(OT) Can you watch a DVD for region 1 on a PAL TV ?

Thomas Pryds Lauritsen thomas at duckburg.dk
Tue Nov 12 18:38:36 CET 2002


Ola Martinsson wrote:
> Slightly off topic but just a little. For those of you that are
> interested Disney have released a DVD series that's called Walt Disney
> Treasures, look at http://www.dvdtoons.com/ Among them are a complete
> collection of all the black and white Mickey Mouse cartoons.
> 
> But it is for region 1 only. Does anyone know if I can watch this with a
> region free DVD player and a PAL TV in Sweden ? The DVD player is in a
> PC and has been reprogrammed to be region free. It used to be a region 2
> DVD player.

There are two issues when one wants to watch American movies on a 
European system, and vice versa.

One is the regional codes, as you mentioned. A "normal" DVD-player can 
be modified to be able to show all regional codes (and no, this is *not* 
illegal, even though some dealers or manufacturers tell you so). Since 
your PC dvd-player, Ola, has been reprogrammed, there should be no 
problems here.

Another issue is the two different TV signal systems. USA uses a system 
called NTSC, while Europe uses PAL. Normally a PAL TV cannot show an 
NTSC signal, but many new models can, however. If your TV can only show 
PAL, you may have a switch or a setting in your stand-alone DVD player 
to select output as NTSC or PAL. If not, you can buy a device that 
transforms the NTSC signal to PAL to put between your DVD player and 
your TV. I guess (but am not sure) that some PC DVD players can select 
whether to output NTSC or PAL.

For more info, check: http://www.thedigitalbits.com/officialfaq.html#1.19

(the next issue on that page may also interest people going for cartoons 
and other animation on DVDs)


-- 
Thomas Pryds Lauritsen

"There is the theory of the Moebius.
  A twist in the fabric of space where time becomes a loop."




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