Posted by John Wilson on September 02, 2001 at 06:39:21 from 202.154.130.70:
For DVD see the site:
www.dvda.org/
go to the FAQ page by Jim Taylor
and then to “multimode” by Techtronics (Techtronics.com)
The DVD Regions are:
1 US, Canada
2 Japan, Europe
3 SE&E Asia
4 Australia, New Zealand, Pacific Is
5 E Europe
6 China (how lucky, their own zone! So thought control; no imported DVDs!)
7 Reserved
8 International Venues eg planes
Apparently there is strictly no Region 0 or all-region disc/player. With some “active” DVDs you have to set the player for the zone that the DVD is set to (if you can!). They will only play on a player for that region.
And while most DVDs for PAL (much of Europe) will play DVDs for NTSC (US), only a few DVDs for NTSC will play DVDs for PAL.
PS The TV transmission standard SECAM is French, but I think that Germany uses PAL? (And invented it - Telefunken??)
Another thing not mentioned at a quick glance is that for self-recording (?) DVDs there are THREE standards with Sony, Philips etc backing one or another.
Like PAL Video Recorders until VHS won over the alternative Beta and Philips (Philips 2000?) standard, though Beta said to be technically better? I remember that in New Zealand pre-recorded videos came out on VHS and Beta, then VHS and a trickle of Beta, then Beta only.
So better to wait and see which version of DVD wins ?
This may not apply to “replay-only” DVD systems?