NTSC, PAL,DVDs and Emerging standards.

Hello All,

The move is less than a month away and I am trying to get a handle on the realities of all the various things we will be dealing with.

I am a movie buff. Got lots of region 1 DVDs in my collection.

Now, one question I have is, assuming region codes don't stop me(IE: Universal DVD player, with no region locks) - will a DVD purchased in the US even display correctly on a UK TV Set connected to a DVD player purchased in the UK?

I mean, we are on NTSC in the US and PAL is the thing in the UK. I guess the question is where does the TV standard start to effect the equation. I don't think those things are encoded at the DVD level... and if so, being able to watch my DVDs on a UK set should be doable. Obviously I need guidance!

Now I am going to hit the beaches with no electronics. Our company is giving us an allowance to replace appliances that we obviously cannot use in the UK. Luckily, the home we are getting has a fridge and washer/dryer. So we get to shoot the wad on the entertainment system.

Any suggestions?

Here in the US, HDTV is making its slow emergence.

Are there similar things going on in the UK? Is there an emerging higher resolution standard that I should be thinking about?

Thanks,
R

I was able to hack my UK DVD player with no problems. We are able to watch US DVDs on our TV . As for your question concerning HDTV I can not help you!

jc

You don't even really have to "hack" the DVD player - you can get multi-region DVD players on Amazon pretty cheaply.

Peedal is right.  We got a DVD player for about £40 and we buy DVD's in the US and play them here on our tv all the time!  Easy peasy. 

As the others have said, multi-region DVD players are easy enough to obtain here these days, so that's no problem at all.

With regard to the actual video standards, a very large proportion of TV sets on the British market now are designed to accept NTSC signals on video inputs (i.e. they'd be no good for watching off-air broadcasts in America, but will work fine when direct A/V connections are used to an NTSC VCR/DVD source).

As the others have said, multi-region DVD players are easy enough to obtain here these days, so that's no problem at all.

With regard to the actual video standards, a very large proportion of TV sets on the British market now are designed to accept NTSC signals on video inputs (i.e. they'd be no good for watching off-air broadcasts in America, but will work fine when direct A/V connections are used to an NTSC VCR/DVD source).

Ah... ok.. this is good. At least I know its a feature to put on the "Must have" list for whatever TV set I buy once I get there.

Thanks for all the feedback.

If you are planning to buy a DVD player and unlock it yourself, it's usually the cheaper brands that work (e.g. mine was a Pacific).  I had no problem with my Region 1 DVDs displaying on my TV, and it was second-hand and several years old, so not to worry.  A good site with lots of multi-region hacks (where I found a hack for my player) is:

http://www.dvd.reviewer.co.uk/info/multiregion/

Aside from that, as Peedal said, there are lots of cheap players available for purchase over the Internet as well.

I haven't a clue about the HDTV question, but good luck with that!