Can I play a Region 2 DVD on my laptop?

[mq]

I don't know much about DVD formats so excuse me for a silly question.

I would like to buy a Region 2 DVD with a movie, in PAL format. The question is: will it work on a laptop (which of course has a DVD drive)?

Thank you.

[daamon]

Hi mq,

It's your first post - welcome to the site and the forums.

Yes, you'll need the following if you haven't got them already:

1. One of the many DVD playing software. See "Video Players" in the "Tools" section (the link is on the left side of this page). PowerDVD and WinDVD are commonly praised.

2. An MPEG2 codec - it usually comes with the player. But I mention it in case it doesn't and you run into trouble.

3. Drives and or software are sometimes (usually?) restricted to the number of times you can change regions. Somewhere around 5 times.

So, if your laptop is set to region 2, you can play as many region 2 DVDs as you like. If you want to play a region 1 DVD, you'll have to change the region - that counts as 1 change. Changing back to region 2 is 1 more change.

However, there's software called DVD Region Free - that bypasses the "problem" / "issue" of number 3. There are other tools - just search for "region" in the "Tools" section.

Hope that helps some...

[jimmalenko]

EDIT:
Daamon beat me to it


DVD Drives for computers, by default, allow you to set one region for DVD playback, and then change this up to 4 times after that. Obviously you would be wise to leave this set on the region that the majority of your DVDs are from if you wish to use the DVD Drive for playback for any reasonable amount of time. Without knowing your location, I can't tell you what your "local" region is.

However, most DVD drives can be modded so that they'll play any region discs. Try http://forum.rpc1.org/dl_all.php and look for the DVD drive that is in your laptop. Alternatively, there is software (DVDGenie etc) that can handle this for you for a price.

[mq]

Thank you both.
It's clear now.

[daamon]

EDIT:
Daamon beat me to it

Ah, but you provided better links...

[Capmaster]

I don't know much about DVD formats so excuse me for a silly question.

I would like to buy a Region 2 DVD with a movie, in PAL format. The question is: will it work on a laptop (which of course has a DVD drive)?

Thank you.

Why is it an issue? You live in a region 2 country already. Any laptop you bought there should be already have the DVD-ROM set up for region 2.

By the way, if you go into "profile" and put your country there it'll make it easier for members here to help you with questions like this one

And ....welcome to Videohelp, mq

[mq]

Thank you for the welcome note.

I do live in a region 2 country, that much I knew already.

However, that does not imply that the dvd players on all laptops bought here are set for region 2. It depends on how they are imported: most are bought as they are from other countries, without any configuration for use in this area.

I would have mentioned my location if it could help, so that you wouldn't have to go through the trouble of traceing to my IP.