The British studios of the 30's - 50's and even the 60's put out some great films, however. And the only way to get ahold of them is to buy them off of someplace like Amazon.uk.

So now I have 3 John Mills film sets, 1 Laurence Olivier set, 1 Stewart Granger set, and a Dirk Bogarde set. Oh...and a really lovely Powell & Pressburger set that includes a ton of films - like 12 or 14, IIRC. In contrast, Michael Powell has one set in the U.S. - a 'double feature' set with two films.

 

[Mooch]

Part of the problem is that, while PAL TVs will generally readily handle NTSC signals, the reverse is not the case. So while your DVD players can just dump out whatever signal they get, multiregion ones sold here would have to include PAL->NTSC conversion circuitry.

I have a NTSC tv and I didn't have a problem playing a region-free PAL DVD I got on my DVD player. It looked normal.

 

[Brendan Moody]

^Apparently your player is one of those that has PAL-to-NTSC conversion. As is mine. Many don't, though, and it isn't always easy to tell which are which.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Do you not have multi-region dvd players?

Not me. I just have one of the normal type and I'm not buying a new DVD player just to watch a show, unless it's pretty frakkin' amazing. It would have to be on par with Dexter or Lost to motivate me to go to the bother and expense.

Other folks might jump thru hoops for TV shows but I expect the TV shows to jump thru hoops for me. With 170+ DVDs on my Netflix queue, I can afford to take a high-handed attitude towards mere entertainment. If somebody wants me to watch their show, release it in R1. I'll wait. Probably would take me frakkin' years to dig my way down to it anyway.

 

[zakkrusz]

I could get my PC to do it if I wanted to but watching it there kinda negates the whole purpose of buying a DVD in the first place if you ask me. My local Best Buy electronics place doesn't even carry non-Tivo or Cable/satelite integrated DVRs let alone something legally questionable like a multi-region DVD player.

Not to mention most of the things I'd want would be in raw untranslated Japanese which I don't understand much of (50-70 words maybe). It's expensive, and a ripoff since they don't put as many episodes on a disc. Basically, the main issue though is there's not much I want that's in English and not available here.

CDs on the other hand aren't so bad I've imported a whole bunch of those from various artists arround the world and none of that region coding BS is involved with those.

 

[mostly_nameless]

Getting a DVD player to play region free wasn't that hard, but getting the disks is kind of expensive now that the euro is so much higher than the dollar.

For example, I have the first 3 seasons of Bonanza from Germany (why Bonanza would be available in Germany but not the US still baffles me), but I've never gotten season 4 and 5 because of the cost.

The other problem is FINDING the dvd sets from overseas. I can read enough german to bluff my way through Amazon Germany, but that's about it for my foreign language detective skills.

So, which country has Six Million Dollar Man?

 

[WillsBabe]

Thank you, everyone, for your interesting replies. Multi-standard, or region-free players is something I've grown quite used to over the years. I remember buying my first multi-standard vhs player back in the late 80s/early 90s. It cost an absolute fortune, but worth it to get to see TNG at the time.

I'm not buying a new DVD player just to watch a show, unless it's pretty frakkin' amazing.

I can understand this. However, for us folks in the UK, for instancee, we are motivated by the fact that all (pretty much all) of the frakkin' amazing shows come from region one! But, we're lucky that they are usually released on region two, too. Still, they are (or were until recently) somtimes less expensive and sometimes have better features and packaging on region one.

 

[Hermiod]

^That was true back in 1999 when I first bought a DVD player - a Panasonic A150. That cost me £350 after it had been modified! (Still the most reliable DVD player I've ever owned)

Most of my TV shows then were imports. I remember paying £90 per season for The X-Files!

Now, things have caught up. The only issue R2 DVD is TV shows being chipmunked due to the NTSC->PAL transfer.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

^That was true back in 1999 when I first bought a DVD player - a Panasonic A150. That cost me £350 after it had been modified! (Still the most reliable DVD player I've ever owned)

Most of my TV shows then were imports. I remember paying £90 per season for The X-Files!

Now, things have caught up. The only issue R2 DVD is TV shows being chipmunked due to the NTSC->PAL transfer.

I still don't get why this is an issue any more, I mean (if they're filming on HD) it's all digital, and all TVs now support 50/60Hz because of PAL 60, so why do they need to convert it at all?

 

[Hermiod]

^Because people still have old TVs that don't support 60hz. We're never willing to make a final break with old technology in this country.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

^Because people still have old TVs that don't support 60hz. We're never willing to make a final break with old technology in this country.

Surely if they have a TV that doesn't support 60Hz it doesn't support scart either?

 

[Hermiod]

^Because people still have old TVs that don't support 60hz. We're never willing to make a final break with old technology in this country.

Surely if they have a TV that doesn't support 60Hz it doesn't support scart either?

I've still got an old TV with no SCART sockets.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

^Because people still have old TVs that don't support 60hz. We're never willing to make a final break with old technology in this country.

Surely if they have a TV that doesn't support 60Hz it doesn't support scart either?

I've still got an old TV with no SCART sockets.

If it hasn't got a SCART then how would a DVD player work on it, was my point.

 

[Hermiod]

^Composite cables ?

As far as DVD producers go in this country, PAL 50 is the broadcast standard and so that's what they use even if it means speeding up the content.

Sky still speed everything up when broadcasting American shows in HD.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

^Composite cables ?
As far as DVD producers go in this country, PAL 50 is the broadcast standard and so that's what they use even if it means speeding up the content.

Sky still speed everything up when broadcasting American shows in HD.

Do any have composites that don't have SCARTS? If so, good point, but then don't most DVD players have NTSC/PAL converters built in anyway, surely they'd do the work for a TV that couldn't handle 60Hz?

I still think it's mental when everything from production, to broadcast, and DVD is entirely digital.