tmuir
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Country coding on DVDS :-(I rented a few vids for tonight, one of them was the Fantastic Four and Silver Surfer DVD.
The DVD must be a bit iffy as when I tried to play it in my DVD player it would make clicking sounds so I'm guessing its slightly off balance.
I then tried to play it on my computer but it wouldn't play as I've never set the region on my DVD player on my computer and even with DVD43 win XP wouldn't play this CD.
So to enable me to watch a rented DVD I had to rip it to my computer to remove the country coding.
Now is it just me that finds it a little funny that because they put country coding on the DVD to stop piracy, the only way I could watch a n original DVD that I had hired was to make an illegal copy of it. 
The sooner they accept country coding is useless and dump it the better it will be for everyone.
Oh yeh I will be deleting it off my PC as the movie was ok but not good enough that I want to watch it again so you don't need to report me to the video police. 
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Mister Occlusion
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There is, or used to be, a firmware site for DVD-ROM drives that had custom firmware that you could load to make your drive region free.
I don't have any more info. I only did it once, back in my heady days of anti-establishment idealism... Then I realized that since all of the disks I wanted were Region 1 anyway, why bother with firmware hacks?
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johnreid
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Some DVD set top players are region free, one should research them on the Internet before buying one. Surprisingly enough, some of the less expensive ones are region free, and even play both PAL and NTSC. Mine are both older models and are NTSC only and region 1 only. I use the computer for a lot of my DVD viewing.
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Sandman
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All DVD players will play Pal and NTSC. Only the region code determines whether they will play or not.
Most DVD players have a code that can be entered on the remote that makes them region free.
Just enter the make and number and ask Google for a region code crack and you might be surprised.
Or google "DVD region codes". Then once you get the sites search for your particular model and number.
I did it with mine a while ago, but I don't tremember the sites I got the codes on.
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tmuir
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My DVD recorder has been set to region free it was a disk fault that stopped it playing in my DVD.
I use a software called DVD43 to beat country coding on my PC but for some strange reason it didn't work on this CD. 
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johnreid
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I sure cant get a PAL video to play on my DVD player even if it is a region 1
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CCairns
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I have a similar problem playing DVD+R disks.
One railway DVD+R I got refused to play on my home DVD player. So I made a copy of it on my computer, and the home DVD player quite happily played this copy. Then I put the original DVD+R disk back into the home DVD player and it worked OK!
Region codes are another way for the Media empire to restrict releases to certain countries. Look at a favourite movie you have in your country's code, and you will probably find that it was released in another country's code with different content (Regions 2 & 4 tend to be the same). An example is the classic comedy 'Airplane' where the UK (Region2) release does not contain the original songs that were played on the screen version.
Same happens with music CDs, where bands/groups will release certain versions of their music to certain countries - hence the big market in getting the Japanese releases which have all those extra tracks you cannot get on a UK version.
Chris Cairns.
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Wallace
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| johnreid wrote: | | I sure cant get a PAL video to play on my DVD player even if it is a region 1 |
Ours is naturally PAL over here.
I've never tried to play a NTSC DVD, and not sure if our DVD player would.
But if I did, I know there is one thing that you still need. A TV capable of NTSC playback.
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Sandman
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| Wallace wrote: | | johnreid wrote: | | I sure cant get a PAL video to play on my DVD player even if it is a region 1 |
Ours is naturally PAL over here.
I've never tried to play a NTSC DVD, and not sure if our DVD player would.
But if I did, I know there is one thing that you still need. A TV capable of NTSC playback. |
Not true old buddy.
It's the player that needs to play both. The TV has nothing to do with it.
I send Movies all over the world and they play happily in the states or europe or Oz.
They are all recorded in PAL format.
This is a myth that is hard to break.
If you think of it this way.
A DVD recorded in the States ,as long as it is not region coded, will play fine here, although the formats are different.
My STIA DVDS are all recorded in PAL format, but play fine in the States or Canada.
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johnreid
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It plays fine on my computer, but my ancient DVD player comes up with a No Disc Error message as does any other PAL DVD. My player is an older SONY in fact I think Iwas the first person I knew that had a DVD player, it ill not play music CDs if they have too many tracks too. I do honestly believe that most of the newer DVD players in fact do play both.
