Region 0 DVDs

In message , Roderick
Stewart writes
In article , Ian Jackson wrote:
The result was a wobbly picture. To overcome this, the then*
state-of-the-art TV sets (with push buttons), normally had one of the*
channel-selection buttons which also disabled the flywheel action.

Oh dear oh dear! It didn't actually disable the flywheel action, but just
shortened the time constant of the filter in the control path, so the
oscillator could respond more quickly to variations in the input frequency.

Rod.

Well, you knew what I meant, didn't you? Shorten the TC sufficiently,*
and there isn't any flywheel action.

Since this appears to be a nit-picking and hair-splitting thread, I feel
obliged to point out that shortening the time constant is more like changing
the flywheel for a smaller one, rather than disabling the mechanism
altogether. The oscillator would still free-run at the correct frequency.

I think we all know what we're talking about here really, but something has
put us in the mood for an argument....

Rod.


OK, OK. I concede defeat. It ain't what you do, it's the way that you do
it. That's what gets results. But what about the problem of DVD regions?
--
Ian

In article , Ian Jackson wrote:
OK, OK. I concede defeat. It ain't what you do, it's the way that you do*
it. That's what gets results. But what about the problem of DVD regions?

:-)

If it's a problem, it's easily solved. Just ask for a DVD player that can
play *all* DVDs, in the same way that a CD player can play all CDs, a
cassette player can play all cassettes, a record player can play all
records, and so on. If the people who want to sell you something are unable
to tell you what it is capable of, don't buy it - go to a different shop.
Sooner or later you'll end up in Richer Sounds. If enough people do this,
then the manufacturers who try to sell us technology that has been
deliberately designed not to work will lose enough business to make them
change their ideas.

Rod.

"Roderick Stewart" wrote in message
.. .
In article , Ian Jackson wrote:
OK, OK. I concede defeat. It ain't what you do, it's the way that you do
it. That's what gets results. But what about the problem of DVD regions?

:-)

If it's a problem, it's easily solved. Just ask for a DVD player that can
play *all* DVDs, in the same way that a CD player can play all CDs, a
cassette player can play all cassettes, a record player can play all
records, and so on. If the people who want to sell you something are
unable
to tell you what it is capable of, don't buy it - go to a different shop.
Sooner or later you'll end up in Richer Sounds. If enough people do this,
then the manufacturers who try to sell us technology that has been
deliberately designed not to work will lose enough business to make them
change their ideas.

Rod.


http://www.dvd.reviewer.co.uk/info/multiregion/

Check you can easily region free before you buy! Also, I don't know whether
this is still true but, for a while, certain DVDs (The Matrix springs to
mind) that were region 1 would only play if you could set your player to
region 1. In most cases you'll see that at the key point, there is a "0"
(region free). If you change this to "1", you get a region 1 player, "2"
you get region 2 etc...

Also, it is worth pointing out that if you are a real officianado, cheaper
players don't have the colour/B&W resolution of the more expensive players.
For example there are a number of useful set up utilities on the "Toy Story"
DVD, one of which is a colour/B&W bar. The util. says "some players may not
be able to resolve all the levels" (or something like that) and in fact my
cheapie player shows some of the darker bands as identical, so I guess it
doesn't. This doesn't bother me but if you have a "cinema room" set up it
might be more noticable than in my living room ;-).

Paul DS.

In message , Paul D.Smith
writes
"Roderick Stewart" wrote in message
. ..
In article , Ian Jackson wrote:
OK, OK. I concede defeat. It ain't what you do, it's the way that you do
it. That's what gets results. But what about the problem of DVD regions?

:-)

If it's a problem, it's easily solved. Just ask for a DVD player that can
play *all* DVDs, in the same way that a CD player can play all CDs, a
cassette player can play all cassettes, a record player can play all
records, and so on. If the people who want to sell you something are
unable
to tell you what it is capable of, don't buy it - go to a different shop.
Sooner or later you'll end up in Richer Sounds. If enough people do this,
then the manufacturers who try to sell us technology that has been
deliberately designed not to work will lose enough business to make them
change their ideas.

