Are You Region free?

[gprime]

The question at hand is are you handicapped by region? Many people, particularly in the US, have no clue about dvd regions or video standards (like 90% of the world using PAL).

Personally, I'm region free (and both PAL and NTSC compliant, since SECAM doesn't exist on DVD) and loving it. I've been that way for 3-4 years now when I snagged my first Graham Norton dvd from the UK. I knew what regions were, but had never before needed a region free player. Bought one and have loved it ever since. When I was a film critic (used to write for both HorrorView.com and HorrorReview.com) I needed it, as I sometimes got discs from European companies (like Eat the Schoolgirl from Shock Japan and Cannibal Catwalk from Odeon), and because I sometimes order foreign discs (such as Convent of Sinners by X-Rated Cult and Torso also by X-Rated Cult).

Personally, what I use is a modded (thus the warrenty is void) Daewoo player. It can handle eveything. Beyond the normal cd and dvd it naturally hand, it plays dvd-r rips of VHS (like Bells and Divine Emmanuelle), dvd-r releases (usually screeners or indies get that treatment) (like Praey and Snow Day Bloody Snow Day), and even to my surprise, a dvd+r rip of an unconverted SECAM tape (uncut French release of Mondo Magic).

What about you? Do you use a regionless player? If so, why? And which one?

I also have a second question for regionless dvd player owners outside the US, particularly those in the UK. That is: why? What I mean is that in the US, there are no film laws, so people can import what they please. But in the UK, with the 1984 VRA, you can't import anything not BBFC pre-approved, and many films are seized by customs. So then, of what use would such a player be to you?

[~Wayne~]

Us in Uk cannot play Cd's/DvDs from USA on our players and vice versa

[gprime]

Us in Uk cannot play Cd's/DvDs from USA on our players and vice versa

Not quite sure what you're saying. CDs shouldn't be an issue, so I find that a bit shocking. Anyways, the idea behind the question is since that technology is readily available, and many cheap dvd players can be made compliant, does anybody else have that technology, and how do they use?

[Chris]

You can play US CD's in the UK, because there is no region encoding on CD's.

And as for the BBFC not allowing you to import US DVD's, how do you explain that i imported Rescue Me Season 1 from Amazon.com last year? (obviously the US version isnt BBFC approved).

[gprime]

You can play US CD's in the UK, because there is no region encoding on CD's.

And as for the BBFC not allowing you to import US DVD's, how do you explain that i imported Rescue Me Season 1 from Amazon.com last year? (obviously the US version isnt BBFC approved).

Well, under UK law they have the right to seize what they wish if it doesn't have a BBFC cert. But, typically they only seize films if they are:


Banned in the UK
Forcibly cut in the UK
Uncertified anywhere
Pornographic in Nature
Depicts animal abuse. sexualized violence, or incites racism.


They have the right to do more, but often they don't. Admittedly they're getting less effective. Several months back I did some business with a UK grey market company called Visual Pain (which, under British law, should long ago have been closed down). I sent them a bunch of discs in exchange for their grey market crap. To make a long story short, my package to them was held up at customs. And when they finally got it, the package appeared opened by the Dover branch, which supposedly is the strictest in the UK. Surprisingly, they seized nothing. They didn't even take the copy of Jesus Christ: Serial Rapist. So it is possible to get things by them or for them to ignore items. But they have the right to seize titles. And I have many friends there who've suffered from that fate. For instance, the extremely rare EC Ultrabit release of Cannibal Holocaust, which is a historically significant, albeit somewhat violent film, and the BBFC owns more copies of it than any retailer or private collector, as they have seized at least 80% of copies sent to the UK.

[CITV vs CBBC]

Us in Uk cannot play Cd's/DvDs from USA on our players and vice versa


You can if you buy a region free/region 0 (written in both ways but mean the same thing) DVD player and a NTSC-PAL converter.

One multi-region DVD player I can't recommend highly enough is the DVD-MIRR110 by a small Japanse company called Mirror. It will play almost anything put into it! It has Dolby Digital surround sound and even has a Karaoke machine built in (luckily, a feature I haven't used :D). And it plays the DVDs with even the deepest of scratches with little or no problems. All for only £80 :O ! (at 2002 prices)

Unluckily, the company went bust a few years ago and no other manufacturer has produced a DVD player as brilliant as this since. As they were only a small company, it is fairly rare to find one of their DVD players selling second hand, but it is well worth the look because the player is well worth the money!!!

Only a few snags with it:
No "on/off" button on remote
only x8 fast forward and x4 fast rewind compared with other models which have up to x32 fast forward and x28 fast rewind.
Occasionally locks up (DVD won't do anything after being on pause for a long time) but hitting the stop, then play buttons kicks it into action again from the point where you paused it. If it locks up any further, just unplug it, then plug it back in again.

6 years after I bought the thing and no major breakdowns at all!

[-Luke-]

I think UK is region 2, i have to check when i'm on Amazon and e-bay when buying DVD's.

[Tami]

we have had a dereonalised dvd player for well over 5 years
so i don't think about it anymore

[CITV vs CBBC]

I think UK is region 2, i have to check when i'm on Amazon and e-bay when buying DVD's.

Well it doesn't just depend on region: The colour system of your TV set also matters:

http://www.high-techproductions.com/ntsc.htm

http://www.high-techproductions.com/pal.htm

http://www.high-techproductions.com/secam.htm

and for comparison:
http://www.high-techproductions.com/pal,ntsc.htm

Note: "Line/Field" = number of lines of resolution on the picture/how many times the television produces an image each second
"Horizontal frequency"= number of times the TV scans the screen (to make the image) horizontally
Vertical frequency = guess (above answer but top to bottom instead of side to side).

[CITV vs CBBC]

we have had a dereonalised dvd player for well over 5 years
so i don't think about it anymore

Well if you take the DVD player abroad and plug it into a foreign TV set, you have a major remaining problem:

It doesn't just depend on region: The colour system of your TV set also matters:

http://www.high-techproductions.com/ntsc.htm

http://www.high-techproductions.com/pal.htm

http://www.high-techproductions.com/secam.htm

and for comparison:
http://www.high-techproductions.com/pal,ntsc.htm

Note: "Line/Field" = number of lines of resolution on the picture/how many times the television produces an image each second
"Horizontal frequency"= number of times the TV scans the screen (to make the image) horizontally
Vertical frequency = guess (above answer but top to bottom instead of side to side).