HD-DVD players PAL/NTSC issue? (1 Viewer)

[Martin S]

Excuse me if this is a basic question that any idiot should know but I'm new to all this. As I'm thinking of getting an HD-DVD player, as opposed to Blu-RAy because of the region encoding issue (I stay in the UK..nuff said!!), I remember reading somewhere that there might be issues with players, that are basically PAL, not playing an NTSC encoded disc as a sort of double protection region encoding move. Any truth in this as I'd hate to get an HD-DVD player and find I couldn't play discs from the US.?
Cheers folks.

 

[Marko Berg]

HD DVD software is region free since no region-encoding system exists on the platform. The hardware, however, will enforce region encoding on standard definition DVDs; therefore, HD DVD players sold in North America will only play back Region 1 standard DVDs, and European HD DVD players will only play back Region 2 standard DVDs.

PAL/NTSC is not really the issue, the region encoding is.

 

[Cees Alons]

But they will play HD DVDs from all regions - because there are no regions.

BD-players however, support region coding (labeled "A", "B" and "C").


Cees

 

[Ensign Eddie]

I'm looking at this from the other side. There are several HD-DVDs from the UK I want to purchase before they all disappear. One of those is "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" (mostly for completeness).

Looking at Amazon UK's page for it, it lists the format as PAL. Now, I know that the main feature should play all right on my HD-A2. But does the disk have 480i supplements like the American version? If so, are they in PAL and unviewable?

Since I already have the American disk, I have the supps covered. But I was just curious if anyone knows if the PAL/NTSC thing affects them.

Thanks.

 

[Cees Alons]

Yes, if supplements are in SD, they could be PAL or NTSC and on European releases often be PAL, one would say.
However, in the case of HD DVDs this isn't even sure, because most (if not all) sets in Europe support NTSC as well, so they could be NTSC without anyone noticing it.
Unfortunately, I don't know the proper answer in the specific case of 'HP and the PS'.


Cees

 

[Stephen_J_H]

No, it doesn't. People see HD and automatically think it means 1080i/p, but HD also applies to the transmission standard, regardless of resolution. The supps will play just fine, but why not buy Philosopher's Stone from Canada and save yourself a few bucks?

 

[Ensign Eddie]

Because I didn't know they had it as well. Darn! Unfortunately it's already on it's way.

Thanks for the info, nonetheless. Next time I'll remember to look there first.