DVD's

My two cents worth about this.

I live in England, which is in DVD region 2. Today I went to His
Master's Voice in Market Street in Manchester and asked abou6t UFO
DVS's. I found that #1 #2 #3 #4 were for sale so far, with episodes 1
to 13 inclusive on. Price £8 each, which would be £64 for the set
when the rest of the episodes come out.

I then enquired at a nearby electronics shop and was told:-
- A DVD player that can record would cost about £900 and then it
would record in region 2 mde, so the result would only be playable in
region 2.
- All the DVD players that they sell are for region 2.
- They had not heard of DVD players that can be switched between
regions by a button/etc.
- Some movies have a special code to stop DVD-recorders from
recording them. I suspect that that means that nearly all the best TV
programs will have that code in, and that for all my £900 spent I
would not be able to use it much.

I am sticking with my good old faithful videotape recorder, which
does not have all that silly mess of handicaps and handcuffs. I heard
on the internet somewhere that there is a PC program going the rounds
on the internet, that can translate DVD's between regions and bypass
all this silly mess.

At the convention, the speaker pointed out that the Space Police
DVD that was on sale there, was DVD region #0 and thus playable
anywhere. I think he also said that some other DVD's (it may have
been the UFO DVD's?) were also actually region #0.

Anthony wrote:
>I then enquired at a nearby electronics shop and was told:-
>- A DVD player that can record would cost about £900

Hmmm, that's twice of what a recordable DVD player costs in
the USA. The price will certainly drop dramatically
in the near future.

>- They had not heard of DVD players that can be switched between
>regions by a button/etc.

Well, local stores are usually useless when it comes to multi-region
DVD players. That's why many of us bought our multi-region,
multi-standard, macrovision-free DVD players on the Internet.  
For far less than 900 pounds, but then again they don't record
either.

>Some movies have a special code to stop DVD-recorders from
>recording them.

DVD is primarily a playback medium at this time, Anthony.
If you're looking for a recorder, I agree that you should
probably stick with something other than DVD for now. If
however you're looking to rent or buy DVD's, then it's
a fine format.

> At the convention, the speaker pointed out that the Space Police
>DVD that was on sale there, was DVD region #0 and thus playable
>anywhere. I think he also said that some other DVD's (it may have
>been the UFO DVD's?) were also actually region #0.

UFO is indeed region 0.

Marc

It is quite easy to program your DVD to be mulit region , all it takes is a
few pushes of the buttons on your remote.
Now the problem is finding the code.
A friend of mind put his model number in to his search engine and found it
that way.

Anthony Appleyard wrote:

<<I then enquired at a nearby electronics shop and was
told:-
- All the DVD players that they sell are for region 2.
- They had not heard of DVD players that can be
switched between regions by a button/etc... I heard
on the internet somewhere that there is a PC program
going the rounds on the internet, that can translate
DVD's between regions and bypass all this silly mess.
>>

They're either lying, or just pig ignorant. Ask about
a PlayStation 2 - which any electronics outlet worth
its salt almost certainly stocks, BTW - it will play
DVDs from _any_ region (1 through 6) for the purchase
of a programme ('DVD Region X') for £20 (the PS2 costs
£200, and falling)...

Try Dixons or Currys (or shop on the Net) - they can
probably give you the programme along with the player
- oh, and you can play video games on it too ;^ ).

Regards,

Andy





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Anthony Appleyard wrote:

<<At the convention, the speaker pointed out that the
Space Police DVD that was on sale there, was DVD
region #0 and thus playable anywhere. I think he also
said that some other DVD's (it may have been the UFO
DVD's?) were also actually region #0.>>

One of the Anderson or Fanderson DVD releases - and I
can't for the life of me remember which it was :^ -
was mentioned as a world's first, being a double-sided
DVD, able to be played in either PAL or NTSC format,
and on either DVD (region 0) or DVD-ROM. So whatever
the format of either your TV, DVD player or PC, it
would do the business !

Would that the rest of the world were as progressive
as Fanderson !

Regards,

Andy


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from News and Sport to Email and Music Charts
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"anthonyappleyard" wrote:
> My two cents worth about this.
>
> I live in England, which is in DVD region 2. Today I went to His
> Master's Voice in Market Street in Manchester and asked about UFO
> DVD's. I found that #1 #2 #3 #4 were for sale so far, with episodes 1
> to 13 inclusive on. Price £8 each, which would be £64 for the set
> when the rest of the episodes come out.
>

That's pretty good, though you may have to wait for a while for
the next set of DVDs to come down to £8 a go - the last set were
about twice that when released (individually, anwyay).

