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Getting UK DVD Players Working in the U.S.?
StonyUK asks: "I'm moving from the UK to the U.S. shortly, and I'm trying to find a way of not having to replace all my region 2 DVDs with their region 1 counterparts. My UK player is chipped to support region 1 and region 2 right now, so I'm thinking that maybe I could just bring my player with me. I can do voltage conversion, but what about the signals itself? Is it possible to buy a TV in America that supports PAL? Do American TVs have SCART sockets? Also, I'm thinking that maybe I can get around all of this by buying an LCD projector and using the super-video output of my DVD player. Does anyone know if this is PAL / NTSC independent?"
PAL/NTSC dictates the timing/resolution. S-Video vs. composite video dictates how much the signals are multiplexed together. I think (I'm not sure) that standard video has the chrominance and luminance signals mixed, but S-Video splits these two signals on two different wires. (I know that something is split on S-Video that isn't on standard composite video, I can't recall exactly what is split.)
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You can get PAL/NTSC/SECAM sets that will run on 110/220V 50/60 Hz power. See this page for some Sony models.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
My relatives in Chicago mentioned that getting a dual format player over there means a cost of well over a thousand dollars.
I'm not sure whether you could expect similarities with TV pricing.
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We have a phallo-centric/obsessed society over here. Up means on, down means off...
The biggest problem is going to be the PALNTSC conversion.
:-)
I haven't yet seen a multi-standard TV for sale in the US. They are 100% NTSC. In Europe I regularly see multi-standard PAL/SECAM/NTSC TVs.
But I haven't been looking at the newest 16x9 TVs, maybe they will support any signal coming from a DVD player.
On the continent, many large chains such as FNAC in Belgium sell zoneless (zonderZone) DVD players. What they do is for an extra few hundred BEF, they 'burn out' the zone chip so the machines will play DVDs from any zone. They do this in the store when you buy the unit, so in case something goes wrong, they just grab another unit for you. They claim 80% of customers pay extra for zone-free systems, even if they don't plan on getting cheap DVDs from other zones any time soon.
Some of my Aussie friends have brought back a bunch of pirated DVDs from passing through Singapore and Bangkok. They have had no problem playing all those DVDs on their zoneless players, and I'm sure some of them are NTSC/zone 1 disks.
The biggest complaint I have seen is the copy protection scheme on the video output. The sync levels get changed every few seconds making cheap TVs and all tape units lose the picture. Maybe you can look into buying a level restorer to clean up the video signal, and it may also do PAL to NTSC conversion for you.
And what happened to the DVD boycott until deCSS and DMCA battles are won?
the AC
Hemos is like...sci-fi fans;he thinks technology is cool, but he hasn't bothered to understand the science it's based on
Actually, you can get reasonably inexpensive dual-format hardware in the United States - you just have to know where to look. One place to look would be the New York area photography/video stores. Do not look in just any shop - you have to go to the ones the professionals use. Most of these businesses are heavily reliant on mail-order sales, so you can have one shipped likely anywhere in the country.
Expect to pay around $200-$300 US dollars (plus shipping) for a basic player unit. These stores stock a lot of equipment to support a variety of formats. Now I really do not want to plug any stores over any others, but doing a quick look, here is one company that stocks multi-format players. Do not treat this as a recommendation - I have never purchased anything from them. Look in their consumer video section. The one downside is that you really have to do some research into what you are buying - unless you are actually visiting these stores, you will not know what you have physically purchased until you get it.
Of particular intrest to me is one item. I would link to it, but they're site is dynamically generated. Do a search for the part number "Dv414" - it should be made by Pioneer. A $400 Multi-Region DVD player?
Since my stuff was being shipped out by my new employers, the cheapest option for me was to buy a voltage transformer (Maplins sell these for about 50 quid) to convert US voltage (& socket) to UK. Don't forget you'll need to buy this BEFORE you leave.
Then get a cheap VCR and connect that to your TV via the SCART socket. NOTE the output of your US VCR will be composite video through "Phono" style connectors, so you will need to buy a suitable cable - again BEFORE you leave.
However, if you're not especially fond of your TV or it's going to be expensive to ship it out, remember that consumer electronics are rather cheaper in the US; as a rule of thumb just change the pound sign to a dollar sign and the exchange rate will do the rest ;-)
Check out some US stores to get a feel for prices - BestBuy.Com seems ok, but this isn't especially a plug for them.
That's about it. Now, does anyone know why american light switches are all upside down... ?
--- These are not words: wierd, genious, rediculous