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Wallace
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| Sandman wrote: | | Wallace wrote: | | johnreid wrote: | | I sure cant get a PAL video to play on my DVD player even if it is a region 1 |
Ours is naturally PAL over here.
I've never tried to play a NTSC DVD, and not sure if our DVD player would.
But if I did, I know there is one thing that you still need. A TV capable of NTSC playback. |
Not true old buddy.
It's the player that needs to play both. The TV has nothing to do with it.
I send Movies all over the world and they play happily in the states or europe or Oz.
They are all recorded in PAL format.
This is a myth that is hard to break.
If you think of it this way.
A DVD recorded in the States ,as long as it is not region coded, will play fine here, although the formats are different.
My STIA DVDS are all recorded in PAL format, but play fine in the States or Canada. |
Thanks for that info. 
I never knew that. You can switch out TV to NTSC playback, and I was told the reason for it is for DVD's 
Learn something new every day. 
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johnreid
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The DVD plays on my friends DVD player, but it is newer.
Too bad that the whole world doesnt like to do things the same. I can see different currencies and different customs etc., but things like DVDs and CDs should be the same the world over.
I know what a hassle the different voltages can be too as my former employer had plants in several countries and it was sometimes a nuisance exchanging specialized equipment.
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tmuir
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My old DVD player I bought for $70 from our local supermarket was region free and played both PAL and NTSC.
My expensive DVD and HD recorder had region coding (I disabled that) and when it plays NTSC disks it ouputs NTSC video, it doesn't convert to PAL so I can't play NTSC videos in my DVD player anymore which really bugs my.
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Wallace
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| tmuir wrote: | My old DVD player I bought for $70 from our local supermarket was region free and played both PAL and NTSC.
My expensive DVD and HD recorder had region coding (I disabled that) and when it plays NTSC disks it ouputs NTSC video, it doesn't convert to PAL so I can't play NTSC videos in my DVD player anymore which really bugs my. |
So in that case would that be where the NTSC playback on TV is used?
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Sandman
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| Wallace wrote: | | tmuir wrote: | My old DVD player I bought for $70 from our local supermarket was region free and played both PAL and NTSC.
My expensive DVD and HD recorder had region coding (I disabled that) and when it plays NTSC disks it ouputs NTSC video, it doesn't convert to PAL so I can't play NTSC videos in my DVD player anymore which really bugs my. |
So in that case would that be where the NTSC playback on TV is used? |
Sorry guys, I've no experience with the new HD digital setups. I can only go by the experience of sending DVDs across the world for over 5 years now.
Things may well be changing.
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tmuir
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| Wallace wrote: | | tmuir wrote: | My old DVD player I bought for $70 from our local supermarket was region free and played both PAL and NTSC.
My expensive DVD and HD recorder had region coding (I disabled that) and when it plays NTSC disks it ouputs NTSC video, it doesn't convert to PAL so I can't play NTSC videos in my DVD player anymore which really bugs my. |
So in that case would that be where the NTSC playback on TV is used? |
From what I've learnt so far is.
Cheap generic brand DVD players will play PAL and NTSC and are region free so they can just sell them anywhere whilest expensive brand name ones tow the line with what Hollywood wants so if you want to play DVDs from anywhere in the world buy a cheap brand that may wear out in a few years but it will play everything.
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Sandman
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| tmuir wrote: | | Wallace wrote: | | tmuir wrote: | My old DVD player I bought for $70 from our local supermarket was region free and played both PAL and NTSC.
My expensive DVD and HD recorder had region coding (I disabled that) and when it plays NTSC disks it ouputs NTSC video, it doesn't convert to PAL so I can't play NTSC videos in my DVD player anymore which really bugs my. |
So in that case would that be where the NTSC playback on TV is used? |
From what I've learnt so far is.
Cheap generic brand DVD players will play PAL and NTSC and are region free so they can just sell them anywhere whilest expensive brand name ones tow the line with what Hollywood wants so if you want to play DVDs from anywhere in the world buy a cheap brand that may wear out in a few years but it will play everything. |
I agree Tony.
My best player cost me £20.00 from Aldi.
Plays everything. 
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