[SEL] OT ....DVD

[Glen Harris]

Without knowing some exact details on the DVD in question it's impossible to 
say, as everything hangs on that DVD's Region Code. I'll give a general 
answer, though, and you can apply it to that DVD and future ones, too.

Short answer: Probably not.

(Ha, there's an outside chance! Now you have to keep reading....)

Long answer and some options:

A bit of googling found the manual for his player [Note 1] which states that 
it only plays DVDs which are flagged Region Code 1 or ALL. There's lots of 
people asking for instructions to make it region free, but no-one is answering 
positively or reporting success.

If the DVD you have is commercially produced for the Australian market, it is 
probably flagged Region Code 4 [Note 2], and only players sold for that region 
(or hacked to play any region) will play it.

Even if the DVD is commercially produced, it may (rarely) have been 
manufactured with the ALL flag. Most DVD cases show the region along with the 
rating, runtime, languages, etc on the back. It's shown as the number 
superimposed on a globe and surrounded with a round cornered box.

If it's from a small producer who burns their own, you may be able to ask them 
to burn you one flagged with Region Code 1.

You may also be able to ask them for written permission to make, and possibly 
pay for, a single copy yourself. You would have to "rip" the disk to a PC, 
then burn it back to blank DVD with a new Region Code. If the DVD is dual 
layer, ie larger than 4.7Gb, you would either need to burn it to a DL-DVD in a 
DL capable drive, or "shrink" it by re-encoding it at a slightly lower quality 
to make it fit on a single layer DVD.

Of course, with a similar permission, you could also record it to a VHS tape, 
as your friend's machine is a VHS/DVD combo and is reported [Note 3] to 
playback PAL tapes.

Finally, he could buy a cheap ($20-$30) player which is known to have a region 
free hack available or from Mexico which is Region 4 [Note 2] just like us.

[1] 
<http://www.insignia-products.com/p-78-insignia-progressive-scan-multiformat-dvd-r-rwrrw-recordervcr-combo.aspx>

[2] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD_region_code>

[3] <http://deemf.livejournal.com/6305.html>

BTW, and only slightly related, DVDs are also either PAL or NTSC, but most 
players will convert the DVD format to the format of the television they're 
displaying the picture on. I have the Australian Opera's production of /The 
Mikado/, but it is only available from Amazon in the USA. My player is region 
free and plays the disk, but it has to convert the 24fps NTSC signal to 25fps 
PAL for my TV, and so the picture stutters slightly as it has to display 1 
frame out of each 24 twice. Usually a player showing a PAL signal on an NTSC 
TV will drop 1 frame in 25. Of course, many modern televisions are capable of 
displaying both PAL and NTSC signals at their proper rates, so it is possible 
with the right equipment and lots of remote control button pressing to 
configure both the DVD and TV to display the native format on the disk.

Cheers, glen.

peter ogborne wrote:
> I know , I have asked this question before but it is confusing with the 
> answers that I have received from other quarters
> If I sent a DVD ,produced here in Australia and it was done using the PAL 
> system ,to the USA ,could it be played .
> I know that the system used in the US is NTSC but conflicting reports come 
> to me about it's playability!
> The DVD player that my friend in the US has is an Insignia DVD100121
> Peter Ogborne
> Little Grove ,Albany
> West Australia
> ''Heart of the Rainbow Coast ''
> jopeter at omninet.net.au 
> 
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