[Atlantic Xpat]

I was spurred by the One foot in the grave thread to post this....

One thing many of us want to do is to bring our UK DVD collections with us to Canada or to play DVD's we buy from England (Sometimes unavailable here or much cheaper in the UK). Thought I'd post my guide to doing this as it seems to come up frequently. I do not profess to be an expert and welcome being shot down in flames by the more knowledgeable but here goes anyway....

We have two issues in playing UK DVD's in Canada. The first is the television standard PAL vs NTSC, the second is the Region encoding, region 2 vs region 1.

PAL & NTSC are the different television standards between North America and Europe. Its all to do with the number of lines scanned on the screen but thats not really important. To play a PAL DVD in Canada you either need a TV that is capable of both PAL and NTSC modes as many are, or a DVD with a built in converter. The converter is known as a D/A convertor (digital to analogue) and can be found in the specs of the player. For example, my DVD player is a Yamaha DVS5750B and if you view the specs on http://www.yamaha.ca/av/DVD_PLayers/DVS5750B.jsp#specs
you'll see what I mean. You can buy external plug in converters but I submit its easier to buy a DVD player with it built in or a TV which will work in either mode.

OK, the other issue is the 'Region' encoding on DVD's. UK/European DVD's are Region 2 whereas North American DVD's are Region 1. Why do they do this? Dunno but probably to do with market/price protection. What we need to play our UK DVD's in Canada is a 'region free' DVD player. The region protection is controlled by the software in the DVD player. This is good because it means that most (but not all) DVD players can be reprogrammed to play all regions. There are many websites out there that tell you how to do this. Do a google on 'DVD region free hacks'. One example would be http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks
So if you go on that site. Plug my DVD player into the search engine you get these results http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks.ph...amaha+DV+S5750 . I followed those instructions once and now can play both my UK and Canadian DVD's with no probelms.

Ironically many of the cheaper DVD players you can buy will play region free right out of the box. Be aware however that if you go into Futureshop and ask the salespeople about this they'll often tell you that they dont sell region free dvd players. Dunno why, there's nothing illegal to the best of my knowledge about hacking dvd players.

So there you have it. An easy guide to watching One foot in the grave on your big screen Canadian TV. 'I don't bloody believe it'!

AX

[Julie & Andy]

Cheers, one to bookmark I think [

Julie

QUOTE=Atlantic Xpat]I was spurred by the One foot in the grave thread to post this....

One thing many of us want to do is to bring our UK DVD collections with us to Canada or to play DVD's we buy from England (Sometimes unavailable here or much cheaper in the UK). Thought I'd post my guide to doing this as it seems to come up frequently. I do not profess to be an expert and welcome being shot down in flames by the more knowledgeable but here goes anyway....

We have two issues in playing UK DVD's in Canada. The first is the television standard PAL vs NTSC, the second is the Region encoding, region 2 vs region 1.

PAL & NTSC are the different television standards between North America and Europe. Its all to do with the number of lines scanned on the screen but thats not really important. To play a PAL DVD in Canada you either need a TV that is capable of both PAL and NTSC modes as many are, or a DVD with a built in converter. The converter is known as a D/A convertor (digital to analogue) and can be found in the specs of the player. For example, my DVD player is a Yamaha DVS5750B and if you view the specs on http://www.yamaha.ca/av/DVD_PLayers/DVS5750B.jsp#specs
you'll see what I mean. You can buy external plug in converters but I submit its easier to buy a DVD player with it built in or a TV which will work in either mode.

OK, the other issue is the 'Region' encoding on DVD's. UK/European DVD's are Region 2 whereas North American DVD's are Region 1. Why do they do this? Dunno but probably to do with market/price protection. What we need to play our UK DVD's in Canada is a 'region free' DVD player. The region protection is controlled by the software in the DVD player. This is good because it means that most (but not all) DVD players can be reprogrammed to play all regions. There are many websites out there that tell you how to do this. Do a google on 'DVD region free hacks'. One example would be http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks
So if you go on that site. Plug my DVD player into the search engine you get these results http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks.ph...amaha+DV+S5750 . I followed those instructions once and now can play both my UK and Canadian DVD's with no probelms.

