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Hitchhiker's Guide DVD to be released on January 28
hitchhacker writes "It looks like The BBC series version of 'Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' is being released on DVD January 28, 2002. 'disc set contains all six episodes from the classic BBC sci-fi comedy as well 10 minutes of additional footage which was cut to acheive the 30 minute run time. Also included are a few additional features - making of, deleted scenes, interviews and more.'" CD: Word has it that this is a region 2 dvd.
BBC DVD releases are usually regions 2 and 4. The reason for this (more specifically, no region 1) is because BBC Worldwide handles the marketing of BBC video releases in the UK and Australia/NZ. However for the US it sub-licences the rights and BBC video releases are issued by Warner, who decide their own release schedule. It's because of this contract that the discs employ region coding to "prevent" them being played in the US. Although you can import the release and use a region-free player, remember you will need a PAL (or dual-standard) TV set and these are AFAIK less common in the US than they are in Europe! This applies even if using a computer DVD drive to play the disc, unless you just want to view it on your monitor.
This is why there is so much dicussion about the region coding - because there is no reason why any DVD cannot be played anywhere in the world, the 'region coding' has been added because the film industry has got very used to controlling when and where a product can be distributed by choosing what picture standard to release it in. By delaying PAL releases they have been able to release films later in UK cinemas without the cinema release clashing with tape sales and therefore decreases losses if the film is a flop.
I would guess that the BBC have decided to delay marketing this new DVD in the US, and so are pragmatically taking advantage of the region coding to see how it does over here first.
The only time a PAL/NTSC convertor might be useful is if a foreign DVD player were imported in order to play DVDs from another region, which at 100 dollars/pounds, it's quite a viable thing to do. Of course, here in the UK many off-the-shelf players will play any region.....
For the software side of things, I use DVD Genie, which works with a number of different players, including WinDVD.
However, you also need to have a DVD-ROM drive that is region-agnostic. You can check this with DVD Genie, one of the tabs in the program allows for this. If the drive is RPC-1(Region Protection Control, I think), your drive doesn't care what region encoding the disc has, and all you need is DVD Genie. Most drives are RPC-2, though, meaning that it will allow for a certain number of discs from different regions to be played before it "locks" on the final one, usually the fifth switch. Many can be changed to RPC-1 by installing different firmware(I did this with the drives on both my desktop and my notebook.). The best place I know to find region-free firmware is The Firmware Page.
Good luck to you.
DVDs don't need PAL to NTSC convertors. The whole point is that they don't conform to any type of picture standard other than aspect ratio.
...and of course frame rate. Even though the signal on the DVD is neither in NTSC nor PAL formats, the DVDs are made for either NTSC or PAL. The fact that the frame rate is the only thing that really separates the two types makes it an even bigger scandal that some players can't output both NTSC and PAL from any type of disc.
Then check out DVD Region X for the PS2. Older versions came with a special memory card, newer versions just take up space on a standard memory card. You boot from a special disc, then it prompts you to choose your region. You select it, the disc tray opens, you replace the disc, push in the tray and then select the DVD in the browser.
It is simple and it works. I use it all the time to view R1 DVDs with my R2 PS2. Your TV has to be capable of outputting the PAL source though, which is one area where Europe has an advantage. Our TVs these days are almost always PAL/NTSC compatible, whereas US TVs rarely have PAL compatibility.
You have to get an NTSC version of DVD Region X. I know it exists, but I don't know where you buy it. The PAL version is widely available and is made by Datel Electronics.
Finally, you can plug in codes from the website, if you update your PS2 DVD driver version.
Sorry, but we get it as well on March 4th.
The EU commission can fine a company up to approximately a years revenues from the products whose price was manipulated. So for the DVD scam the fine would be in the billions or tens of billions.
The EU commission has imposed fines of that scale in the past - they fined IBM 1 billion for anti-trust practices back in the 80s. There would be no way the studios could avoid paying since their assets in Europe (including copyrights) could be siezed to pay the fine.
The EU can also prohibit the sale of region locked DVD players, mandating all players sold in the EU to be multi-zone (with the exception of those for public audiences). This has already happened in New Zealand.
Ultimately the studios are in a weak position. They have a US corporate, Enronesque view of regulation.
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It's a two DVD set, where DVD 1 contains the six episodes of the TV series in their longest cut available, coming to 3hrs and 20 mins. The DVD includes "Production Notes" which come up like subitles and are snippets of information about the scene you're watching.
The second DVD is stuffed to the gills with extras, some of which have never been seen before.
It's a tremendous package and an essential purchase for all Hitch-Hiker fans.
"Information wants to be paid"