Received some UK dvds... need help

[allen074]

hi -- ok my old apex played these dvds my friends from overseas sent me -- however now i have a new panasonic 5 dvd player and when i put them in all i get is bars

reminds me of the old pal vs ntsc vcr days

how can i fix this so they will work on the panasonic dvd player?

thank you
allen

[iantri]

If you will read the sticky at the top of the forum, the best way is to pop out to your local Future Shop, Best Buy, or whatever you have where you are and pick up a $50 DVD player. Generally, the cheaper, the more features, but most cheap DVD players (Apex, Malata, so on) can do PAL -> NTSC conversion in the hardware.



Brand name DVD players do not.



Region coding is also a problem -- they will be Region 2 DVDs which will not play on a Region 1 (North America) DVD player unless the DVD player is region unlockable. Hollywood likes to control distribution of their movies to different parts of the world. This is rarely a problem for people in Europe since most DVD players can be bought region-free, anyway (new releases come to Region 1 first).



I can personally reccomend the Malata DVP-393.. it is cheap (CDN$57.99), does PAL conversion and is region unlockable. Many Apex players do both as well. Look around.

[allen074]

thanks - i had an apex - sold it to get this new panasonic 5 dvd player - i wanted the 5 dvd capability - didnt realize i was giving up everything else

[DeleriumMDK]

My parents JVC player does PAL to NTSC, so SOME name brands can do it, its just usually the smaller ones are more likely to have the capability.

[allen074]

let me ask this - is it pal or is it region coding thats the problem?

meaning when i put the dvd in - it plays but the video looks all weird

thanks

[kush]

The el-cheapo Cyberhome CH-DVD-300(S), found at Best Buy, often on 'sale' @ $30-40 (US), can do it..Region/macro hack, as well as PAL>NTSC conversion, and MP3's, (S)VCD's, straight .MPG's, etc...

And (I'm no expert, but..) - it's probably the PAL/NTSC issue causing the 'wierd' video. If there were a region coding problem, the disc most likely wouldn't load at all, and/or throw up one of those "disc not formatted to play in this region" screens.

[iantri]

That is exactly right, kush.

If you are not getting a region error, allen, the DVD must be multi-region.

If it "looks weird" as you say, the DVD player is passing the PAL video out in PAL format, which most NTSC TVs are not capable of handling. Many PAL TVs are capable of NTSC playback too, since it is desirable due to the earlier release of movies in North America.

[allen074]

thanks everyone - here is what i dont understand

with the release of dvd players -- why wouldnt the whole world be on one standard?

i mean i could understand with vcrs but cmon - this is the 2004's

thanks!

[RottenFoxBreath]

money,money,money,money,money <------------repeat until bored.

[yoda313]

Hello,
RottenFoxBreath is right. Why release one disc when you can release 6!! It's crazy and especially if some are released in one region and not in another. Oh well, at least they play properly in the specified region. It's a MAJOR pain to convert them.

Technically, the world is on one standard: MPEG 2. It's the geopolitical forces that aren't standard.

Kevin
P.S. I even remember reading that some European countries tried to ban US imports of DVD's to force its citizens to wait and buy there country's OFFICIAL release (pretty petty isn't it! )

[RottenFoxBreath]

the one that springs to mind for me is the blair witch project.
if i remember rightly the US version is about 90-92 minutes,the UK release is about 75-80 minutes.
i seriously hate it when they cut the movies,and then in the deleted scenes say,there still isnt what they cut out.
its like if i saw something bad,id go mental and axe my family to death.