Playing US DVDs in the UK

I think multi-region DVD players are too expensive.  So here's a two-fold question for my solution, if anyone knows these answers:

I have my US laptop in the UK.  I want to use it to watch my US (region 1) DVDs.  What kind of cable do I need to hook-up the laptop to the TV, so that we can watch movies on the big TV instead of on the little laptop screen?   (Are the cable connectors compatible between US laptops and UK TVs?) 

Alternatively, has anyone purchased one of those region-unlocking DVDs?  And do they work?  They're all over ebay.  They're supposed to "unlock" the region-encoding on your DVD player.  If I can run this through the UK DVD player that we currently have, we can watch all of my US DVDs on there.

Thanks guys!

be wary of the laptop thing...mine says it will only switch regions 3 times before it locks on one!!!!  i don't know about the lead, sorry.

we have a dual one that was a wedding gift, but it still wasn't expensive.  it wasn't sold as a dual one, it was a UK one with a special code printed on the box that you had to punch in...

We have a samsung DVD player.....My DH found a website that gave the unlocking codes and he unlocked ours....

He said JVC it can't be unlocked easily...you have to send it to back to the main co. and they charge to unlock it.......


DH said what model do you have and he will look it up and see if he can find the code.....PM me.....

Amazon sells a multiregion for 29.99 with free delivery

Amazon sells a multiregion for 29.99 with free delivery

What he said.

Oops, didn't see this thread before I sent my PM yesterday, so sorry for any duplication. 

If the laptop has an S-video or composite video output, then it can be connected to a suitable TV, eother with a simple S-video or RCA patch lead, or by using a suitable adapter lead to a set which has only a SCART input (the big rectangular multi-pin connector found on all modern domestic European TVs).     It is also possible to get a combiner unit to connect an S-video output to a composite video input, although you will lose a little quality compared to using a direct S-video link.   I'll dig out some links to suitable leads/adapters if you can let me know what type of video outputs/inputs you have available.

For any of this to work, you'll either need a TV which will accept American NTSC video (many of the latest British sets will), or you would need to configure the laptop to output in 625/PAL format, if it is capable (which will depend entirely upon the video chipset and software).     Be aware though that playing an NTSC DVD this way will result in some degradation to the picture due to the conversion process.   

As stated already, some Region 2 players can be converted only with internal modifications, but some can be "de-regionalized" by just accessing a hidden menu.   

Note that playing a normal American DVD will still result in an NTSC video signal, so you'll still need a TV capable of displaying NTSC video.

As others have previously mentioned, multi-regional isnt that expensive at all,. You can probably pick one up cheaper then sending in your laptop to get it to play US dvd's.
 We picked ours up for £20 and it plays any dvd around the world and also plays dvd's that are burnt on the computer

Paul
My TV isn't NTSC compatible and it stills plays US DVD's. You can't tell the difference in the UK or the USA ones.

My TV isn't NTSC compatible and it stills plays US DVD's.

Are you using a direct RGB hookup between the DVD player and TV?   

I should have added that an RGB connection completely bypasses the NTSC/PAL color encoding so it would work anyway (the scanning frequencies are slightly different, but close enough that the set would lock onto them).   

If you're on a composite or S-video input, it could be that the video circuitry in the set is actually NTSC compatible even if the TV is not advertised as such.  Quite a lot of models these days use multi-standard integrated circuits which will automatically switch to NTSC or PAL when fed with the appropriate signal.

Dunno to be honest.......my hubby is the electrical whiz..........Just know it works........He plugs it in and I press the buttons........