Gerry Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 Hey Rodney, I'm directing this to you because you're in Japan. I'm closing in on finishing my music video, and hoping to have it done by the holidays. My client wants to take a finished dvd to Singapore to premiere it for the musician, and I'm pushing to get it done. My question though is about dvd regions and whether a dvd properly burned in the US will play in Asia without any problems. I'm familiar with dvd regions but have only ever dealt with burning for N. American use. The one thing I don't want to have happen is to send a dvd and at the big showing it won't play. Of course anyone who has any helpful info on this is welcome to respond here! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted October 21, 2011 Hash Fellow Share Posted October 21, 2011 "region 0" should be playable anywhere and should be an option in your burning software. Another issue... do they have a display that can show it? Most of the world isn't NTSC like we were here. Are they on HD? Still on PAL? Singapore is ostensibly a PAL country with PAL TV sets that wouldn't normally play a NTSC format video even if it's the right region. But if they have a multi-standard HD set maybe it doesn't matter. Or does it still? Backup... give the guy a quicktime to play on his laptop if the DVD doesn't work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerry Posted October 21, 2011 Author Share Posted October 21, 2011 Dang, I didn't even think of PAL vs. NTSC. Yep, a QT or mp4 would be the fallback. I have no way of knowing how or where it will be played but I can look into it. My first thought is that they'll want to pop it into a dvd player and watch on TV, but that's just a guess. EDIT: I'm authoring it for DV but not HD since I can't burn or view BluRay disks at home. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted October 21, 2011 Hash Fellow Share Posted October 21, 2011 I'll add that many people in non region 1 countries apparently have multi-standard sets that let them play NTSC region 1 DVDs anyway. Because they got tired of waiting for a release for their region that might never happen. But you'd want to be sure of what your audience has available. You could also put it up as a private Youtube, presuming Youtube isn't blocked in that country. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
largento Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 Not to mention that many DVD players will play digital files from a disc. However, I'm thinking that you want to present it in the best light possible. Since your client will be hand delivering it, can he bring a portable DVD player (or better, an iPad or tablet device) that he can use to show the musician? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerry Posted October 21, 2011 Author Share Posted October 21, 2011 I need to deliver something as plain vanilla and easy to operate as possible. The client is a woman in her 70's who is computerly-challenged and the musician is her adult son. He's probably more hip than her but I have a feeling she will want to just pop it in and play it on his (presumably!) big screen TV. It's supposed to be like a surprise so it would be nice if if were as seamless as possible. I may just do two versions, one for computer and one for TV. Don't know yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Rodney Posted October 21, 2011 Admin Share Posted October 21, 2011 Data CD/DVD are regionless. It's the movie videos that have regions applied to them. As you have already guessed they are quite the pain and the geniuses who came up with the idea... well... they shouldn't have implemented it. Computers only have a limited number of times you can switch back and forth from one region to another without jumping through hoops to reset them. My understanding is that if you don't specifically apply a region setting then there shouldn't be one to prevent viewing but I'd need to confirm that. The region coding is something different than just PAL/NTSC which is also a consideration. All that stuff makes me want to become a pirate just to bypass all of that idiocy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerry Posted October 22, 2011 Author Share Posted October 22, 2011 Rodney, do you mean that if a region is specified for a dvd it will also affect how it plays on computers as well as TV sets? That's a complication I hadn't anticipated. Let me know if I'm understanding correctly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fuchur Posted October 22, 2011 Share Posted October 22, 2011 Rodney, do you mean that if a region is specified for a dvd it will also affect how it plays on computers as well as TV sets? That's a complication I hadn't anticipated. Let me know if I'm understanding correctly. Would be new to me... DVD-player are listening to the region-setting, but I don't think that computers do. Otherwise I would have had a problem playing my dvds I bought in the US on vacation... my DVD-player could not handle them, but my computer was not distrubt in any way... it is possible that some software DVD-player (like PowerDVD, etc.) may have something in that direction implemented but I doubt that too. At least VLC oder some equal, freely available player should be able to play whatever you give them, wether it is PAL, NTSC, Region 0 or Region 1 (or which region ever), HD 720p, 720i, 1080p, 1080i, etc. See you *Fuchur* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerry Posted October 22, 2011 Author Share Posted October 22, 2011 Thanks Gerald. That makes sense. I found this in the FAQ's of a dvd site: Regional codes are entirely optional for the maker of a disc. Discs without region locks will play on any player in any country. It's not an encryption system, it's just one byte of information on the disc that the player checks. Some studios originally announced that only their new releases would have regional codes, but so far almost all Hollywood releases play in only one region. Region codes are a permanent part of the disc, they won't "unlock" after a period of time. Region codes don't apply to DVD-Audio, DVD-ROM, or recordable DVD. Video on a DVD is stored in digital format, but it's formatted for one of two mutually incompatible television systems: 525/60 (NTSC) or 625/50 (PAL/SECAM). Therefore, there are two kinds of DVDs: "NTSC DVDs" and "PAL DVDs." Some players only play NTSC discs, others play PAL and NTSC discs. Discs are also coded for different regions of the world (see 1.10). NTSC is the TV format used in Canada, Japan, Mexico, Philippines, Taiwan, United States, and other countries. PAL is the TV format used in most of Europe, most of Africa, China, India, Australia, New Zealand, Israel, North Korea, and other countries. EDIT: Found this also: NTSC discs (with Dolby Digital audio) play on over 95% of DVD systems worldwide. PAL discs play on very few players outside of PAL countries. btw if anyone interested, the full FAQ is at http://dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Rodney Posted October 22, 2011 Admin Share Posted October 22, 2011 Region codes are a permanent part of the disc, they won't "unlock" after a period of time. The disc's don't change but the firmware/software that recognizes the region may. Unless I am mistaken in newer systems this will mostly be an issue tied to the DVD/Bluray player software... a byproduct of dealing with distributors of DVDs no doubt. Some newer systems might no longer have this problem... hopefully will not have the problem. The only software that I can confirm still uses this scheme is WinDVD which as far as I know still ships standard on a lot of laptops. The issue is a frustrating one because it's hobbleware that guarantees I will not support the product if I have any choice in the matter. As an example, my daughter came to me one day asking if I could reset her region counter. Her laptop had run out of authorized region changes and a search for a reset utility turned up nothing. This proved to be quite the pain for me too as I was trying to view Japanese language Studio Ghibli and English version DVDs on my laptop. You can see from the below graphic that for DVDs I have 1 more change left while on Bluray I have 4. Upon that last change I'd have to google a utility to reset the counter. Note however that the DVD regions are different than the Bluray... the US and Japan have been set to the same 'region' but Europe is not. I suspect that most people that view DVDs/Blurays on their computers will have either purchased the software or downloaded a viewer that ignores the regional limitation. The problem here is that your client's mother may not have. It's quite possible that even if she has a region limiting setup she might not have used up all of her changes. It does present something of a problem as you don't know the variables of her DVD software. Rodney, do you mean that if a region is specified for a dvd it will also affect how it plays on computers as well as TV sets? That's a complication I hadn't anticipated. Let me know if I'm understanding correctly. I have seen this regional madness on both computers and DVD players... and it pisses me off. Simply put... the genius behind this great hobbleware idea needs to be dragged to the gallows and/or shot. Region codes don't apply to DVD-Audio, DVD-ROM, or recordable DVD. That could be good news. I read that as... if the DVD is made in Hollywood then you may have problems. As you are creating the discs yourself and not mass distro'ing them ala Disney/Dreamworks... unless you specifically master them with the regional junk added... you should not have any problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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