Help with viewing my R1s in an R2 country (1 Viewer)

[Shawn Collins]

Due to work I am moving from the US to the UK later this year. All of my DVDs are in R1 format. I'm not quite sure what to do about this so I was hoping I could get some help here. Obviously my hardware is US as well although if needed I can replace the audio and keep the players. Is there anyone that has faced this situation?

Please don't respond with "just replace the DVDs" many are OOP, collectors or box sets. And I don't want to watch them on my computer and I'm not about to copy close to 500 DVDs to blank R0. I would rather find a work around for my R1 player than purchase a dedicated PC with remote, etc. I'm also trying to keep this simple for my wife who would like to just pop a movie in and watch as she does now.

I appreciate any help.

 

[Will*B]

For what it's worth, multi-region DVD players are EXTREMELY easy to buy in the UK. Many retailers such as Amazon UK actually state 'multi-region' in the product descriptions.

Your other alternative would be to purchase an NTSC compatible TV (the vast majority of modern PAL TVs display NTSC) and a voltage step-down transformer (240v to 110v). This would preclude you from buying/renting any R2 DVDs though. (Unless your current player is multi-region).

I think it would be far easier to simply buy a multi-region player in the UK (many decent players are under £100) than try to convert your existing equipment.

Europe has been geared up for multi-region since the start of DVD, mainly due to the vastly superior R1 software available for the first few years.

 

[Cees Alons]

Shawn,

The DVDs will play perfectly on your player as they did before. All you need is a connector/converter to be able to plug your US power plug in a UK power connection (I believe the voltages are the same - 110 V - someone correct me if I'm wrong!).

The video output of your player will play on almost all TV sets. Use the S-Video (called S-VHS here and 100% compatible).

(95% of my DVD collection are R1. I started by using an imported US player first, but now almost all DVD-players here in Europe are modified to play all regions (so there's your other option).


BTW, I'm moving this thread to the non-R1 forum, you may get even better response over there (*here* now ).


Cees

 

[Will*B]

The UK voltage is 240v. You need to buy a step-down transformer otherwise you'll do your equipment some serious damage! (I live in the UK and have US DVD player, PS3, etc...).

 

[Cees Alons]

OK, thanks, so have I. It's roughly €30 (£22) for a very good one.


Cees

 

[Will*B]

That's true. Fortunately, companies like Sony are making a lot of their hardware dual-voltage, which saves time and money for everyone! The PS3 is an example of this new strategy.

I remember back in '97 trying to get away with a cheap transformer to use a US Nintendo 64. I ended up melting the transformer, and frying the poor Nintendo (and nearly my TV room). After that, I started buying more expensive and reliable models!

 

[Shawn Collins]

Whew! This good news. Thanks for the suggestions. So is the best solution is to buy a multi-region player? I'm not necessarily attached to my current player. Are the multi-regions sold everywhere? How does this deal with piracy, or is not really an issue when it comes to regions?

I'm not quite clear on the video output. Are you saying that most modern tv's can work with PAL and NTSC? That's not something I hear about in the US. Is it more of an issue in the UK?

Oh, one last question. Are there power converters that service multiple plugs similar to a power strip? If so, how much do they run?

I am looking forward to having local access to R2 releases. R1 releases seem to take forever like the recent Sergio Leone discs.

 

[Lars Vermundsberget]

At least here in Norway I'm under the impression that practically any new TV set or DVD player will handle "anything". So I think your solution is simple - sell off your equipment before you go and buy new in the UK. There's no reason to replace your DVDs. The majority of my collection is also from R1.

 

[Douglas R]

Just about every TV set sold in the UK is PAL/NTSC compatible. Although most DVD players sold in the UK can be "adjusted" to be multi region, in most cases the DVD player you buy in major high street stores (such as Currys, Argos and Comet) willl ONLY play R2 discs. It is often possible to convert these to play R1 discs (or make them multi-region) by inputting a code into the DVD player via the remote control or pressing a sequence of buttons on the front of your DVD - this known as a software hack. This site gives relevant information: http://www.dvd.reviewer.co.uk/info/multiregion/

Some smaller specialist suppliers also supply ready hacked or ready hardware-chipped players making them multi-region from the box. Richer Sounds is a good, reliable source who I have often used: http://www.richersounds.com/productl...ERS&sort=price

Multi-region has nothing to do with aiding piracy. It simply gets round the imposition of region coding which was set up to enable film studios to control distribution of their product.

 

[Cees Alons]

If I read the above responses correctly, this is the situation:

(1) Keep your DVD collection.
(2) If you plan to buy R2 DVDs in the future, you'll need a player that can play them (you may not be able to play PAL discs on your TV when back in the US).
(3) Unlike in my country, where hardly any 'unmodified' players are sold anymore, players in the UK seem to be R2 mostly, unless modified separately. If you WON'T buy R2 discs, this could suggest to simply bring your own player.
(4) Indeed TVs in the UK, as in the rest of the EU, will most probably play both PAL and NTSC without any problem at all (unless very old models).


So, depending on whether you think you will purchase R2 releases or not, you could bring your current DVD-player, or else decide to buy one in England and have it modified.


Cees

 

[AndyMcKinney]

My suggestion would be like most of the others: sell your DVD player and TV, then buy new gear in the UK. Most Euro televisions can play PAL and NTSC out of the box (unlike the USA) and just like in America, there are many models of DVD players that can be "hacked" to multi-region by simple remote control sequences. I know that the VideoHelp website has hacks for many models, not sure if that includes European models, but if anything, mutil-region players are even more common in the UK than in the US.

 

[Brian Sharp]

My first dvd player was a Panasonic bought at Best Buy and used in England. I had it modified to be multi region and purchased a voltage convertor for about $20.00; worked fine and played anything, any region without problems. From my experience when we afe talking about tv's being "old" we are talking about sets manufactured 10yrs+ ago; certainly all of the televisions I have had since 1990 have had no problems with an ntsc signal.
See if you can find a hack to make your player multi region; if not multi region players are available from Amazon uk for $60.00 up and even cheaper from Richer Sounds.
http://www.richersounds.com/productl...ERS&sort=price