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How can I watch PAL DVDs?
- Thread starter erkanasu
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I would think that they'd work fine in DVD Player as well. But if not VLC, a media player that lets you play all kinds of different video formats. Great for the broadspectrumness (yeah I know it's not a word) but I don't really like the GUI.
**EDIT**
sorry above link is to PPC version I think. Here's the page where you can get PPC or intel for OSX link
**EDIT**
sorry above link is to PPC version I think. Here's the page where you can get PPC or intel for OSX link
erkanasu said:
DevilsRejection means http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
But if your laptop is North American, to be able to play Region 2 DVDs (North America is Region 1) you just have to insert a Region 2 DVD and you'll be prompted to change your drive's region to Region 2. HOWEVER, be aware that you can only change the drive's region a certain number of times (five I think), so it's not something that you can switch backwards and forwards indefinitely.
If you try playing a DVD with a different region code than your drive in VLC, you'll just get a blank screen. Unless someone knows about a way around that?
It's a region coding thing not NTSC/PAL. Computers tend to be neither. They will display either standard fine.
If you get a Region 0 (i.e. no region code) PAL DVD it will play fine as will a Region 0 NTSC one.
If you get a Region 0 (i.e. no region code) PAL DVD it will play fine as will a Region 0 NTSC one.
erkanasu said:
it works. the problem is more than likely the dvd will be from a different region. do you think an open-source dvd player would not play pal? If you actually look at the site, you'd see that most of the developers and staff are in Europe.
robbieduncan said:
okay, that clears alot up for me, thanks. So, If i walk into a DVD store here in germany, will the DVDs i buy work fine then? What if its region 2, then I rip it removing the region? Where are region 0 dvds usually found?
erkanasu said:
You may not be able to rip it without making your drive region free or using up one of your precious region changes. Region 0 DVDs are found all over the world! They tend to be releases of minor films that the studios would prefer to release the same version everywhere. I have a few (generally Japanese films for some reason). Major releases are almost always region coded.
Region coding just proves that movie studios hate us!
erkanasu said:
Region-free firmware + Region X (I think it's called). You can change region as many times as you want and your drive becomes region-free at a hardware level allowing ripping without region changes (DVD Player.app still checks regions which is why you need to change region as often as you want).
I had it all working fine on my PowerBook G4. I havn't tried yet on my MacBook Pro (yet)...
erkanasu said:
It probably would void your warranty. The difficulty is even finding region free firmware. Good luck! If you find some come back and let us know...
If you're only going to be watching region 2 DVDs while you're in Europe, simply put the DVD in and let DVD player change the region. Then when you get back to the US, pop in a region 1 disc and you can reset it back to that region.
You can do this a few times (4-5 times, I think) so there's no danger of locking yourself out if you're only going to do it twice - once to region 2 and once to region 1.
You can do this a few times (4-5 times, I think) so there's no danger of locking yourself out if you're only going to do it twice - once to region 2 and once to region 1.
