Quote:
Originally posted by SilverHeels:
John,
actually, my video/dvd player plays both PAL and NTSC formats but most UK DVD players stubbornly play only Region 2.
Char, if you visit Wal-Mart, could you ask them if their DVDs are multi-regional, please. The
one in question is 'Elvis by the Presleys' which came in tandem with the book (which I bought as a prezzie for my sister)
Thanks guys. 
|
As I understand it this region business was solely to accomodate Hollywood's greed and control freak mania and was primarily designed to prevent the worldwide distribution of movie DVDs until they were ready.
Really something quite ridiculous to apply to music DVDs by long departed singers like Buddy and Elvis and dancing groups like Riverdance
Nevertheless for "Elvis by the Presleys" on amazon's site it doth declare:-
"Format: Color, NTSC
Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)"
See:-
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...v=glance&s=dvd
John Fowles
one thought though
VHS tapes are quite a different matter.
Certainly the color coding is different between PAL and NTSC but more vitally due to the Europeans deciding that (as I recall) Edison's adoption of 60 cycles for alternating current was dangerously close to one of the human body's natural harmonic frequencies hence the switch to 50 cycles in Europe.
Unfortunately electric motors running on alternating current use the mains cycles as a means of controlling their speed. and similarly televisions and the early VCRs used this mains cycle to comntrol the display frame rate.
Although modern TVs and VCRs get over this electronically (my 3 yes 3 PAL UK sourced VCRs-one is a treasured old Betamax)and a small TV set have no problem withthe incorrect cycles here once I have converted the local 110 volts to 230 by meams of cheap basic transformers the but standard tape speed is different on PAL/50 cycle recordings and VCRs and NTSC/60cycle. See:-
http://www.epanorama.net/documents/v...deospeeds.html
for comprision
Note European blank tapes are numbered for example E180 for a 3 minute tape whereas US tapes are T120 etc althoughj either type will play/record in the other countries as per the table.
ain't life complicated
John Fowles
I mentioned Thomas Edison
picture on this "hidden cache" page at:-
http://www.geocaching.com/track/log....a-aea7f4f7f41c
Plaque by Edison's Museum at his memorial tower
not 10 miles from where I am typing this
He is very famous around here because
"On January 19, 1883 the first standardized electric lighting system employing overhead wires began service in Roselle, New Jersey."
[ April 03, 2006, 20:16: Message edited by: johnfowles ]