Does anyone know if DVD's purchased in Europe can be used on American machines? I know that for VHS tapes, Europe uses a PAL format, while the U.S.A. uses a NTSC format, but I was wondering if that existed in the DVD format. Any information would be helpful.

Thanks,

LCQ

Unfortunately, no. DVDs from Europe cannot be used/played/shown in DVD players in North America. According to Antonio in the Spanish movies for high school students thread:

Both the DVD players and the disks themselves have a region code which identifies them and prevent them to be played in other region.

The reason is that the american companies didn't want to deliver the movies at the same time in America and Europe (thus, the european pay-per-view companies have time to exploit the movies). I really disagree with this policy. I don't understand that in a globalized world there are such kind of delays when presenting and showing movies.

The regions are North America, Europe and Japan, Asia, Africa, China, Australia and Pacific Islands (if I don't remember bad). However, there are hacker and programming ways to break the code and play DVD's regarding of the zone. Also, there are DVD players which don't respect this limit.

Fernando

I recently bought a universal DVD player which plays DVDs from all regions. They are sold quite openly in FNAC in Madrid. I don't know if any law is being broken. I suspect not. If anything it's a corporate gentleman's agreement. So before buying a machine, ask if it's compatible with all zones.

Hello all. Read the thread re DVD's and Zone compatibility. I have purchased a player in the Uk from a local shop and it plays(supposedly) all formats. The shop "chips" all players prior to selling them or renting them, this is at no cost to the buyer. It seems that anny player can be "chipped" you just have to find someone to do it,no idea how much it might cost but it can be done quite easily. But with the cost of players coming down all the time its probabaly easier to buy a new multi region(Zone) player. That way you get a warranty and all.

Thanks everyone! You saved me from buying some just to find out.

LCQ

i bought from germany a DVD player Harman Kardon (which is a well known company) free zone. and I can watch any DVD on it (i have South Park -some episodes- on zone 1). anyway, you just have to change a code using the PI number and finishing with a digit that represents the zone code (1:5). and I think that in Europe there are a lot of electronic companies who are producing free-zone DVD players.