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Amaxon and other big companies won't ship games outside of the intended region. There are dedicated import shops where people will be able to get it though, or places like DVD Box Office that don't seem to care.

But it's only generally the hardcore that import.

Get US-encoded DVD's? Does the submitter mean getting those DVD's in Australia ... well....fat chance.

Is there a law in place in Australia against importing Region 1 DVDs???

I understand that there are trade-barriers in place, so that you have to pay VAT on the DVD's. But is there a law that actually states that you cannot import region 1 DVDs?

Last I checked, several online retailers in the US and Canada are willing to ship their DVD's worldwide. DVDBoxOffice will even package them one by one so you don't have to pay VAT (when shipping to Europe atleast). Play is based in the UK, and they sell region 1 DVDs and ship worldwide.

In regards to the region protection in DVDplayers.. well.. it's a joke. I think I could solder a chip into one of those players in my sleep (I know some are harder etc). On top of that, some cheap players I've come across had a hidden menu where you could simply change the region. So, I don't see how it would be difficult to get Region 1 DVD's in Australia, or any other western country for that matter.

And this is why, here in Japan, my wife and I hardly go to the theater anymore.

It is now 1,800 yen (14.52 USD) a ticket. So for the price of 2 tickets (~30 USD), we can get two DVDs with free shipping. Couple that with the fact that movies are released in Japan when the region 1 DVD is already available (at least 6 months later than the US), you can see why there is not much incentive to drive down crowded roads and play fender bender in a matchbox sized parking lot.

Also 16:9 TVs are dirt cheap and appartments are so small, you can almost imagine you are in front of a 50' screen.

Absolutely. I ordered 4 DVDs from Amazon.com.. they got stopped at Customs and I had to pay some import duty. But I got them discounted at Amazon, and even with the import duty they were cheaper than here (just). I also got more features for my money.

BTW, Brits should be aware that the Canadian firm: DVD Box Office don't charge for shipping. So you can order them singly, get 'em quicker and pay less. Nice.
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I was in Tower Records on Yonge St, Toronto the other day. They had one (small) section full of the Sony Super CDs (SACD)... and sprinkled amongst them were about 5 different DVD-Audios. If that's anything to go by, SACD is the more popular at the moment, but that could just be head start or heavier promotion.

I've also just ordered a DTS CD and a DVD-Audio from http://www.dvdboxoffice.com/, so I will soon find out if it's worth the fuss. Playback will be on my DVD-Video player, which I believe isn't quite as good as a true DVD-A player. This compatibility makes me think that DVD-A will ultimately beat SACD.

Play247 already do this sort of thing [...] They get around import restrictions by sending each order in a seperate jiffy bag, and not selling the goods for more than £18 each (Good over £18 are taxable on import).

Indeed - I'd recommend DVD Box Office in Canada who do the same thing (separate jiffybags), and also free postage worldwide. They are the reason that most of my DVDs are region 1 - I can save roughly 5 pounds per disc buying from Canada, not to mention getting releases a lot sooner (Ferris Bueller, 6 months), and intact (Fight Club).

When played, you get NTSC at 29.97 fps (inserting duplicate fields) but PAL at 25 fps by speeding everything up (yes, it's true :)

Now, judging from this, PAL DVDs are a lot better ... but. Often, the region 1 versions have higher bitrate and more content. Region 2 DVDs just have a lot of languages and subtitles ... and since bitrate is very important, I do import all my DVDs from DVD Boxoffice