Ironically many of the cheaper DVD players you can buy will play region free right out of the box. Be aware however that if you go into Futureshop and ask the salespeople about this they'll often tell you that they dont sell region free dvd players. Dunno why, there's nothing illegal to the best of my knowledge about hacking dvd players.

So there you have it. An easy guide to watching One foot in the grave on your big screen Canadian TV. 'I don't bloody believe it'!

AX[/quote]

[Indigo]

Originally Posted by Atlantic Xpat I was spurred by the One foot in the grave thread to post this.... One thing many of us want to do is to bring our UK DVD collections with us to Canada or to play DVD's we buy from England (Sometimes unavailable here or much cheaper in the UK). Thought I'd post my guide to doing this as it seems to come up frequently. I do not profess to be an expert and welcome being shot down in flames by the more knowledgeable but here goes anyway.... We have two issues in playing UK DVD's in Canada. The first is the television standard PAL vs NTSC, the second is the Region encoding, region 2 vs region 1. PAL & NTSC are the different television standards between North America and Europe. Its all to do with the number of lines scanned on the screen but thats not really important. To play a PAL DVD in Canada you either need a TV that is capable of both PAL and NTSC modes as many are, or a DVD with a built in converter. The converter is known as a D/A convertor (digital to analogue) and can be found in the specs of the player. For example, my DVD player is a Yamaha DVS5750B and if you view the specs on http://www.yamaha.ca/av/DVD_PLayers/DVS5750B.jsp#specs you'll see what I mean. You can buy external plug in converters but I submit its easier to buy a DVD player with it built in or a TV which will work in either mode. OK, the other issue is the 'Region' encoding on DVD's. UK/European DVD's are Region 2 whereas North American DVD's are Region 1. Why do they do this? Dunno but probably to do with market/price protection. What we need to play our UK DVD's in Canada is a 'region free' DVD player. The region protection is controlled by the software in the DVD player. This is good because it means that most (but not all) DVD players can be reprogrammed to play all regions. There are many websites out there that tell you how to do this. Do a google on 'DVD region free hacks'. One example would be http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks So if you go on that site. Plug my DVD player into the search engine you get these results http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks.ph...amaha+DV+S5750 . I followed those instructions once and now can play both my UK and Canadian DVD's with no probelms. Ironically many of the cheaper DVD players you can buy will play region free right out of the box. Be aware however that if you go into Futureshop and ask the salespeople about this they'll often tell you that they dont sell region free dvd players. Dunno why, there's nothing illegal to the best of my knowledge about hacking dvd players. So there you have it. An easy guide to watching One foot in the grave on your big screen Canadian TV. 'I don't bloody believe it'! AX

Thanks for that link and info, but as usual, they don't have our dvd player listed... I've tried loads of websites. Off topic, does anyone know how to unlock a Citizen c504dvc?!

[KRoss]

Thanks for the link, have just managed to make my daughters £25 tesco dvd play our US and Canadian dvds. We paid over £100 for a "multiregion" off the net!
Cheers

[dozzzzy]

Originally Posted by Atlantic Xpat PAL & NTSC are the different television standards between North America and Europe. Its all to do with the number of lines scanned on the screen but thats not really important.

This is correct and the reason why NTSC and PAL systems are incompatable.

NTSC has 525 Lines in a complete picture and PAL has 625 lines, therefor there is a slightly higer resolotuion image displayed on a PAL TV, there are other differences due to the electrical voltage and the speed of the scaning, this breaks down to 30 frames a second for NTSC and 25 frames a second for PAL.

For a fuller break down on the differances have a look here or here.

