I have a similar question.

I'm visiting Spain next week and one of my friends had mentioned that the last season of "Sex in the City" is not available yet in Spain. I'd love to surprise her with it.

However, if I buy it in the US will she be able to watch it on her DVD player in Spain?

I'm leaving in 2 days and hoping someone can help me so I don't show up empty handed.

Does anyone have experience bringing DVD's from the US to play on a DVD player in Spain?

It's the same as taking Spanish DVDs to the USA - they won't work in a "normal" DVD player unless they have one of those rare "REGION FREE" DVD players. They're more expensive so few people own them. There's a chance your friend in Spain will be able to play them on his/her laptop computer's DVD-ROM but even that's not a sure thing unless the laptop was bought in the USA. Sorry!

Saludos, MadridMan

Thank you for the response. VCR shouldn't be an issue (I hope) so I think I'll just surprise my friend by taping the DVD to VCR and mailing it to her (after I return).

Now I just need to think of something else to bring her!

She shouldn't have a problem playing it on her computer. Unlike in the US, they tend to be zone-free.

STOP! Your friend DEFNINITELY won't be able to view a VHS tape recorded/copied in the USA and played on a Spanish VHS machine - they're different systems too.

Regarding PCs, if your friend's PC was bought in Spain/Europe I can almost assure you (s)he won't be able to play the USA-bought DVD on his/her machine. Laptops are another possibility but I've recently noticed more and more and "region specific" and not all necessarily "region free".

My significant other got a new DELL PC last year and I was here setting it up. I tried out the DVD-ROM drive and at first test with a Spain-bought DVD it said I had FIVE uses (using a DVD) before I had to CHOOSE my desired REGION. That is to say, once I SET the REGION to be SPAIN/Europe it would then no longer play my USA-bought DVDs.

Saludos, MadridMan

My Dell desktop (bought in Spain about six months ago) has a zone free (or zone 0) DVD player...

Sheeesh, maripostia! How'd YOU get so lucky? And you don't remember being asked to choose a REGION at the time you set it up?

I'm not sure, I didn't do any special requests (since I already have the software that circumvents the code thing for my US Dell laptop). That's just what came with it.

Region free and DIVX DVD players are legal in Spain--I don't think they are in the US--you can buy one pretty much anywhere (FNAC for example) and they aren't too much more expensive. Definitely worth having if you want to be able to play US movies or downloaded shows/movies from the internet on your TV.

MadridMan: Can you select 'region 0' in the DVD drive you are talking about? Are you sure that the message about the five times was sent by the DVD unit itself, or just by the software you use to play the discs? Because the region settings can be done at firmware level (i.e., physically in the DVD unit), or at software level. Some software like PowerDVD check the region code that is set in the firmware, but some others don't.

If the message comes from the software, the solution is simple: use another one. Usually, the open source/freeware ones are the least picky regarding those things and thay play as good as the others, ar least. Examples of these are VLC , and BSPlayer (this version doesn't contain the boooring ad-dispatcher program the latest versions do).

If it is the firmware (maybe I should have posted this link from the beginning) the Internet has always the solution for your technological problems: read this beautiful manual

And, finally, in case you have a DVD player connected to a TV (I mean, not a PC unit, but an "under-the-TV-set" thingy), its region code can be set to 0 in many cases with a little trick (usually, a combination of keys in the remote control). Just take a look at this web page