[Slowhand] DVDs Viewable

[Mark Deavult]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Mel Boss 
To: slowhand at planet-torque.com 
Sent: Thursday, July 08, 2004 5:24 PM
Subject: [Slowhand] DVDs Viewable


Perhaps "someone" can provide an explanation of a DVD's "viewablibity."

I sent a movie DVD (one that I purchased in a retail store) to my cousin in Europe, and he was unable to view it. I have DVDs of the NBTB and the Legends programs that I recently received, and I would like to send a copy to my cousin, but I am now doubtful that he will be able to view it.

Commercially available DVDs are commonly authored with Region Coding and can only be played back by a player with the appropriate region coding.  This is a seperate issue from the TV standard used (NTSC or PAL).  Most all DVD players now in production will play PAL or NTSC with ease. But region coding is done to force consumers to purchase titles only available in their regions.  The way around this is to purchase a so-called "multicode" DVD player that will circumvent these restrictions.  These are technically illegal to sell in many markets so you won't find them on store shelves but they're readily attainable  - remember, Google is your friend.  Depending on the make/model of your player, it may also be possible to "chip" it to allow different region code playback, and some of the cooler cheap Chinese models can be fixed with the download and install of a new hacked software.  Of course my favorite of all time is the original Apex AD-600A which, when a certain combination of keys is pressed, displays a menu called "Secret Menu" complete with the legend "YOU SHOULD NOT BE HERE" which allows the selection of any region coding, macrovision defeat, CSS defeat, etc.

I authored the NBTB and can assure you it contains no region coding deliberately on purpose.  As long as your cousin can play back an NTSC format disc, he will have no problems. The same is true for Legends if it's the one I authored (1986 2-DVD set).

Hope this helps!
Mark
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