Posted on: 14 January, 2005
Author: Darren Robinson
WHY THIS DVD WON'T PLAY IN MY MACHINE ?They're supposed to play ... The salesman and the ... you that THIS machine can handle DVD's, CD's, MP3's, ... CD-R's, etc etc etc.Bu WHY THIS DVD WON'T PLAY IN MY MACHINE ?They're supposed to play EVERYTHING! The salesman and the cataloguepromised you that THIS machine can handle DVD's, CD's, MP3's, JPG'sVCD, CD-R's, etc etc etc.But that DVD movie you bought on the internet from overseasabsolutely refuses to play. With or without an accompanying errormessage on the TV screen , you wonder whether you have just wastedgood money.But who to blame ? Maybe the disc itself was faulty ? Perhaps thesalesman lied about what the machine could do ?None of the above ! The disc is not faulty and the salesman didn'tlie, though I guarantee he didn't give you the full story.There are 2 compatibility issues to consider with DVD discs that youobtain from overseas. Both conditions need to be satisfied for thedisc to play !REGIONSThe first is REGIONS (or zones).Your DVD manual will tell you what region your machine is. Manymachines also have a region logo at the back.If your DVD player is multi-zone, congratulations, it will play alldiscs from all countries. Multi-zone is also known as "region zero".However, if your machine is region locked,it can ONLY play discswith that particular region code. If the regions don't match, thedisc won't play. The most common locked regions are region 1 (USA),region 2 (UK- Europe) and region 4 (Australia). I should emphasisehere that this issue only applies to foreign discs. The retailersin your country will only sell DVD's in your local regiondesignation.There is an important exception to this rule - some DVD discsare released as "region zero" or "region-free"or "all-regions".These DVD's will play fine in any region-locked machine.BYPASSING THE REGION LOCKINGAbout half of all locked DVD players can be permanently unlocked viathe remote control. It depends on the brand and model. But don't gosearching for the magic button because it's not there - the modelsthat can be unlocked require a unique special sequence of key-presses to be entered.The code-sequences are one of those ridiculous pretend secrets thatconsumers are not meant to be aware of - but if you ask thesalesman, or the local company distributor, or find the rightwebsite, the information can be obtained in a short amount of time.This is because at the DVD factory the machines earmarked forvarious countries are basically the same, except for the electricalplug and a few software settings such as the region code eg themachines destined for Australia are software locked to 4, themachines destined for the USA are software locked to region 1.By discovering and entering the special sequence, you are basicallyemulating what they do at the factory and altering the regioncoding. So a person in the USA who has just bought a region 4 discfrom Australia can alter the region coding on their player to region4, or more conveniently, region zero, which means all-regions areaccepted. Once made, the change is written to the machine's long-term memory and does not need to be re-entered even if the player isswitched off.PAL-NTSCThe SECOND compatibility issue with DVD's is the TV signal.The DVD player generates a signal and send it to your TV set.PAL and NTSC are 2 types of TV signal.Japan and the USA use NTSC signals.The PAL system is used by Australia, the UK and Europe. Thesesignals were decided upon by governments 50 years ago.Practically all PAL and NTSC DVD's will play fine throughoutAustralia, UK and Europe. This is because the DVD's and TV sets soldthroughout these countries are dual PAL and NTSC compatible.THE PAL-NTSC issue is really only an issue for USA and Canadacustomers.Certain brands of TV set and DVD players within the USA do nothandle PAL signals at all, while others handle it badly (eg blackand white image).Many USA customers will successfully play a PAL disc just fine, buta significant minority will not. For example, USA customers with aSony TV set or a Panasonic DVD player are unlikely to be successful.Check your manuals for both your TV set and DVD player to confirmthey mention PAL. If you don't have the manual, check the onscreenmenus.If your player or TV set are locked to NTSC only, they cannot bechanged to PAL.There is a school of thought that suggests all DVD players should beable to read both PAL and NTSC media, simply because the data aswritten on the disc comprises "1"'s and "0"'s, that is, digitaldata. The theory goes that a DVD player is basically a computer ,therefore it can read both PAL and NTSC datasets. While this is trueup to a point, a DVD player also needs to convert digital input intoanalog output to ensure compatibility with most television sets. Theproblem arises when the factory has not included the capability (ega modulator) to generate and send an NTSC signal from a PAL disc toa non-digital TV set. The DVD player may be smart enough to know itdoes not have the capability to generate a signal, therefore doesnot attempt to play the disc.WHAT KIND OF MACHINE WILL PLAY FOREIGN DISCS ?Ironically, the cheaper the DVD player, the more likely it is to beboth dual PAL-NTSC compatible AND multi-region out of the box. Thisis because the lesser-known and smaller manufacturers from countrieslike China do not have "political" or financial allegiances to themajor American movie studios which "encourage" the regionrestrictions.This results in the bizarre situation where you can buy a Chinese-made $40 DVD player which will not only play all foreign DVD's, buthas just as many functions and capabilities as a $300 big brandmachine. Of course, the big-brand machines have better warrantysupport and superior build-quality and components, so I'm certainlynot saying their price is unreasonable, just be aware that payingout top dollar for a machine does not necessarily mean it can playforeign discs.OTHER DEVICESA quick word on other DVD playing devices - Playstations and X-Boxesgenerally will not play foreign discs and have limited capabilities.Some earlier models won't play dual layer discs, also known asDVD-9, even from the correct region. Interestingly it is not commonly known that the PAL-NTSC issuedoes not apply at all to computers. This is because your monitor isnot a television set and your video card sends digital signals, notPAL or NTSC signals.However be aware that your computer's DVD player is probably lockedto your local region. Many models will allow you to play 5 discs ofvarying regions without complaint, but will then LOCK PERMANENTLY tothe region of the last disc ! There is software available to bypassor even hack the DVD-player's internal software, though Hollywood(via the MPAA) has made legal challenges against certain DVDmanipulation programs .So next time you find a DVD on the internet that isn't available inyour own country, be sure to check the specifications of your DVDplayer and TV set before sending away those hard-earned dollars.**********************************************Written by Darren Robinson, webmaster of moviesearch.com.auWe sell some excellent DVD's that you probablycan't buy in your own country.This article may be freely distributed withthis resource box included.********************************************** Article Tags: Won't Play, Foreign Discs Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com