Presently DVD is a much more practical and inexpensive medium for
playback than for recording, I agree - more analogous to CD audio
than to cassette - but the region-coding nonsense shouldn't put you
off too much. In practice you can buy a 'region free' player, and
you won't have to care what region a DVD is intended for - the
machine will just ignore the region code (no manual switching
required).

In one sense DVD is actually a more universal format than VHS for us
here in dear old Blighty, because all UK DVD players will play NTSC
DVDs, whereas not all UK VHS players will play NTSC videos.

James

"anthonyappleyard" wrote:

... and of course Anthony, if you want to watch the
new UFO releases, you don't have a choice between
VHS and DVD -- they're only available on DVD! So
if you want to see/hear UFO with decent quality
(the old UK VHS releases were terrible in comparison),
or you want to see the deleted footage, hear the
commentary, or see the never-before-seen publicity
and behind-the-scenes photos, you need to get the
DVDs!

Marc

--- In SHADO@y..., James Gibbon <james.gibbon@v...> wrote:
> ... In practice you can buy a 'region free' player, ...

I live in Manchester in England. I have never had a credit card.
Please how would I get a region-free DVD player?

>I live in Manchester in England. I have never had a credit card.
>Please how would I get a region-free DVD player?

Step 1: Go to your local store(s) which sell DVD players.
Make a note of the brands & model numbers which
are of the most interest to you.

Step 2: Go to the following website, and see if they list
this as a DVD player which can be modified by
a simple method (e.g., pushing a few buttons on
the remote control)

http://www.dvd.reviewer.co.uk/info/multiregion/hackable.asp

(note that there are 29 pages of players listed here)
(note also that this is a UK site)

Step 3: Buy that player, then push the buttons on the remote
to modify it.

Step 4: If this doesn't work, return it and try again!

Marc

"anthonyappleyard" wrote:
> --- In SHADO@y..., James Gibbon <james.gibbon@v...> wrote:
> > ... In practice you can buy a 'region free' player, ...
>
> I live in Manchester in England. I have never had a credit card.
> Please how would I get a region-free DVD player?
>

Hi Anthony,

Your nearest branch of Richer Sounds will have one for certain -
the region-free-modified models normally cost typically 20 or 30
pounds more than the same model unmodified. Worth checking out
the prices at http://www.richersounds.com - the prices quoted in
-store may be a little higher, but they will always do them for
the web price if you ask.

Actually I have just checked, and they have a special offer on a
multi-region DVD player - £100.

Cheers
James

--- In SHADO@y..., "anthonyappleyard" <MCLSSAA2@f...> wrote:
> My two cents worth about this.
>
> I live in England, which is in DVD region 2. Today I went to His
> Master's Voice in Market Street in Manchester and asked abou6t UFO
> DVS's. I found that #1 #2 #3 #4 were for sale so far, with episodes
1
> to 13 inclusive on. Price £8 each, which would be £64 for the set
> when the rest of the episodes come out.

Have you inquired at the online sources like Blackstar or Play724? I
think you can do better than that online. Play724's prices will
include shipping as well.
>
> I then enquired at a nearby electronics shop and was told:-
> - A DVD player that can record would cost about £900 and then it
> would record in region 2 mde, so the result would only be playable
in
> region 2.

If you're looking to buy a DVD recorder, I'd wait a year or so. The
prices will be dropping dramatically.

Also, do you have a CD player? Or did you hold out and continue to
play your vinyl records (on a turntable which also does not record)
until you could buy a stand alone CD player/recorder?

Or you could always buy a PVR system like TIVO, which supplants your
VCR tapes with a hard drive. Or buy a digital VCR.

> - All the DVD players that they sell are for region 2.

That's all they are supposed to sell.

> - They had not heard of DVD players that can be switched between
> regions by a button/etc.

Again, they aren't supposed to know about such things since they
aren't supposed to sell such things. Or they are just plan
uninformed. If you're interested in knowing about DVD players that
can play multiple regions and formats check out these sites:

http://www.codefreedvd.com/

http://www.zonefreedvd.com/

http://www.regionfreedvd.net/

http://www.dvdcity.com/

http://www.geocities.com/code_free_dvd_players/

http://www.mailuk.com/index.shtml

http://www.noexpress.com/sys-tmpl/regionfreedvds/

Or if you're interested in knowing which models are able to be
adjusted to play all zones via firmware updates or hidden menus, an
excellent sight for such information is:

http://www.vcdhelp.com

> - Some movies have a special code to stop DVD-recorders from
> recording them. I suspect that that means that nearly all the best
TV
> programs will have that code in, and that for all my £900 spent I
> would not be able to use it much.

