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DVDs from the UK

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I'm a big Morgan fan, and am considering getting some of these DVDs from the UK. My concern is that when President Obama gave some DVDs to Gordon Brown, there was talk that they were not compatible with UK electronics. Is that true?? And would buying DVDs from the UK cause a problem with compatibility here in the states??
 
Hi Art! The answer is that it depends. Most of the world uses so-called PAL video encoding, while North America uses an encoding known as NTSC. It has to do with frame rates and the way colors are recorded, but to make a long story short, if a DVD was made in a country that uses PAL DVD players (such as the UK), you may have problems when you try to play it on your DVD player here in the states. However, some DVDs are coded for both regions. Before ordering, you should ask whether the DVDs are PAL-only, or whether they can play on NTSC-region machines as well.

We're going to London on business next week and will be staying in a friend's flat, and we're bringing some movies with us. To deal with any regional problems, I'm bringing along my computer to watch them on.

I'm sure others with more expertise can chime in!

Good luck!

B.
 
There are two things to consider. The video format PAL for Europe and NTSC for the US. Another thing for DVDs is the region code. A DVD for region 2 (England) won't play on a region 1 (USA) DVD player. See HERE for details. There are DVDs that don't have a region code and can be played on what ever player you have. Since that Morgan site lists DVDs for other parts of the world, they should have something that will play for you. Just let them know.
 
DVD players that play all DVDs regardless of code are commonly available. Buy.com, Amazon.com, and Oversotck.com list several each.
 
Actually PAL or NTSC are not encoded on the dvd at all, the only thing on the disk is the region code.
The easiest way to get rid of this is either a region free dvd player or a software program for the computer such as "DVD region + CSS free" which overrides the regions (and other bits of the copy controls). For legal usage only of course!

BTW "regions" only exist so that the big studios can maximize their profits. In the old days of video tapes they got into the habit of progressively distributing a movie in different locations around the world. This worked well when there were different formats of tapes. As soon as one dvd would work anywhere it didn't fit their business model so they invented the regions, and got all the manufactures to design their dvd drives so that they could only be used in one specific region, or switch regions a maximum of 5 times. Most of the manufactures while technically fulfilling the requirement do not exactly make it difficult to eliminate this restriction.
 
70herald said:
Actually PAL or NTSC are not encoded on the dvd at all, the only thing on the disk is the region code.
Click to expand...
Interesting, because several of my DVDs have the NTSC logo printed on the back cover.
 
DaveatMoon said:
DVD players that play all DVDs regardless of code are commonly available. Buy.com, Amazon.com, and Oversotck.com list several each.
Click to expand...

I bought a cheap region-free player for about $25. Worked great; for about 6 months. :laugh:
 
GregW said:
70herald said:
Actually PAL or NTSC are not encoded on the dvd at all, the only thing on the disk is the region code.
Click to expand...
Interesting, because several of my DVDs have the NTSC logo printed on the back cover.
Click to expand...

Its more a format difference than an encoding for region.
 
I don't know a thing about DVDs from the UK, but when the kids got married over there, the whole ceremony was recorded by a professional photographer on VHS and when we got the tapes, they wouldn't play on our machine. Something to do with wrong voltage and electronic cycle. We sent them to a firm in New York to re-format them to run on our, (US) machines and they never would play properly. Very grainy and the lighting was way off.
 
swift6 said:
GregW said:
70herald said:
Actually PAL or NTSC are not encoded on the dvd at all, the only thing on the disk is the region code.
Click to expand...
Interesting, because several of my DVDs have the NTSC logo printed on the back cover.
Click to expand...

Its more a format difference than an encoding for region.
Click to expand...
Right, NTSC and PAL are different (and incompatible) formats. Region codes are separate from that, more of an anti-piracy scheme.
Here is a link about DVD formats DVD FAQs
 
I sent the guys over at that site in the UK an e-mail with my concerns over the format of the DVDs and whether or not they supplied different versions to different areas. Hopefully I'll hear back in a day or two.
 
There was a DVD made about the development and production of the Triumph TR7/8 that was made by some Triumph enthusiasts in the UK. A very thorough documentation including an interview with Harris Mann, the designer, who laid to rest theories about the Wedge almost being labeled as an MG. They made a pretty small production run and it was only available in PAL. I was able to contact the folks that made it and they were willing to burn some new copies in NTSC (on digital editing programs its practically as easy as a "save as" option) if they were pre-paid. So I polled a bunch of Wedge owners and got a good list together of people willing to prepay and ended up getting about 50 copies of that disc made in NTSC. All 50 made it into the hands of happy Wedge owners on this side of the pond. Sometimes you just have to ask.
 
OK, I had some trouble the other day negotiating the site that has the DVDs, but today I had better luck. It turns out that the DVDs are available in both PAL and NTSC.

I'd like to thank everyone for explaining the differences so I'd know what to purchase. I'll be doing that shortly. :cheers:

Happy Holidays to all... :thirsty:
 
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