Good morning....I'm taking some American purchases...DVD's both music and movies to lONDON this summer as gifts. It just fell into my brain that having purchased them here...they may not play in UK...... help help. I can still take them back if so
Mollie
If the person your giving the DVDs to has a standard standalone DVD player they will not be able to play US DVDs because of the region restriction and the video format will not be in PAL format. But if the recipients watches DVDs via a game console or computer they will be able to play the disc's because theses devices typically ignore the region restriction and are able to convert any video format.
I just purchased a new MacBook computer and the first time I put a DVD in it asked me the region I would be viewing it in. I selected North America. A screen popped up saying I was only allowed to switch Zones up to 5 times including the 1st time on my new computer. This question was never asked for me to choose on my older computer.I read on the mac "help" area that homemade DVD's are not effected by this nor DVD's without zone restrictions encoded or embedded in them.
There are free programs you can download off the Internet for both PCs and Macs which allow you to override the 5-changes limit. Homemade DVDs are indeed region free, but the question was about store bought movies, most all of these kinds of DVD have region restrictions.
CDs play universally, no issue there!
We googled our dvd player model number and brand name and the words "set to region 0" and found the way to reset to region 0 on our player so we can watch my husbands PAL dvds from england (the US is NTSC format). Most players can be reset since they are usually manufactured somewhere to be sold to several countries, so they are set to each countrys code before distribution. Its just a matter of finding the code you need!
Heres one code breaking device, to set to region zero, though may not work on all players...
When playing a DVD, press stop on the DVD Player to ensure that the disc is not spinning. (You may even want to remove the disc from the playing unit.)
Using the remote control, press the "Set-Up" button and advance to the far right-hand tab "Preferences".
Enter Code # 1379 then use the "up & down arrows" to change the Region Code.
Once code is chosen, press enter.
Use this site to lookup the secret code for some DVD players: http://tinyurl.com/2w8qb
Many thanks to you all for this valuable advice> I now have a plan!
Mollie B
Mollie, when I purchased DVD's in Mexico, I noticed some are for "all regions", or there was a listing for various regions...
Now, if you bring CD's for music, you do not have to worry about the region problem.
Be careful, most DVDs that are labeled "all regions" are bootleg.
Yikes!! possible bootlegs??
I think mine are legit.. I got those DVDs at a chain store... like a Virgin Record looking store.
