Hope someone here can help. I have a friend who wants to pick up some DVD's in the US but has concerns about whether or not they will work when she gets them back to Australia? Does anyone know the answer to this?
Thanks in advance
J

It depends. If s/he buys DVDs that are Region 1, they only play on devices designed for US and in Canada. Region 2 is Europe, NZ and Australia, Region 0 is worldwide, although I've had difficulty in the US with Region 0. Also depends on your player - if it is one which plays across all zones, it won't matter.

I think Australia is Region 4.

Most DVD players in Australia are actually all-region. Large numbers of Chinese imports arrive as all-region sets, which has created an expectation among buyers that retailers have been meeting (or so I understand) by disabling the region restriction. The large number of Australians travelling to Asian destinations where $1 pirated copies can be bought added to the pressure, of course. Don't spread any of this around...

All that is no guarantee that your friend's player is multi-region, of course, but the odds seem pretty good. If she knows anyone who has one of those $1 jobs bought in Asia she could borrow it and see if it plays. If it plays one other region (Asia) it will probably play American disks.

I think you'll find it's more the cheaper DVD players that are capable of playing most DVD's.

We have two players here at home - one a cheapie and the other a little more expensive. A US DVD we purchased will work in the cheap one but not in the expensive one. I understand that the cheaper ones don't have the 'bits' built in to prevent other regions being played.

I also heard that there were codes you could use to break through these barriers but am not too sure about it - you could try googling DVD player codes.

Either way it's going to be hit or miss with no guarantee that they are going to work.

Hmmm, intersting. I'm in the US and my son orders DVD's from China and Japan and they all play on our DVD player.

You learn something new every day.

Thanks all I will pass all this info on. Neil I know we have a mutual friend there who has lots of Asian DVDs so she will be able to try those out.
Thanks again everyone
J

There are a number of programmes that will let you play them on your computer.

AnyDVD is my favourite.