[Diandaplaipsy]

So,

I got a DVD player from my brother in law yesterday, a Marantz EC1000, and in the instructions it reckons it won't play PAL DVD's (a problem given my british DVD collection....). Does anyone know if this can be rectified in some way such as a firmware update, or do I still need to fork out for a new player to play my stuff on?

Totally not kendo, but plenty of techy types are hear so maybe someone can help me? I've just spent the past 2 and a half hours scouring the internet with no luck! I can't even find a region unlocking code for it!

Gibbo

[cigsstorenick]

I think the problem is that the world has been devided into six regions for the purposes of dvd marketing (at least when they first came out.) Disks sold in one region cannot be played on players sold in another. Look in the sub menu of the player and see if you can change the region and failing that buy a new player that will play everthing.

[welihiedginly]

I think the problem is that the world has been devided into six regions for the purposes of dvd marketing (at least when they first came out.) Disks sold in one region cannot be played on players sold in another. Look in the sub menu of the player and see if you can change the region and failing that buy a new player that will play everthing.

DVD region has nothing to do with this problem. That said, I'm afraid I have no idea how to solve it.

[DoctorTOneery]

I think the problem is that the world has been devided into six regions for the purposes of dvd marketing (at least when they first came out.) Disks sold in one region cannot be played on players sold in another. Look in the sub menu of the player and see if you can change the region and failing that buy a new player that will play everthing.

I wish it were that easy, but its not the region (I couldget a code from the internet in under ten minutes to change that!) its the format of the discs and the player....

[uMG6uOSo]

PAL and NTSC are the output specifications for the signal driving your TV. You need a different player. Why fuss? DVD players are dirt cheap, they're well under $100 here for a basic one.

[f29sXS07]

PAL and NTSC are the output specifications for the signal driving your TV. You need a different player. Why fuss? DVD players are dirt cheap, they're well under $100 here for a basic one.

Because this one was free and I don't have a job yet! I read up a little on the differences of both, and it would appear that there is some sort of compatibility, but not all the time....wank. I guess I've got to wait for the cash to buy a PAL compatible player then.

Dam, DVD's were going to give my long days at home some extra life!

[Signabeademia]

Can't you just play the DVDs with your computer?

[BenBoobmers]

You need a different DVD player or take the DVD's and burn them into a different format on your computer. You can get a universal DVD player that will play all formats including MP3 and others for cheap. Sorry but no easy fix for this problem.

[Gymngatagaica]

Hi Gibbo-san,

They are not region codes. There are 6 region codes for DVDs. Japan, all of Europe, S. Africa, the Middle East and Greenland are region 2 for example, and the US and Canada are region 1.

NTSC and PAL are not region codes.
They are video standards. The UK uses PAL as their DVD/TV standard. Here in the US, our DVD players/TVs only will read our video standard, which is NTSC and only read region 1 NTSC disks. That's just the most basic description.

You'd need to get a DVD player that reads both PAL and NSTC - that can be bought in the UK, and, you'd need a TV that can use PAL, which since you are in the UK, you don't have to worry about.

Go here for more detailed information:

http://www.microcinemadvd.com/help/t...standards.html

Region coding is explained there too.

There is also a way to convert PAL to NTSC or NTSC to PAL. You'd need a converter for the DVD player to work if you don't want to buy a new one. But, how come you don't already have one from the UK? Did yours break or something?

According to the website, getting a good conversion to work, it takes a lot of money because of the equipment. You can read more about it there.

Hope this helps!

Kaoru

[texprofi]

Can't you just play the DVDs with your computer?

Cause my telly is 32" of HD glory and watching my DVD's on my wife's laptop is like spitting on my telly and setting fire to it. Only not.

Kendo5150:That would now appear to be the case, but I've had a couple since introduced to me, today! So got results of sorts.

Kaoru:I live in japan now, hence the problem. I know its nothing to do with regions. Japan is the same region as europe (region 2) but takes NTSC and not PAL, so unless the player itself is multi format, I don't watch my DVD's.

Looks like buying a cheapo multi region until I have the cash to splash on a dirty great big singing and dancing PAL NTSC HD Blu-ray player!

[InsManKV]

With PAL DVDs, is the disc itself the problem, or is it the signal sent to the TV? If it is the latter, a PAL/NTSC converter (such as an old Sharp AN200-SC) would fix the problem.
If it's the former, well, go for a cheap multi-region with PAL compatibility. (With some of the cheaper imports, the region codes are firmware and can be changed fairly easily. Do a web search and find which models you can mess with. Most of the Japanese models have it hard wired or are too hard to change without wrecking them)

[Intockatt]

My dvd player plays both ok... so give me your dvds!!

You can buy a dvd player for around 2,500yen now... even cheaper.

[Noilemaillilm]

Couldn't you just buy a Computer-TV cable for you computer? Most newish computers supports that function and the cable is pretty cheap.

[23tommy]

Couldn't you just buy a Computer-TV cable for you computer? Most newish computers supports that function and the cable is pretty cheap.

The laptop I'm writing this is more than 6 years old...

[BipiewExifese]

Auding make cheap (5,000円） DVD players with automatic PAL/NTSC switching.

deals at:
http://www.rakuten.co.jp/

or:
http://auctions.yahoo.co.jp/

[Mr Andrews]

You can get a ￥5000 PAL/NTSC DVD player at Don Quixote at the moment. Can't vouch for the quality, but it should be enough until you can afford a good model. Also, check out places like Bic Camera or Laox for export models.

[Madjostok]

some sort of compatibility, but not all the time....wank.
May not be your problem but..
Some japanese DVD players reset back to NTSC when they powered off, and won't recognise PAL disks if they are put in first after being turned on; you get a 'wrong disk' error or similar.
Put an NTSC in disk first, after it reads okay, take that out and put a PAL one in, from then on the automatic switching should work until the machine is powered off. Rinse and repeat.
If the first disk you are putting in causes an error, put in a reputable disk from Disney etc. to reset it (not those disks you bought from that guy in Kabukichō).

[janeloveslifenow]

dvdrhelp.com

It might be possible to obtain codes (see above) to override your DVD players firmware, is not always available for every manufacturer.

Be carefull switching regions/palyback modes, some players have a locking system that only allows three (or other number of) changes, after that you are stuck with the settings on the machine, there is no going back unless you have a soldering iron handy.

About reseting your players firmware, it talks about regions but you may find some stuff on PAL and NSTC, the warnings listed below still apply:

I have heard there are hacks to change DVD players to region-free players?
Yes, but all of these come with no guarantees that they will not permanently destroy the DVD player, and all void any warranties on the product - so it is a matter of "let the tryer beware". But there is nothing illegal about using them, as the encoding system is not a matter of law but of trade agreements. While many players have their region encodings set permanently in hardware, many players are designed for all markets and only set to a particular region before they are shipped through a programmable ROM encoding, and these setting can be changed after the fact. In most cases these players allow either:

1) resetting to a region-free status through keying in program commands on the remote,

2) resetting to a particular region through keying in program commands on the remote,

3) resetting to region-free status through the operation of special code burned onto a CD and played on the DVD player, and

4) resetting to a particular region through the operation of special code burned onto a CD.

If you are still interested after all these warnings, you can find more information at dvdrhelp.com where you can enter any particular DVD player model into their search engine, and it will output all the information on this model from their database.

[Qrhzbadu]

Alternatively consider converting your actual DVD's to the format you want.

Zero risk of damaging the player and dead cheap (you just need to buy blank DVD's)