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(Canadian?) DVDs

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7th March 2001 at 9:23 am #46226
Anonymous
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quote:

Originally posted by FX:
[b]
cat just started a new job a couple of weeks ago (how’s it going cat?!) so what with the hoo haw over the uncon and various other developments i am sure we are all a little lost at this point…[/b]

I didn’t mean to sound like I was frustrated with Cat…I’m just tired of Videoflicks getting the info wrong. Nothing personal, Cat. Sorry if it came across that way.

quote[quote][b]but aleck, do you know anything about european releases or is that completely out of your bailiwick except for rumor? [/b][/quote]

Euro releases in general, or LEXX releases? As far as LEXX goes, I gots no overseas info.

quote[quote][b]i guess i am going to have to break down and buy a dvd player, which is okay since i am having difficulty programming my latest vcr any way, are there any incompatibility issues between european and us dvd or is it a moot point since it’s all digitized data so the only issue is language? [/b][/quote]

For completely stupid reasons, the DVD market is broken up into regions. North American releases are Region 1, UK/Western Europe is Region 2, Asia is Region 3 (I think that’s how it works…I know UK is Region 2). DVDs that are region-encoded are only playable on decks that are set up to play that region’s discs. Kinda like the European PAL standard for VHS and the US NTSC standard. One isn’t compatible with the other. There are DVD players that can allow you to bypass region encoding (as well as Macrovision copyright protection software), but some of them have their own idiosyncratic problems (bad audio-video matching, etc.). There are also discs that are made that are not region-encoded, and are playable on all players. It’s a complex issue. But, basically, like with Euro VHS tapes, you can’t play ’em on US decks.
DVDs are just about the neatest things in the world, though (speaking from a videophile standpoint, rather than a professional one). The sound is much better, the picture is TONS better, and there’s the opportunity to get tons of extra features like running commentaries, trailers, stuff like that.

–Aleck