Hi all, first time poster. I hope it's in the proper spot. OK, here is my situation. My folks came back from Germany with a burned DVD of a party of some sort. What can I do to get it to play on their DVD player? I know there are hacks out there, but there specific model I could not find. They don't have a PC to play it on, so that is not an option. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Could be 1 of 2 things that I can think of. 1. The DVD may be in a different format eg it may be PAL and should be NTSC, it depends where you live as to the format. 2. It could be that the DVD is a +R format or -R format and one of them is not recognized by your standalone player. You will find DVD-ROM is pretty much universal to modern players.
What device created that dvd? Pc-dvd-rw burner? TV dvd recorder? Dvd camera recorder? If it's a tv dvd recorder,maybe it was burned using vr mode instead of v-mode?
Region codes are on factory DVDs. Part of the copyright protection and has to do with timed releases in different parts of the world. Nothing to do with home movies. The problem is probably with the recording being done with PAL equipment and you now want to play it on NTSC. You probably need to do a conversion. Here's a site with a global map with popular formats. http://www.high-techproductions.com/pal,ntsc.htm There's software that will do the conversion. Here's a link to one of them and they tell how the problem comes about. It's just incompatible equipment and formats (short version). http://www.deskshare.com/dmc.aspx Here's another link for conversion "how to" and software. http://www.toolfarm.com/tutorials/ntscPAL.html
Thanks everyone for your responses. brobear, thanks for the links, I'm sure they will come in handy. Also for the clarification on the region issue. So basically it's either a formatting issue or player issue. Another question, could this particular dvd be played on a PC?
Player and format are just 2 aspects of the same problem. You should read the material on PAL and NTSC incompatibility. This is from the HighTechProductions site: There are 3 main standards in use around the world. P A L, N T S C, S E C A M Each one is incompatible with the other. For example, a recording made in the France could not be played on an American VCR or DVD player. If you or your clients view video tapes or DVD's that are from outside of the United States, or send videos abroad, you must first convert the tape or disc to or from the foreign television standard. The system used in America & Canada is called "NTSC". Western Europe and Australia use a system called "PAL", and Eastern Europe and France use "SECAM". Without standards conversion, it is impossible to view a video program that is recorded in a foreign country without first converting it. That pretty much states the situation and limitations. As for the PC, there you're using the NTSC format in the US. If the DVD is important, either get the software to convert it or have a company do it for you. It may be cheaper to have it done if you're not going to use the software again. Depends on the cost of the software or if you can find some freebies somewhere.
