About this Huw DVD

[John Majka]

well, having checked my manual for my DVD player (which is not a
"regionless" player), I have found that it automatically converts
appropriately to play both PAL and NTSC formats.  There seems some confusion
between "region" and "format" in our discussions.  Even though a disc may be
regionless or encoded for a specific region, it will still ALSO be  encoded
for either PAL or NTSC, and so whether the player is regionless or not does
not necessarily equate into playability.
John Majka
jmajka2 at comcast.net


> PAL / NTSC are just different frame rate speeds, encoding etc - to put it
> very simply and basically without going into to much detail
>
> When you buy your dvd player pay a little extra for a multi zone player
that
> also does ntsc/pal.  Well worth it.
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Arin Komins <akomins at MIDWAY.UCHICAGO.EDU>
> To: <BOC-L at LISTSERV.SPC.EDU>
> Sent: Wednesday, October 23, 2002 1:54 AM
> Subject: Re: About this Huw DVD
>
>
> > On Tue, 22 Oct 2002, Paul Mather wrote:
> >
> > :Subject: Re: About this Huw DVD
> > :
> > :I think the situation is the same in the USA, but I can't comment from
> > :personal experience as I don't own a DVD player.  But, of people I
> > :know who have them, their DVD players seem to support both PAL and
> > :NTSC (changeable via a menu option), and there are lots of firmware
> > :hacks available that can disable/set the region of the player (not an
> > :issue with the Huw DVD as it is mastered to be region-free).
> >
> > Most dvd players you will buy at a consumer outlet will not be region
> > free.  (I was burned this way on my first DVD player.)
> >
> > Many consumer players (noncomputer players...but retail settop
> > models) have undocumented hacks (Sampo, for instance) to allow
> > players to switch region.
> >
> > However, unless your TV supports PAL playback (such tvs used to be
called
> > "multisystem" tvs.)
> >
> > It could be that modern tvs support pal/secam/ntsc playback, but it
didn't
> > used to be.
> >
> > :The point I was trying to make is that I think the stated PAL
> > :requirement is a red herring, as any half-decent DVD playback system
> > :ought to be able to do the resolution/frame rate conversion on the fly
> > :to play on any type of TV.  I would hate to think that someone would
> > :eschew buying the Huw DVD just because they thought, "but my TV is
> > :NTSC, not PAL, so it won't play..."
> > :
> > :I could well be wrong, though.
> >
> > ...but I don't think it's the dvd player that cares, but the TV.
> >
> > but this is only as far as I know.
> >
> > Arin
> > (back to lurking.)
> > --
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------
> > Arin Komins                                   akomins at uchicago.edu
> > Manager of Web Systems Architecture
> > University of Chicago/NSIT                      tel: (773)834-4087
> > 1155 E. 60th St. #302B Chicago, IL 60637        fax: (773)702-0559
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------