DVD regions and Doctor Who

[23skidoo]

We know Doctor Who has been officially released to DVD in Region 1 (US/Canada), Region 2 (Most of Europe, Japan, South Africa, Egypt, Middle East), and Region 4 (Mexico, Caribbean, Australia, New Zealand, South America).

Does anyone know if Doctor Who has ever been released in the other major DVD regions? Region 3 is Southeast Asia, Taiwan and South Korea. Region 5 includes places like Russia, the Ukraine, India, and most of Africa. Region 6 is China. (The other regions aren't geographical).

And, no, bootlegs don't count!

Alex

 

[OmahaStar]

My understanding is that no, it's only R1, R2, and R4. And apparently, until recently, the R2/R4 discs were the same discs and somehow multi-region encoded.

 

[23skidoo]

My understanding is that no, it's only R1, R2, and R4. And apparently, until recently, the R2/R4 discs were the same discs and somehow multi-region encoded.

Remind me not to move Regions 3, 5 or 6!

Alex

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

Remind me not to move Regions 3, 5 or 6!

It's like E-Space, basically.

 

[23skidoo]

It's like E-Space, basically.

No that's Toronto.

Alex

 

[gastrof]

My understanding is that no, it's only R1, R2, and R4. And apparently, until recently, the R2/R4 discs were the same discs and somehow multi-region encoded.

There's no such thing as a DVD being "somehow multi-region encoded".

The difference isn't in the recording itself.

It's in the instructions put on the disc that tell your player if it's allowed to run the recording or not.

Apparently it is possible to have a disc "marked" as being playable on two different regions' players, so in such a case both region 2 and 4 machines say to themselves "Oh...I'm allowed to play this. Let's get going".

I'm going out on a limb here, but apparently there's no big difference between PAL and NTSC DVDs either. While both the UK and Oz use the PAL television formats (at least, on their DVDs), I've been able to play a PAL disc on my American DVD player, once it was hacked to be "region free".

The PAL recording played out looking perfect. Couldn't see a difference.

This has made me suspect that maybe the PAL/NTSC thing comes into the picture once the DVD player has processed the video, and that it's possibly the player itself that produces the video as PAL or NTSC.

Maybe that's wrong, but it just seems odd a PAL disc looked fine coming from an NTSC player, playing on an NTSC television.

 

[Demonland]

The best solution to the region issue is a multi-region dvd player. Then you can buy your dvds from anywhere.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

My understanding is that no, it's only R1, R2, and R4. And apparently, until recently, the R2/R4 discs were the same discs and somehow multi-region encoded.

There's no such thing as a DVD being "somehow multi-region encoded".

The difference isn't in the recording itself.

It's in the instructions put on the disc that tell your player if it's allowed to run the recording or not.

Apparently it is possible to have a disc "marked" as being playable on two different regions' players, so in such a case both region 2 and 4 machines say to themselves "Oh...I'm allowed to play this. Let's get going".

I'm going out on a limb here, but apparently there's no big difference between PAL and NTSC DVDs either. While both the UK and Oz use the PAL television formats (at least, on their DVDs), I've been able to play a PAL disc on my American DVD player, once it was hacked to be "region free".

The PAL recording played out looking perfect. Couldn't see a difference.

This has made me suspect that maybe the PAL/NTSC thing comes into the picture once the DVD player has processed the video, and that it's possibly the player itself that produces the video as PAL or NTSC.

Maybe that's wrong, but it just seems odd a PAL disc looked fine coming from an NTSC player, playing on an NTSC television.

The biggest difference between NTSC and PAL is that PAL is 50hz and NTSC is 60hz, which isn't that big of a deal in these digital days, and TVs in the UK have done NTSC and PAL 60 for at least 15 years now. Most DVD players will convert NTSC to PAL and vice versa anyway.

It makes quite a difference in the UK because when you convert the native 60hz/30fps video to 50hz/25fps it is done by dropping frames, so you end up with a 4% faster video, which can make quite a difference on the soundtrack.