This originally appeared as a comment to Pete’s Shaun of the Dead post. I’m bringing it back from the dead. Mauer noted that we should keep an eye out for Black Books, but warned us that it’s not available as a region 1 DVD. I suppose this region coding has something to do with the great PAL/NTSC divide. Why do the Brits have to do everything differently? They resist standardization at every turn. Fuckers. Anyway, here’s my original post (hey, where is everyone?):
Just a note on region-freedom. I went to London last month and bought the box set (boxed set?) of Not the 9 O’Clock News in the hopes that my Dell laptop would play it, which it did (it will play any region). I should have bought more DVDs–all the Ali G specials, the League of Gentlemen seasons 2 & 3, etc. Oh well, I can get this stuff on Amazon.co.uk
Why don’t they sell region-free DVD players in the U.S.? And what’s with the region stuff anyway?
“They?!! Who the hell is thhheeeey?!â€
and as i noted in my comment to your comment: they do. and there’s lots of sites out there that explain what to do to unlock this capacity in other dvd players. see here. and for an extremely cheap all-regions dvd player that’s received good reviews look for the cyberhome ch-dvd-300 on amazon. lots of asian stores in large american cities sell region-free players as well as pal/secam/ntsc vcr’s and tv’s (the dvd region encoding is not the same as the pal/ntsc divide, i don’t think).
see also: http://www.codefreedvd.com/
As I noted in my comment to your comment to my comment: I know one can buy DVD players that have been modified; these machines were not designed as region free. Converters have been added to them and then resold (“custom chip DVD player modification” it’s called at one site). I guess I need to revise my statement: there are no region free DVD players manufactured in the U.S.
you’re hard to please john–do you refuse to buy converted players? but if you follow the links i posted, they’re not all converted players. the cyberhome series seem manufactured as such and so does the much pricier jvc at the codefree site. offline i’ve seen them on sale in san francisco (near union square) and i’d be surprised if they weren’t easily available in koreatown in l.a as well.
Arnab, I am not hard to please. You are hard to communicate with. I have no problem buying a converted DVD player, and I recognize (have recognized, as my comment to Pete’s post indicates) how easy it is to buy these multi-region DVD players. My point is this: there are no region free players manufactured for the U.S. market.
Cyberhome is a small and relatively unknown company (and they’re German). But I’ll concede that they manufacture region free players. The problem is this: although places like Best Buy and Circuit City stock Cyberhome products, they do not (will not? can not? this is what I’m trying to ask) stock multi region/region free Cyberhome players. This doesn’t mean these players (and others like them) cannot be had. Jesus, you can get just about anything you want on the net.
But why won’t companies like Philips manufacture region free players for the U.S. market? Take, for example, the Philips DVP642. It’s a highly rated multi region/region free player. But it’s not manufactured as such (the official Philips manual for the DVP642 states: “DVDs must be labeled for ALL regions or region 1 to play on this Player”).
But my Dell computer (any computer equipped with a DVD player) plays all regions. What gives?
john, i didn’t realize your question was about marketing practices. i thought you were asking about the availability of these players in the u.s from the point of view of buying one. if so, they’re available. i’d suspect even the cyberhomes sold through best buy etc. can have their region-free capability unlocked through a simple remote-control entered hack (did you look at the other site i linked to?)–i know people who’ve used these hacks (though i don’t know if they bought their players on or offline). it wouldn’t surprise me if the phillips player you cite could also be simply unlocked in this way (just as many of the native features that apple locks in its ipods to please the riaa can be very simply unlocked via free/shareware hacks). i’d suspect that dvd players made by the same manufacturers have identical hardware configurations, with features turned on or off for particular markets through software controls.
even your computer’s dvd player probably has some limitation on the number of times you can switch its “home” region setting. right-click on your disk drive, click “properties”, then “hardware”–select your drive and click “properties” again and then “dvd region”, and you’ll see what i mean. this does not apply of course if the disk you are using is not regionalized to begin with (in other words is a region 0 disk) in which case any dvd rom device can play it without changing its region setting. and in any case this dvd-rom limitation too can be very easily bypassed through software hacks.
as for why region-free players are not manufactured in the u.s: you’ve already found out the answer–it is hollywood’s way of protecting non-simultaneous global releases and probably also of price-fixing in specific markets. this way they can keep things cheaper/pricier in particular countries and force people to buy only those disks.
keep in mind that even if you have a region 0 disk and a player that can play it (or an all-regions player) you have to still be sure that it is either ntsc or that your player can convert its signal to ntsc for your television. computers again simplify all this. i also find that my dvd-rom drive is far more forgiving of crap/scratched disks than my fancy denon dvd player is.
I bought a region free disc (well one that was doctored) and have been very happy with it. I can’t remember the name of the online company (220-electronics? its on my computer at school) but it came highly recommended via Moriarity over at Aint It Cool news. It plays all regions, PAL, NCTS, VCDs, anything I put in there is played. It has been a worthy purchase.