A DVD primer

So you want to order a DVD from abroad ... you see the words "region free" and you think - hurrah, I can watch it!  Wrong answer.    You still have a problem if you live in North America and that Region Free DVD was in the UK or Europe or Australia.  Most of the world uses the PAL system.  North American (the USA and Canada) is on the NTSC system.  The recent Swedish royal wedding has been released on DVD.  It is region free.  That's great, but Sweden uses PAL, so the DVD can be seen only on PAL systems, not NTSC systems.  
The two systems are no compatible, even if North American dvd player/recorders were region free.

Well, what about ordering the DVD from the UK? There is a catch. A few catches, actually. There are 8 DVD regions. Region 1 includes the US and Canada. Region 2 includes the UK and Western Europe. North American DVD players and recorders are set to region 1. Yes, there is probably a way to tamper with the machine and set the Code to 0 (for all regions.) But ... and a big but here, folks ... setting your North American DVD player to 0 will not completely eradicate the problem. The US and Canada are on the NTSC system. Britain - and most other countries - use PAL. (France uses SECAM). NTSC and PAL ARE NOT compatible.

Your North American DVD player will not be able to read a PAL DVD even if you have broken the code for the regions. The majority of North American DVD players do not have built-in converters for PAL to NTSC. No converter=no converting.

I understand that a percentage of North American laptops can read both systems, but this is not a standard, and you can switch regions only a few times before the region is set to the last one used.


http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/how_to/4274927.html



Although Mexico and most of Central and South America use NTSC, they are a part of Region 4 for DVDs. Japan also uses a NTSC variant.



With the advent of digital television, things will remain complicated, as the digital systems are different. With the exception of low power stations and the few remaining analog cable stations, the US switched from NTSC on June 12 to the digital ATSC standard. (Canada will do its switch in August 2011.) The majority of countries have adopted the DVB-T standard for digital television.



Here in North American, NTSC will still be used for DVD tranmission.









So what is a confused person to do? Multi-region - code free DVD players or recorders with built-in converters are available in North America. Stores do not stock them, but you can purchase the machines from firms that do a lot of Internet business. I am on my second all-region/code free DVD player -- well actually a recorder with VHS so I can copy my old tapes -- not copyrighted movies - to DVDs -- if I can figure out how it works. Prices vary. Definitely worth an investment. I bought both of mine on Ebay.



But do not fiddle with your current North American DVD player to make it all region if you do not have a converter for the PAL DVDs. If you bought your DVD player at a store in the US or Canada, your machine WILL NOT be able to play PAL DVDs, even if you are able to change the regional setting to 0. Incidentally, if you change the setting during the warranty period, and something happens to the player. Guess what? Your warranty won't be valid.



Multi-region code-free players/recorders with built-in converters are readily available, and the machines are not expensive.