Aussy DVD's

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aljones

aljones

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I was looking on the CD-WOW website last night, and noticed that they were saying that Region 4 DVD's (Australia and South America I think) would play in any Region 2 (UK/Europe) DVD player. I'd never heard of this, and thought the whole point of Region coding was that you could only play Region 2 disc in Region 2 players, and so on.

Any one heard of this before? :confused:
 
yah, i thought u could only play a region xxx DVD in a region xxx DVD Player. if what they say is true, than u could buy a PAL copy of GTC and play it on an aussy PS2.....right???
 
Originally posted by SaleenASL
yah, i thought u could only play a region xxx DVD in a region xxx DVD Player. if what they say is true, than u could buy a PAL copy of GTC and play it on an aussy PS2.....right???
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Well, you're comparing two different things there. Sony has its own regional coding that basically splits the world into three - Japan, Europe/Australia and the US - based along the lines of TV formats - European PS2 games should work on Australian PS2s and vice versa (I think).

DVD's have their own region coding as identified above (unless of course, you have a region free DVD... :D ) - that's the first I'd heard of Region 4 DVDs playing on Region 2 DVD players. I'd be surprised if that was the case.

I heard some suggestions that the whole DVD region coding arrangement was very close to collapse at the moment because just about every DVD manufacturer offers 'under the counter' region free versions of their players now.
 
Originally posted by vat_man
I heard some suggestions that the whole DVD region coding arrangement was very close to collapse at the moment because just about every DVD manufacturer offers 'under the counter' region free versions of their players now.
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There is that, and there's the fact that a lot of DVDs are now coming out in worldwide-synchronised release, which negates the point of region-coding, which was only ever intended to allow studios to stagger release of films across the markets, by preventing buyers from buying DVD in another market before the cinema release was complete in their own market.
 
Originally posted by GilesGuthrie


There is that, and there's the fact that a lot of DVDs are now coming out in worldwide-synchronised release, which negates the point of region-coding, which was only ever intended to allow studios to stagger release of films across the markets, by preventing buyers from buying DVD in another market before the cinema release was complete in their own market.
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Which is a good thing from your point of view, Giles - I was astounded to learn how late some cinematic releases were in the UK. Mind you, you've got Futurama on DVD well before anyone else...
 
Giles - do you think the 'synchronised' release has been to an extent driven by DVD manufacturers going around the region coding, resulting in consumers purchasing DVDs unavailable in their home market from overseas?
 
Originally posted by vat_man
Giles - do you think the 'synchronised' release has been to an extent driven by DVD manufacturers going around the region coding, resulting in consumers purchasing DVDs unavailable in their home market from overseas?
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Absolutely. The internet has merely made the policy of staggered releases untenable for the studios, because it just makes people angry that their mates in a different part of the world have already seen a movie and can watch it in their own home. Plus, there's no real fiscal or temporal disadvantage to ordering, say, a CD from the US, and having it shipped to the UK, so why shouldn't the same be said of DVDs?

And if you think of region coding as being like PAL/NTSC/SECAM, all of which can be played by my £170 VHS player, you see how silly the whole thing really is. I think our DVD player is for the chop at the end of this year, upon its fifth birthday. I've got my eye on one of these trick Sony ones that plays CD-R and SACD as well as DVD-V and DVD-A.
 
Mate of mine has a top notch DVD-Audio player - that format is astounding, makes CD sound like it's being played through a $2 radio.

We bought our Pioneer DVD back in early '99 (we got burgled just before Christmas, and they took the world's oldest CD player - technically a DVD is a CD player as far as insurance is concerned), and is a great study in my belief that if you're buying very new technology, buy high spec - multizone, DTS, CD-R, all that crap. Spec still holds up now.
 
for all the americans that read this, this is how you should pronounce aussies - OZZIES. thats how it should sound. aussies sounds kinda queer :thatsodd:
 
Originally posted by vat_man
Mate of mine has a top notch DVD-Audio player - that format is astounding, makes CD sound like it's being played through a $2 radio.

We bought our Pioneer DVD back in early '99 (we got burgled just before Christmas, and they took the world's oldest CD player - technically a DVD is a CD player as far as insurance is concerned), and is a great study in my belief that if you're buying very new technology, buy high spec - multizone, DTS, CD-R, all that crap. Spec still holds up now.
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Ours was the best player you could get at the time without paying silly money. Back then, Sony, as a content provider, were resisting CD-R as it 'encouraged' piracy of content that they owned. I guess they've given up on that now! It's a very good player. Trouble is, we've lost the remote for it, which is irritating, but then the remote for the amp can control the DVD player as well, so it's not all bad!
 

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