Rod.


http://www.dvd.reviewer.co.uk/info/multiregion/

That's a useful website. I note that the Panasonic DMR E-55 (which is
what the original poster was asking about) - or, indeed, isn't listed.
Indeed, there are NO Panasonics listed.

Check you can easily region free before you buy! Also, I don't know whether
this is still true but, for a while, certain DVDs (The Matrix springs to
mind) that were region 1 would only play if you could set your player to
region 1. In most cases you'll see that at the key point, there is a "0"
(region free). If you change this to "1", you get a region 1 player, "2"
you get region 2 etc...

Also, it is worth pointing out that if you are a real officianado, cheaper
players don't have the colour/B&W resolution of the more expensive players.
For example there are a number of useful set up utilities on the "Toy Story"
DVD, one of which is a colour/B&W bar. The util. says "some players may not
be able to resolve all the levels" (or something like that) and in fact my
cheapie player shows some of the darker bands as identical, so I guess it
doesn't. This doesn't bother me but if you have a "cinema room" set up it
might be more noticable than in my living room ;-).

I have a LiteOn recorder (a simple remote control numbers hack) and a
£20 Alba player from Homebase (PAL/NTSC, R1 & 2 out of the box). On my
old 14" TV, the picture quality looks similar. One day I might be able
to afford a better TV set!
--
Ian

....snip...
I have a LiteOn recorder (a simple remote control numbers hack) and a £20
Alba player from Homebase (PAL/NTSC, R1 & 2 out of the box). On my old 14"
TV, the picture quality looks similar. One day I might be able to afford a
better TV set!

I have a 28inch widescreen CRT and I can see the difference (i.e.missing
bars) on the test utility but I've never noticed any problems watching DVDs.
I suspect that if you watch a lot of "atmospheric" DVDs ("The Third Man"
might be a good test) in good conditions you might spot it but watching
children's DVDs mainly in a living room which gets a lot of sun - well let's
just say it's not a problem ;-).

FWIW, my DVD is a cheapie Pacific from Asda. It has just one problem that
I've ever found, namely that with Studio Ghibli (?) movies (My friend
totoro, princess nausica etc), the "different views" icon keeps appearing.
I theory I can stop it, but in practise I can't ;-(.

Paul DS.

The message
from Roderick Stewart contains these
words:

In article , Ian Jackson wrote:
OK, OK. I concede defeat. It ain't what you do, it's the way that you do*
it. That's what gets results. But what about the problem of DVD regions?

:-)

If it's a problem, it's easily solved. Just ask for a DVD player that can
play *all* DVDs, in the same way that a CD player can play all CDs, a
cassette player can play all cassettes, a record player can play all
records, and so on. If the people who want to sell you something are unable
to tell you what it is capable of, don't buy it - go to a different shop.
Sooner or later you'll end up in Richer Sounds. If enough people do this,
then the manufacturers who try to sell us technology that has been
deliberately designed not to work will lose enough business to make them
change their ideas.

Especially since the need to do so has largely disappeared due to
digital distibution to cinema houses worldwide (no need to have an
expensive film print run for USA distribution during the 1st 6 months of
release before they can be re-issued to region 2 for another 6 months
followed by the rest of the world regions once they've been exhibited
there).

--
Regards, John.

Please remove the "ohggcyht" before replying.
The address has been munged to reject Spam-bots.

In article , Paul D.Smith wrote:
Also, it is worth pointing out that if you are a real officianado, cheaper*
players don't have the colour/B&W resolution of the more expensive players.*
For example there are a number of useful set up utilities on the "Toy Story"*
DVD, one of which is a colour/B&W bar. *The util. says "some players may not*
be able to resolve all the levels" (or something like that) and in fact my*
cheapie player shows some of the darker bands as identical, so I guess it*
doesn't.

Yes, anything that changes brightness gradually will be depicted as changing in
steps, like a contour map. The slow sunrise sequence at the beginning of
"Fiddler on the Roof", for example, is a good test for this. The better DVD
players show it properly.

Rod.

....snip...

Yes, anything that changes brightness gradually will be depicted as
changing in
steps, like a contour map. The slow sunrise sequence at the beginning of
"Fiddler on the Roof", for example, is a good test for this. The better
DVD
players show it properly.

Rod.


Perhaps there's a market for "test clips from the movies" ;-).

Paul DS