Originally Posted by Atlantic Xpat The converter is known as a D/A convertor (digital to analogue) and can be found in the specs of the player. For example, my DVD player is a Yamaha DVS5750B and if you view the specs on

This is not quite right, ALL DVD players regardless of quality or features will have a D/A convertor as the information on the disk is Digital, ie information is stored as 0's and 1's and this needs converting to analog for playback on either a NTSC or PAL TV as both systems are analog. The more expensiver DVD players will have a larger bitrate D/A converter and the cheaper ones will have a smaller one, all DVD most definatly will need a D/a converter

Originally Posted by Atlantic Xpat OK, the other issue is the 'Region' encoding on DVD's. UK/European DVD's are Region 2 whereas North American DVD's are Region 1. Why do they do this? Dunno but probably to do with market/price protection.

The whole region encoding thing is explained here. But is basically there to stop DVD that are released in one region being played in another region, especially if they have a staggered launch schedule. Many studios are using enhanced Region coding that will not allow their disk to be played in multi-region players, but if you have a look at the link above it say that there are players that will even jump this hurdle now.


Many TV's and DVD's and to a lesser extent VCR's are multi-protocol (PAL, NTSC, SECAM) today as it is all contained on one chip and it's cheaper to make one chip that does it all and one product rather than 3 chips and 3 products.


Dozzzzy

[bananahammock]

Originally Posted by KRoss Thanks for the link, have just managed to make my daughters £25 tesco dvd play our US and Canadian dvds. We paid over £100 for a "multiregion" off the net! Cheers

Hi,

We bought a cheap 'diamond' DVD player from Walmart ($34) & it plays UK & Canada discs, no problem.

[Indigo]

Originally Posted by bananahammock Hi, We bought a cheap 'diamond' DVD player from Walmart ($34) & it plays UK & Canada discs, no problem.

Thanks, I think I'll pop into Walmart tomorrow....

[MesserMoony]

Originally Posted by bananahammock Hi, We bought a cheap 'diamond' DVD player from Walmart ($34) & it plays UK & Canada discs, no problem.

We did a similiar thing, we got one from future shop for about $40 and plays both. Although we only needed one for the PAL discs as we had two other DVD players for NTSC just they wouldn't play mine.

[britishvixen21]

I just went and bought the diamond DVD player from Walmart and it says its only region 1?? any ideas? its the DVDV807-03 and DVDV807-04 model is that the right one, or do I have to decode it?

[Posidrive]

Originally Posted by britishvixen21 I just went and bought the diamond DVD player from Walmart and it says its only region 1?? any ideas? its the DVDV807-03 and DVDV807-04 model is that the right one, or do I have to decode it?

It said that on mine as well when I bought it, but plays my UK disks nonetheless. Otherwise have a look here

http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks.ph...ion+DVDV803-03

The 807-03 is mentioned halfway down the page

[britishvixen21]

Originally Posted by Posidrive It said that on mine as well when I bought it, but plays my UK disks nonetheless. Otherwise have a look here http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks.ph...ion+DVDV803-03 The 807-03 is mentioned halfway down the page

Thanks Posi the hack doesnt work but ya know what for $30 who cares LOL, I know that the english DVD's I will bring back (dont actually have any yet am going back to blighty in 2 weeks to bring back a sh%t load) will work on my computer so if worse comes to worse il play them on there and give the one i bought today away.

[Posidrive]

Originally Posted by britishvixen21 Thanks Posi the hack doesnt work but ya know what for $30 who cares LOL, I know that the english DVD's I will bring back (dont actually have any yet am going back to blighty in 2 weeks to bring back a sh%t load) will work on my computer so if worse comes to worse il play them on there and give the one i bought today away.

You may very well find that you are lucky, because I tried the hack and it didn't seem to work but my UK disks play anyway. Fingers crossed

[Indigo]

Originally Posted by britishvixen21 I just went and bought the diamond DVD player from Walmart and it says its only region 1?? any ideas? its the DVDV807-03 and DVDV807-04 model is that the right one, or do I have to decode it?

I bought the same one from Walmart. It says Region 1, but I just stuck a UK dvd in, no codes or hacking involved. Works great, and the machine is really small so it fits in the shelf nicely! I'm thinking of getting a second one.