Date: Fri, 11 Jun 2004 12:08:25 +0200 From: Brad Knowles <brad.knowles@skynet.be> To: Paul Robinson <paul@iconoplex.co.uk> Cc: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: BtVS: UK or US DVDs? Message-ID: <p06002022bcef32840f7a@[10.0.1.3]> In-Reply-To: <20040611093454.GL70693@iconoplex.co.uk> References: <caar27$1cs9$1@kemoauc.mips.inka.de> <20040611093454.GL70693@iconoplex.co.uk>
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At 10:34 AM +0100 2004-06-11, Paul Robinson wrote:
> I would suggest "neither". However, of course, it's technically illegal for
> you to buy DVDs licensed for a region in which you do not reside. That's the
> point of putting regions on DVDs.
No, it's not illegal at all. It's perfectly legal to buy Region
One DVDs and have them shipped to Europe (or elsewhere), and it's
legal to buy Region Two DVDs and have them shipped to the US (or
elsewhere). However, they have tighter controls on where you can buy
DVD players that can handle specific region encoding.
This means that if you're a US citizen and you bring your Region
One DVD player with you when you move to Europe, you have no problem
buying DVDs via Amazon.com (or wherever), having them shipped to
Europe, and paying out the wazoo in terms of taxes and import duties.
But you can still buy them and watch them on your Region One DVD
player (NTSC output to most TVs over here works just fine).
Been there, done that, many, many times. I've got a whole Amazon
wish list that is almost nothing but DVDs, and my family dutifully
helps me get what I put up there, since they otherwise have
absolutely no idea what to get me for my birthday or Christmas.
There are even whole magazines published in the UK (and
presumably elsewhere) that are devoted to reviewing Region One DVDs
as soon as possible, so that their readers can contact one of the
advertisers to buy the desired product.
Same with buying Region Two DVDs at Amazon.co.uk (or wherever)
and shipping them to the US.
Typically, the Region One DVDs that are released are better than
the equivalent DVDs released in any other region. They have better
encoding, more special features, etc....
In my experience, the only time where this rule has fallen down
has been when the movie in question is not American (e.g., the Harry
Potter films). Then they tend to make the best DVDs for their local
market (wherever that is), and the Region One DVDs tend to suffer.
As far as TV programs are concerned, I don't know that there is
any significant difference.
However, from a technical perspective, I can tell you that it's
not too hard to buy DVD players over here that can be configured or
easily modified to play Region One DVDs, and include features to
automatically convert NTSC output to PAL. You can also buy TVs over
here that can take NTSC input and convert that to PAL for display.
But finding equipment in the US that can play non-Region One DVDs
is much, much harder. Same for finding equipment in the US that can
deal with PAL.
--
Brad Knowles, <brad.knowles@skynet.be>
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
-Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania.
SAGE member since 1995. See <http://www.sage.org/>; for more info.
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