Non Region 1 DVDs (1 Viewer)

[FrancisP]

I am looking for someplace where I can find DVDs for different regions most notably Region 2(Europe). Can anyone give me a url for some websites that sell these DVDs.

 

[SteveGon]

I've bought most of mine through Amazon's UK outlet. Some I purchased new, others were used - check their marketplace before ordering a new disc as you get some good deals on used ones. I've just recently bought a multi-region player so I'm sure there are more experienced recommendations out there.

 

[EricSchulz]

HMV has a great selection, excellent service (usually 1 week from UK to Milwaukee via air mail). They also have a weekly email newsletter that informs you of pre-orders/sales/etc.

 

[Mark_vdH]

CD-WOW has a nice selection of multi-region titles, no shipping costs and great customer service. Only thing I don't like is the fact that they charge you when you order.....

 

[Manus]

Don't forget play.com as well. One of the more efficient , long-established sites out there.

M

 

[Mark_vdH]

Oh, indeed. I've ordered about 200 dvd's at play.com more than at any other site.
However, I never name them on this forum because they won't ship to the USA or Canada....

 

[Torgny Nilsson]

What I don't understand is why Region 2 DVDs are so much more expensive than Region 1 DVDs in the US. At least they seem much more expensive to me. Does anyone know of the best priced site for Region 2 DVDs? While Amazon.uk has a decent selection, they cost an arm and leg. And they don't seem to sell DVDs in Swedish, which are usually what I am looking for.

 

[Hendrik]

"...I don't understand is why Region 2 DVDs are so much more expensive than Region 1 DVDs in the US..."

...it's called "economy of scale": in the US they (mostly) have to cater only to viewers who speak English (although many US DVDs do feature optional French subs and/or French dubs, which are included for the French-speaking Canadians - not for the French French, if you know what I mean)... in Europe you have to have separate - dubbed! - editions for the French, the Germans, the Italians, the Spanish, as well as subtitled editions for Scandinavia & Finland, the Netherlands, Belgium (a country that requires two subtitle streams: Dutch and French), Switzerland (a country that requires three subtitle streams: German, French, and Italian), Poland, Hungary, Serbia, Portugal...to name just a few countries...

...and then, of course, there have to be German dubs for the Germans(*), French dubs for the French, Italian dubs for the Italians, not forgetting Spanish dubs for the Spaniards (including subtitles in Catalan!)...

(*)...for instance: the Danish movie "Festen" is available in Germany only in a German dub - the Spanish/Argentinian movie "Tango" is available in Germany only in a German dub... on the other hand - at least in my experience - the French always include the original (English, or Portuguese, or Italian, etc.) soundtrack (although, depending on which company releases the DVD, it may include "forced" French subs)...

...and so it goes...

. . . . . .

 

[Torgny Nilsson]

I don't buy the language issue. Region 1 DVDs usually have other languages on them too. And most movies on DVD have already been dubbed or subtitled for their original release. And what about DVDs sold in England? Why are they so much more expensive?

Also, foreign movies released in region 1 generally all contain their original language and at least English (if not others as well). Yet they are generally no more expensive than other region 1 releases.

And none of this explains why region codes exist and they play into the pricing too. You can make an argument that region coding is appropriate during the period between the release of a DVD in the US and the completion of a movie's European or Asian theater run. But for old releases, or any copy of a movie sold after it has completed its world-wide theater run, they should be sold in a region free format. And since anyone willing to pay more for a region-free DVD player, or who is willing to put up with a worse picture quality, is able to view any released DVD regardless of whether it has completed its theater run, what is the point at all to region coding?

I think DVD pricing and region coding is all a marketing ploy.

 

[Cees Alons]

Torgny,

It's even more complicated. Rights to films and/or video versions of films often do not belong to the same party in Europe as in the US. Some of the studios don't even have a "European" subsidiary, etc. The UK releases have to be authorized by a special committee (and cuts have to be made). Often, PAL versions must be created.
And I don't think that the total sales is really comparable with the number in the US (in general).


Cees



PS: Hello, Hendrik!

C.

 

[Hendrik]

Hello Cees!

Torgny: "Region 1 DVDs usually have other languages on them too."

No, they do not, at least not in the form of subtitles! For instance: I've never come across a German-, Russian-, Italian-, Swedish-, Japanese-language Criterion DVD that has optional French subtitles, let alone a French dub. And nor do most if not all of the (very many) American R0 DVDs released in the USA by such labels as Kino, Image, New Yorker Video, etc. sport subs in any other language than English, assuming they have subs at all.

Anyway... while I agree that region coding is a pain in the arse, we are stuck with it seemingly forever - or at least until something 'better' than DVD comes along...

