Region 0 DVDs

Just taken delivery of a DVD from the US. It says on the back "Region
0". My Panasonic DMR-E55 will play only Region 2 and Region ALL
DVDs. I've spoken to a company that will change Region 2 players to
multi-region, but he said quite firmly that my player ought to play
"Region 0".

Anyone any ideas?

Thanks

Edward

wrote in message
...
Just taken delivery of a DVD from the US. It says on the back "Region
0". My Panasonic DMR-E55 will play only Region 2 and Region ALL
DVDs. I've spoken to a company that will change Region 2 players to
multi-region, but he said quite firmly that my player ought to play
"Region 0".

Anyone any ideas?

Thanks

Edward

I presume you've tried it? What makes you think that your player will play
"region all" DVDs? BTW, if it's from the US it should be region 1 - region
0 means "region free".

Paul DS.

"Edster" wrote in message
...
wrote:


Just taken delivery of a DVD from the US. It says on the back "Region
0". My Panasonic DMR-E55 will play only Region 2 and Region ALL
DVDs. I've spoken to a company that will change Region 2 players to
multi-region, but he said quite firmly that my player ought to play
"Region 0".

Anyone any ideas?

Thanks

Edward

Region 0 is almost always NTSC, so even if you DVD player will play it
you will still need a TV that will display NTSC. Most DVD players can
be made region free by pressing a sequence of buttons on the remote
control. Try looking yours up on Google.

I thought NTSC was totally irrelevent providing you're using RGB (SCART)
output. The refresh rate will be 60Hz but most modern TVs accept this
happily. We need the OP to say what happens when he tries to play his
Region 0 DVD - do he get a weird picture, no picture or an error message on
screen from the DVD player?

Paul DS.

wrote:
Just taken delivery of a DVD from the US. It says on the back "Region
0". My Panasonic DMR-E55 will play only Region 2 and Region ALL
DVDs. I've spoken to a company that will change Region 2 players to
multi-region, but he said quite firmly that my player ought to play
"Region 0".

"Region 0" doesn't technically exist in the DVD region coding spec. It's
an informal designation for either "no region flag set" or "region flags
1 to 6 set" - so regardless of which mechanism has been used it should
play on all DVD players in all regions. "Region ALL" just means "region
flags 1 to 8 set", and similarly those disks will play in all regions
(plus also on ships and aircraft - region 8, presumably specced so staff
didn't take cruise ship versions of films home or something...)

So yes, your player will play region 0.

--
Angus G Rae Science & Engineering Support Team
Computing Services
University of Edinburgh
The above opinions are mine, and Edinburgh University can't have them

In article ,
Edster wrote:
wrote:


Just taken delivery of a DVD from the US. It says on the back "Region
0". My Panasonic DMR-E55 will play only Region 2 and Region ALL
DVDs. I've spoken to a company that will change Region 2 players to
multi-region, but he said quite firmly that my player ought to play
"Region 0".

Anyone any ideas?

Thanks

Edward

Region 0 is almost always NTSC, so even if you DVD player will play it
you will still need a TV that will display NTSC.

Are you sure about this. I thought that the picture was recorded in a
digital format and was converted to NTSC or PAL by the playback machine.
It might however have been recorded with a 60Hz field rate. Most tvs
designed to playback 50Hz will work happily at 60Hz, but not the other way
round.

--
From KT24 - in "Leafy Surrey"

Using a RISC OS computer running v5.11

"Paul D.Smith" wrote in message
...

I thought NTSC was totally irrelevent providing you're using RGB (SCART)
output. The refresh rate will be 60Hz but most modern TVs accept this
happily



indeed.
only a loony would actually be watching a dvd in PAL or NTSC in this day and
age.



--
Gareth.

That fly... is your magic wand.

wrote in message
...
: Just taken delivery of a DVD from the US. It says on the back "Region
: 0".

Region *0* is all regions. Which is not the same as PAL or NTSC or SECAM.

Edster wrote:
wrote:


Just taken delivery of a DVD from the US. It says on the back
"Region 0". My Panasonic DMR-E55 will play only Region 2 and Region
ALL DVDs. I've spoken to a company that will change Region 2
players to multi-region, but he said quite firmly that my player
ought to play "Region 0".

Anyone any ideas?

Thanks

Edward

Region 0 is almost always NTSC, so even if you DVD player will play it
you will still need a TV that will display NTSC. Most DVD players can
be made region free by pressing a sequence of buttons on the remote
control. Try looking yours up on Google.

The Panasonic needs a service remote to make multiregion though it shouldn't
have any problems with region 0.

wrote in message


Anyone any ideas?


Yes, try it, then tell us if it plays the region DVDs you have.

--
Regards,
David

Please reply to News Group

In article , charles
wrote:
In article , Edster

Region 0 is almost always NTSC, so even if you DVD player will play it
you will still need a TV that will display NTSC.

Are you sure about this. I thought that the picture was recorded in a
digital format and was converted to NTSC or PAL by the playback machine.

Yes. But the 'digital format' will be based either on 50Hz/625line nominal
or 60Hz/525line, and so may simple be reconstructed into the analogue
format determined by this.

The confusion is due to the way disc makers use 'PAL' and 'NTSC' to refer
to the frame rate and number of lines used for the digital video recorded
on the disc. Thus using terms intended for analogue colour broadcasting
modulation schemes for a different purpose.


It might however have been recorded with a 60Hz field rate. Most tvs
designed to playback 50Hz will work happily at 60Hz, but not the other
way round.

I have a number of 'NTSC region 0' discs - mainly classical music
performances. In my experience a typical player will then output 60Hz/525
line nominal via SCART and leave it to the display to cope and show the
result. Although some players can be set to convert and output 50Hz/625
nominal. Snag being the addition of objectionable visible artefacts.

I also have some discs which are 'PAL region 0', so it is clear that they
can be made and used if the authors so arrange.

Personally, I find it irritating that it common for *European* and *UK*
sourced DVDs of classical music to be in 'NTSC' sic format as this
needlessly degrades the image resolution. Result can look worse than on
DTTV which is crazy given the information bandwidth available for the DVD.
Particularly in cases where the original source materials was 'PAL' sic
and has been brainlessly converted for the DVD.

Maybe the authors fear that USA makers of players or displays are too
cheapskate to cover 'PAL' sic. If so, we are all stuck with poorer
resolution to keep someone in the USA happy in their ignorance. :-)

Slainte,

Jim

--
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Audio Misc http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/index.html
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