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Main DVD page | Breaking Down DVD Borders

Watching foreign movies can be a excellent part of your foreign language practice. However, buying foreign DVDs and bringing them back to your country can be a disaster. Thanks to ridiculous measures that the US movie industry has taken, you may not be able to watch movies you bought on vacation, and can't make back-up copies that you are legally allowed to make.

Two things can prevent you from viewing a DVD that you bought in a different country. The other country may use a different video format/color system, and they may use a different region code. DVD's purchased in other countries will not work if your country is a different region code or color system.

Examples of DVD player and disc markings:

Format Incompatibility

Europe uses PAL, and the USA uses NTSC. All PAL DVD players will play NTSC discs and convert them to PAL. Most NTSC DVD players will not convert PAL signals to NTSC. If the signal isn't converted to your TV's color space, you won't be able to view the video, even if your player is understanding it properly. Format compatibility becomes less of a problem with digital imaging, such as all computers, some flat screen TVs, and most digital video projectors. They can often accept any format, but check before buying.

Region Code Incompatibility

For both DVD players and the discs, look for a globe with a number in it to find out the region code. The US is region-code 1, Europe is region-code 2.

What you can do:

1. Buy non-region coded discs. If you can find a DVD with a zero, or the word all in the globe, it will play in any player.
2. (USA) You can get DVD players for under $200 that will not only play any region-coded disc, but will convert the PAL signal to an NTSC signal.
3. Play them on your computer, if you have a computer with a DVD drive. Computers are neither NTSC, nor PAL, but can display anything they can understand. You can switch region-codes on computer DVD drives. You will need to get some free software to be able to switch region codes, but it's free, and relatively easy.
4. Find some Foreign DVDs for sale in the US, that were made for the US market. The bad part is that they will probably be religious or travel videos only.

You can convert some non-region-free players to region-free, if there is a hack available. Check www.videohelp.com to see whether your player is hackable, or to help you decide on a new player. In the USA, you'll still have the problem of PAL coming out, when PAL is put in.

Here is a great article on DVD piracy in China.

I recently noticed that Amazon.com (USA) now has multi-region players. Try one of these out if you are getting DVD's from overseas. Remember, that if it plays PAL DVD's, the signal coming out will wtill be PAL. What does this mean to you? You'll need to either:

1. Get a PAL or multi-system TV.
2. Get a video projector. (They're better than TVs anyway, and they can usually show both PAL and NTSC.)
3. Get a PAL to NTSC converter box (These boxes often cost more than DVD players that convert systems.)
4. Get a DVD player that will not only play other regions, but will convert the system to NTSC.

Sadly, amazon doesn't carry any multi-region, format converting DVD players. Check 220-electronics.com or other similiar stores for more options.

multi-region DVD Player Buy the SONY DVP-NS530 Code Free Multi Zone DVD Player This is the do-everything DVD player and recorder. It can view and record in multiple formats. I could not find out whether it had NTSC playback of PAL source material, necessary for viewing on US TV's.  multi-region DVD Player Buy the AKAI 3850 Code Free Multi-Zone DVD Player This is what I would get unless you really need the recording function of the E30MZ. I could not find out whether it had NTSC playback of PAL source material, necessary for viewing on US TV's.  multi-region DVD Player Buy the PANASONIC DVDS35-MZ Multi Zone Multi Region DVD Player (Black). I could not get much info on this player. It specifically states that it will only output same as source, that means that you'd need a multi-system TV as well, to watch anything of a different system than yours.