. . . . . .

 

[Cees Alons]

Hello yourself once more, Hendrik.

(Have nice holidays! Even if it's a bit early.)


Cees

 

[Irina]

A good place to buy Region 2 DVDs in the UK is bensonsworld.co.uk. They ship to the US (1BP shipping charge per DVD) and are very reliable. I normally compare prices between bensonsworld.co.uk and amazon.co.uk and pick the best deal. Amazon.co.uk takes off the VAT tax (about 15% off the price). Bensonsworld.co.uk does not take off the VAT tax.

 

[Cees Alons]

I second Benson's World, although I personally have no experience with the shipping-to-the-US aspect.

Very reliable and customer friendly. Large catalogue.


Cees

 

[Chad A]

Check out the list of e-tailers on DVDtalk's international forum.
It includes links to many sellers across the planet.

 

[Andre Bijelic]

If you want to avoid paying high prices for R2 discs from the UK, a good alternative is to get them from Australia. I'd say the majority of R4 Australian discs are identical to their UK R2 counterparts.

An Australian site I've dealt with frequently is Family Box Office.

 

[andrew markworthy]

Basically, because British retailers can get away with it.
Numerous reasons:

(1) being a relatively small place means that a small cabal of retailers can dominate the market and frighten off the competition
(2) Brit consumers can't easily visit other countries to do their shopping
(3) there is a curious Brit puritanism that seems to think overpaying for shoddy goods (e.g. look at most of our restaurants) is good for the soul.

However, if you think Brit discs are expensive now, you should have seen what they used to be like. For the first couple of years of DVDs, the typical price for a disc, typically with no extras would be £20 (circa $36 at the exchange rate at the time). Retailers would, without a trace of shame, offer 'sales' in which these DVDs would be reduced to ... wait of it ... £18. I recall when I first got a DVD player in 1999, I bought my first five discs for £100 and got a sixth title 'free'. At the time this was considered a great bargain.

However, with the growth of the internet came the realisation that DVDs could be bought from the USA at under half the price, and typically with extras. Accordingly, those in the know (and generally the biggest buyers of discs) voted with their wallets and started buying solely from overseas. Result - profits on Brit DVD sales were no longer as extortionate as the fat cats had predicted. Surprise, surprise - when the Brit retailers discovered that their cosy monopoly was up, two things happened in order to lure customers back:

(1) prices dropped (though not down to USA levels, prices have improved; e.g. most mainstream movies are now in the £12 region, which is a lot better than £20).

(2) we started getting extras (i.e. the UK manufacturers had to cough up payments for these)

Admittedly in one or two cases R1 issues have been different because of royalty issues, etc, but these are relatively rare. In the main, it's because Brit retailers are, quite simply, greedy.

 

[Sean Aaron]

Andre, not only are R4 discs usually identical to R2 UK discs, but I've got several examples (probably mostly TV releases) which are both R2 and R4 and sold in both markets.

Naturally this continues to beg the question of why Region-coding exists. If some studios are willing to produce product with multiple region codes to sell the same disc in more than one territory, then what difference does region-coding make in the first place? Local import duty and import restrictions should be enough to keep people from doing mass importing of titles and savvy folk that want material from other regions will pursue them. Even if you couldn't get region-free players they're cheap enough that I would easily get a player for R1 and a player for R2 if I had to. People will buy according to content and quality of the release; unless high street retailers were carrying material from other regions at the expense of local product (prohibited by import laws in the UK) the studios have no reason to use technical means to block playback of extra-region material. Heck I just got back from the States with a carryon bag full of DVDs. My personal allowance is £145 and I came nowhere close to that. All customs checked for was that none of them were pornographic.

I second what was said above about UK dvd pricing. Until late 2001 I found it quite unreasonable. The Simpsons UK season 1 release was almost double the price of the R1 version; I suspect soft sales caused the price drop to near parity for subsequent seasons.

 

[Gordon McMurphy]

Everything in Britain is more expensive than the USA: cars; booze; jam; haircuts; plumbers; housing. The average person spends 7 hours and 13 minutes every day complaining about the prices of stuff.

Aside from Amazon, there is:

www.xploitedcinema.com

www.diabolikdvd.com


BTW: Hi, Sean from Stirling! I'm from Aberdeen. Always nice to meet a fellow Scotsman on the Net!

 

[Irina]

The best source of the world DVD retailers I have seen so far can be found at http://dvdbeaver.com/ by clicking on the DVD region FAQ located on the leftmost strip of choices/links on the initial screen (http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/FAQ.htm). It lists the DVD retailers plus the sites with and without the English interfaces. Great wealth of information.