The big question is: Why do you want to record them? Pricing is
becoming such that anything you want to own will be at an affordable
price and in excellent DVD quality.

>
> I am sticking with my good old faithful videotape recorder, which
> does not have all that silly mess of handicaps and handcuffs.

You mean the VCR that uses Macrovision to prevent you from recording
a pre-recorded video tape or even watching one when passed through
another VCR?

Or have you purchased a "video processor" that allows you to bypass
the Macrovision?

I heard
> on the internet somewhere that there is a PC program going the
rounds
> on the internet, that can translate DVD's between regions and
bypass
> all this silly mess.

One of the programs you may be talking about is called "Region
Killer" and it basically sets it to region 0 so the DVD drive in your
system will play the DVD.

There is also a program called DVD Genie that allows you much more
control over how your DVDs are played back through your software DVD
player.

Some sites to check out about avoiding region problems are:

http://www.digital-digest.com/dvd/articles/region.html

http://www.inmatrix.com/files/dvdgenie_download.shtml

http://elby.ch/english/fun/software/index.html

http://www.digital-digest.com/dvd/downloads/region.html

There are also a lot of other programs going around that can do some
pretty amazing things. As a matter of fact, if you know your way
around Usenet and newsgroups, you can download files of programs
capped from broadcasts that can either be watched on your computer or
burned to a regular CD and played in you stand-alone DVD player.

>
> At the convention, the speaker pointed out that the Space Police
> DVD that was on sale there, was DVD region #0 and thus playable
> anywhere. I think he also said that some other DVD's (it may have
> been the UFO DVD's?) were also actually region #0.

The way they did this is was to make a double sided DVD. One side is
in PAL, the other in NTSC. You just have to play the side appropriate
to your player.

Both the UFO and Captain Scarlet DVD sets are in Region Zero. But you
have to have a DVD player that will convert from PAL to NTSC if
you're playing them on an NTSC system. Or pass it through an NTSC
converter.

Kez

--- In SHADO@y..., Andy Lovie <andy_lovie@y...> wrote:

> One of the Anderson or Fanderson DVD releases - and I
> can't for the life of me remember which it was :^ -

It is the pilot programs for "The Day After Tomorrow" and "Space
Police", which of course became "Space Precinct".

Kez

LG do a great range of multi region - VCD compatible DVD players. The
base model [LG4710] which is rated better than most DVD Players
twice it's price is currently available in the £80 to £100 range. You
can check it out LG Uncovered website
[ http://members.lycos.co.uk/ittroll/ ] this page also gives cool
links to some really cost effective DVD outlets.

It seems all the LG DVD range can be made multi region, RCE and VCD
compatible via a very simple handset hack. I'm no wizard on matters
like this and it took me about 20 seconds to do have a 150 quid DVD
multi region compatible, playing VCD's cool ot what

Marty..........





--- In SHADO@y..., James Gibbon <james.gibbon@v...> wrote:

OK -
 
Definitive answer (well ish) There are 2 methods of region free - one is
handset hacks and one is chipping.

The best is chipping - Online the best choice is www.techtronics.com they
have the best chips and replace the manufactures warranty with their own on
new players. They will also chip your existing DVD - even collect it if you
want. You can also get Chipped machines in any branch Of Richter sounds...

The handset hacks don¹t beat the RSA region protection that is being usedon
some discs but the new chips do.

The other option is on your pc - but you will have to change the firmware in
most PC DVD drives (the files are downloadable - just hunt for region free
on lycos)

Sorry _ Just some info - oh and don¹t go the PS2 route DVD playback on a PS2
is terrible

John



On 22/5/02 1:24 am, "supercarkez" <[hidden email]> wrote:

I live in England. I asked about buying a DVD-writer, and I was told
that (DVD-writers sold at that shop) write in region 2 mode, not
region 0.

Not sure what that means -- I think they are confusing playback with
software authoring. As the creator of the DVD, you should be able to create
any Region you want. Just a note too -- as far as I understand it, DVD
writers (consumer grade) out now can only make data discs, not movie and
data discs are not regionalized.

I'm sure others with deeper knowledge will step forward.

In the meantime, I highly suggest checking out the DVD FAQ here:

http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html

to get a decent grounding in DVD basics. Section 4.3 is of particular
importance to you.

Anthony
-------------------------
Come visit me at:

http://www.tony-island.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "anthonyappleyard" <[hidden email]>
To: <[hidden email]>
Sent: Thursday, May 30, 2002 11:08 AM
Subject: [SHADO] Re: DVD's - Region free

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