Region Free/ Ntsc PAL Compatible

[veryconfused]

This may sound like a dumb question but i haven't any clue about technology. I have found hacks for my Toshiba SD4100 dvd player to play UK dvds with people stating that it allowed them to play the dvds here, does that mean that the player is both NTSC and PAL compatible?

[midders]

AFAIK all modern DVD players support both PAL and NTSC as part of the DVD standard.

[hech54]

AFAIK all modern DVD players support both PAL and NTSC as part of the DVD standard.

WRONG.
DVD player hacks have ZERO to do with PAL/NTSC....they involve region codes.
The original poster is in NTSC territory. They will need to hack the player region free
AND hope the player can convert PAL to NTSC.

[jman98]

midders is not really correct and quite possibly horribly wrong for people who live in NTSC countries like Canada.

DVD players can easily support PAL and NTSC and convert either to the other in hardware. Whether the player does so or not is up to the manufacturer. Many DVD players sold in Canada and the USA are completely unable to play or convert PAL video. Some will play PAL and NTSC but not convert it, so PAL DVD = PAL video output. Typically that is very bad for people in North America. Most North America TVs can't display PAL video correctly.

So since you found a hack for your player, you are incredibly lucky and probably it means that the player can convert PAL DVD to NTSC video output, but you'll have to test it to see. Be sure that you check your DVD player menu and see if you have an option to set the video output to NTSC. If this can be changed it is often set to either "ANY" or "MULTI" by default and usually that won't work on North American TVs. If you cannot set the video output of your DVD player and your TV can't display it correctly then your player does not convert from PAL input to NTSC output and your TV can't display PAL video.

midders is in the UK where the situation is completely different and the vast majority of DVD players and TVs are capable of either displaying NTSC or at least converting NTSC video to PAL output. But there is no requirement at all for DVD players to support both PAL and NTSC and some players only support one.

[midders]

midders is in the UK where the situation is completely different and the vast majority of DVD players and TVs are capable of either displaying NTSC or at least converting NTSC video to PAL output.

Lucky me

[victoriabears]

Region free is not really the BIG issue, the ability to play PAL on a NTSC TV is, but it is easy enough to get a player that does, Philips/ Pioneer etc all easilly bought from on line stores, and they seem to be getting cheaper.

Make a backup of any dvd and the backup is then region free.