differences between Region 1 and Region 0. Pros/cons? Pitfalls? Benefits? (1 Viewer)

[VincentY]

I’m a longtime 2 ch audiophile putting together my first HT system.

May i ask the differences between region 1 and region 0 dvds?

I’m trying to get some dvds that are released in Hong Kong, and they are region 0 , I’m worried. I have a regular sony 700P progressive dvd player, bought around 1 year ago.

Do I need to purchase a multi region dvd player? If I did get one, what is a high quality brand/model and where should I order it from?

If I were to get one of those, does the output work with my sony 60xbr800 tv? Or do I need a multi region tv as well?

Many thanks. Sorry for so many questions.

Thanks again.

My direct email is: [email protected]

 

[Damin J Toell]

R0 discs will play on any player, and you do not need a multi-region player for them. To work on your system, however, you must make sure that the discs are in the NTSC format (which is a different thing than region coding). Hong Kong DVDs are generally NTSC, so you shouldn't have a problem with that. If you encounter a PAL disc, you will need a player that can either handle PAL output (and then use an external NTSC/PAL converter) or convert PAL to NTSC for you. You can check past threads in this forum for information on players that can do this for you, but it shouldn't be a concern if you're only looking into discs from Hong Kong.

DJ

 

[John Milton]

If you're only looking to buy Region 0 DVDs from Hong Kong your current R1 DVD player will be sufficient in playing them without problems since both the U.S. and Hong Kong use the NTSC standard. You will not need a multistandard TV even if you do decide to buy DVDs from Europe or Australia which use the PAL standard. For under $300 you can pick up the best regionfree DVD player on the market, the Malata. I believe www.hkflix.com sells them. Or if you just want to "test" out PAL discs, the Cyberhome 500 is a mere $70 at www.bestbuy.com

 

[Chris Xolotl]

John: Life is never as simple as that

Hong Kong is actually a PAL country. But, virtually all of there DVDs are NTSC R0 or R3. I only have one HK DVD that is PAL.

I wonder if it's because Japan and other asian countries are NTSC or it was decided that NTSC is a bigger market (North America, Japan etc).