[SEL] OT ....DVD

[Paul Pavlinovich]

Hi Peter, I realise you've already had a few answers on this but here 
are a couple more :)

Most USA bought equipment cannot play PAL - the TV and DVD usually are 
unable to do it. Some DVD players (generally the cheaper ones) will 
convert from PAL to NTSC without the user even knowing they're doing it. 
This means a disk sent from Australia (ignoring the region) will be 
unlikely to play. However, generally Aus (and just about anywhere else 
on the planet) will play most popular video formats so you can bring an 
NTSC DVD from the USA and it will play here (I have heaps).

You will get less problems with cheaper players - the expensive ones 
(e.g. Sony) subscribe to the licensing scheme and are still steadfastly 
ignoring the market demands in the interests of controlling their own 
products (Sony make movies too).

Now onto the good news, portable DVD players (the kind with an inbuilt 
screen) generally play any video format and any region - I dare say this 
is to market them to travellers. Give one of them a try. You can usually 
connect them to a normal TV.

Of course, one final point... there are three principal DVD formats - 
standard (everything should play these), and the two High Definition 
"Blue Ray" and "Hi Def". These two HD formats are utterly incompatible 
and to date I've not seen a single player that will take on both. I have 
a HD TV but refuse to buy a HD DVD player to go with it until there is a 
player than handles both formats. Remember Beta and VHS? Here we go 
again. The worst thing about the HD players is that it isnt just your 
DVD player that decides if you are "allowed" to watch something - when 
connected via an HDMI input the bloody TV has a say too! Fortunately for 
me I've got an Hitachi which will pretend to be in any location you tell 
it.

Regards
Paul

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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