We're looking at a hotel in Italy that has DVD players in the rooms. Will our DVD's from the US work in them? Might be a nice touch of home to see one of our favorite movies.

(I had a friend who lived in England for a few years. Their VHS tapes wouldn't work in British machines.)

Like many things, it depends!

There are zones for DVD players. The US is for Zone 1 and in Europe it's Zone 2.

Some players will work with world-wide zones. This is newer players. Then there area some players which the owner has "hacked" the player and it will cover different zones.

I have a DVD player in my apartment which I rent and it's for Zone 2 only. Maybe some day I'll "hack" this machine and open the ability.

Probably you won't be able to view your US DVD in Italy.

Blackduff

Depends on whether the DVD player is a region 2 only or a non-regional player (a lot of the newer European ones don't read the regions, the US is about the only developed country that really cares about the regions any more, and it's not like it's terribly difficult to get around). So, for your purposes, maybe.

Hi

You need a multi region player. Newer models have this feature. I think other OPs have said all this already :-B

Outside the US, DVD players are generally supplied multi-region or can be easily altered to be multi-region. The only exceptions are major brand names like Sony or Panasonic where they must be physically altered by installing a modified chip.

Doing a google search for "DVD hacks" followed by brand & model number will tell you what is needed.

You also need a compatible TV which can handle the output - fortunately in this case only the oldest of TV's won't work

If the DVD's don't play, then just go to the local equivalent of Walmart & buy the cheapest DVD player you can find & plug that in. The odds are that it'll work

alan...the OP is staying in a hotel and it is unlikely that they will want to hack the hotel's machine for a short stay...nor should they try to bring a US player and try to get it to work on a european TV.

to the OP...no, i would not bother to bring dvds from home because there is a good chance that they won't work due to the regional restrictions that movie distributors put on dvds. nor would i narrow my hotel choices on the provision of a dvd player in the room (as there is a good chance that it won't be usable with the movies you want to watch).

Thanks everyone. We can certainly manage if we can't watch a DVD. That feature of the hotel isn't the deciding factor (if we choose it).

If it's form a mayor brand, it will always be locked to region two, no exceptions. The no name stuff usually is code free. I havn't seen a region free Philips, Sony etc. player in the stores up to now. Unblocking usually isn't a problem!

walkinaround, I said "local EQUIVALENT of Walmart" ie a hypermarket type of place in ITALY. You should be able to get one for 30-40EUR is watching DVDs is important

>>>>
If it's form a mayor brand, it will always be locked to region two, no exceptions.
>>>>

at the risk of looking like i just disagree with everything you say, i will add that i own a philips that is region free. i purchased it that way. many high street stores at least here in the UK will sell their machines (name brand or not) region free. perhaps you mean that they are not region free from the factory. if that's the case, then i agree. however, many are sold as region free and most customers aren't bothered how it got that way.

walkingaround: you're right. As far as I know all major brands are sold region free. A couple of years ago they advertized region free players but not anymore as all are. At least here in Norway

I have two DVD players. Both are recent and both are limited to Zone 2. The first was a Scott machine and the second was a Schneider. I found a hack for the Scott and it works fine. I have found the hack for the Schneider but I haven't tried to see if it works.

I looked at all of the players at the big stores and they were all Zone 2 limit.

Whether it's France which requires the zone but maybe it's just buying from big stores which sell just the boxes.

Blackduff

The cheaper the DVD player the less restrictive it is, now to answer your question. Europe DVD'S are PAL and USA are NTSC. The same went for the VCR'S. Until we got HD tv the resolution was much better over there.

On that note, most probably your dvd will not play in europe. Now if your computer savy and you burn your own dvds you can convert them to PAL. Now the question is does the player in the room play DVD pluses or minuses. There are 2 types of DVD R'S.

Now to hack a DVD player can be as simple as putting a code into the remote. I had a website with the codes cant seem to find it at the moment.

So rent dvd'S and go to menu and put it on english and you should be good to go.

here we go http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks.ph...ome+CH-DVD+300

Oh Maire, while in Italy don't spend your time watching DVD movies in your hotel room. Be out and about enjoying Italy in the evening. Just my thought.

kr
"The cheaper the DVD player the less restrictive it is, now to answer your question. Europe DVD'S are PAL and USA are NTSC. The same went for the VCR'S. Until we got HD tv the resolution was much better over there."

I have a bunch of Zone 1 DVDs and they work fine with my Secam/Pal system machine.

I haven't used to try on my new DVD player. This is a PAL system only and the television is 100% Secam.

I guess it has to be tried to decide if it works or not. It's more informative than the film itself.

Blackduff

PAL, SECAM, and NTSC have no meaning for DVDs. The content is recorded digitally onto the DVDs, and while it may be adjusted to better suit specific television systems, it is not itself encoded in PAL, SECAM, or NTSC. However, DVD players may produce analog output for NTSC, PAL, or SECAM television sets. It is the type of output that the DVD provides that counts, not the type of DVD itself (there is only one type of DVD, practically speaking).

The zone system is an artifact invented by Hollywood lawyers, and does not reflect any true technical constraint of the system. It's there because Hollywood wanted to artificially interfere with the compatibility of DVD players. Cheaper DVD players are less likely to enforce these restrictions because they are built by companies that were not part of the cartel that insisted on the restrictions in the first place.

Anyway, apart from the zone business, DVDs are more universal than VHS cassettes by far.

Nice link that explains it clearer.

http://www.polishfilm.ca/skok/auxili.../dvd_syst.html

please note: All DVDs from Poland and Europe in general come in PAL format and region 2 or 0 (so called universal region - U)
The North American TV monitors work in NTSC system (unless multisystem). Therefore, your TV monitor is able to display only signal coming in NTSC format. That means your DVD player has to output the signal in NTSC system, no matter what system and region is the actual DVD.


Only DVD players which are both: multisystem ( PAL to NTSC / NTSC to PAL) and region free can read any region and any picture system signal in which the DVD is encoded and then convert it into the signal required by your TV monitor (NTSC or PAL). That is: processor of such a DVD player can convert the PAL signal from a PAL DVD into NTSC signal and output it to your NTSC TV monitor. End of the story.