Region 0 DVD?

[tdishere]

Can anyone answer this for me?

I live in the U.S. There is a DVD from the UK I want to buy that is being advertised as Region 0. Can I play it on my DVD player? If it's a Region 0, does PAL or NTSC even come into play?

Thanks

[Poppa_Meth]

Zero is a tricky region code. Most harware should play it fine but there have been some issues with it in the past. Best way to do discs like this is ALL region, which has all region codes included. And PAL/NTSC is the video format. It has nothing to do with region coding. If it's a UK disc it's probably still PAL and won't playback correctly on the majority of NTSC equipment.

[tdishere]

Zero is a tricky region code. Most harware should play it fine but there have been some issues with it in the past. Best way to do discs like this is ALL region, which has all region codes included. And PAL/NTSC is the video format. It has nothing to do with region coding. If it's a UK disc it's probably still PAL and won't playback correctly on the majority of NTSC equipment.

I've been told by someone on another board that Region 0 will play anywhere. But if it's a NTSC TV, then it'll be black and white on my screen. Does that make sense? I didn't even know TV's were PAL/NTSC.

[Poppa_Meth]

Thats incorrect.
If its region Zero it should play anywhere, provided you don't have one of the older players that had problems with region Zero.
And if you try to run NTSC through a PAL television without the proper hookups then this can often result in a black and white picture. But running PAL through NTSC equipment will generally get you a scrambled mess.

[mats.hogberg]

Regions and TV systems (PAL/NTSC) have abolutely nothing in common. At least in theory, any region DVD could have any TV system video on it.
So, if it's a region 0 PAL DVD, your player has to:
Play region 0 DVD
and
Play PAL DVD

/Mats

[jman98]

Most likely the region 0 DVD will be in NTSC format. It has been estimated that 95% of the world's DVD players can correctly play NTSC DVDs. It is extremely unlikely that a region 0 DVD would fail to play on your DVD player.

The region 0 "problem" wasn't really a problem with DVDs, it was a way DVD manufacturers in the US used to trick DVD players switched into region 0 mode (this means that region code checking is ignored) so they could be made to NOT play a region 1 DVD. See, it used to be that if your DVD player was set in region 0, it would play any region DVD at all. Some US companies didn't like the fact that their DVDs could be played in foreign countries (probably because the DVDs weren't yet released in those countries), so they did something like this. This imaginary conversion explains how the region checking was used to keep a region 0 disc from playing a region 1 title.
DVD talking to player: "I'm a region 2 disc. What region are you?"
Player talking to DVD: "I'm region 0. I can play you."
DVD talking to player: "I lied! I'm really region 1. Since you say you can play a region 2 disc, that means you are either a region 0 or region 2 player.
I'm really a region 1 disc and I refuse to let you play me since you are obviously trying to defeat my region code."

I suppose it is possible that some older players wouldn't play region 0 discs, but I have not personally heard of this. However, older players did a lot of crazy, stupid stuff so I can't rule it out. However, the odds are good that you can play the disc if you buy it. Worst case, you can play it on a PC if you have a DVD drive. PCs will always play region 0 DVDs using a software DVD player.

[tdishere]

Most likely the region 0 DVD will be in NTSC format. It has been estimated that 95% of the world's DVD players can correctly play NTSC DVDs. It is extremely unlikely that a region 0 DVD would fail to play on your DVD player.

The region 0 "problem" wasn't really a problem with DVDs, it was a way DVD manufacturers in the US used to trick DVD players switched into region 0 mode (this means that region code checking is ignored) so they could be made to NOT play a region 1 DVD. See, it used to be that if your DVD player was set in region 0, it would play any region DVD at all. Some US companies didn't like the fact that their DVDs could be played in foreign countries (probably because the DVDs weren't yet released in those countries), so they did something like this. This imaginary conversion explains how the region checking was used to keep a region 0 disc from playing a region 1 title.
DVD talking to player: "I'm a region 2 disc. What region are you?"
Player talking to DVD: "I'm region 0. I can play you."
DVD talking to player: "I lied! I'm really region 1. Since you say you can play a region 2 disc, that means you are either a region 0 or region 2 player.
I'm really a region 1 disc and I refuse to let you play me since you are obviously trying to defeat my region code."

I suppose it is possible that some older players wouldn't play region 0 discs, but I have not personally heard of this. However, older players did a lot of crazy, stupid stuff so I can't rule it out. However, the odds are good that you can play the disc if you buy it. Worst case, you can play it on a PC if you have a DVD drive. PCs will always play region 0 DVDs using a software DVD player.

Thanks - you have made me confident (I think) that my DVD player will play the DVD. But what about the whole TV thing. If my DVD player is playing it, will I be able to view it on my TV?

[Cornucopia]

It's either PAL or NTSC. Since it comes from UK, it should be PAL (unless it's meant for international play-then some smarty would probably make it NTSC).

If it's PAL, you need to find out (from the DVD Player GUIDES <--) if your player supports playing PAL. It could do 1 of 4 things:

1. Not play at all. (No support)
2. Play in Black & White with framerate flicker and somewhat squished size. (Basic support, but no real conversion)
3. Play in Color, but stutters (Semi converting)
4. Play smoothly in Color just like an NTSC disc (Full standards converting)

#4 is rare.

Remember, you can always get the disc, use DVD Decrypter (RIP) on it to remove the regions. Then, follow the guides here to convert, and create an NTSC disc, which should play fine, although with some loss of resolution/quality.

Scott

[mats.hogberg]

If my DVD player is playing it, will I be able to view it on my TV?

That depends on several factors. What the DVD player does to the video, and what your TV handles.
If your TV can handle both NTSC and PAL, then yes, you'll be able to view it.
If your TV only handles one TV system (let's assume NTSC) you have to rely on a NTSC signal from the DVD player. So if the DVD is PAL, your player has to do a PAL to NTSC conversion "on the fly".


/Mats