I am filled with frustration, and surely someone here will be able to help me.
I am a big fan of Christy Moore, and recently ordered one of his concert DVDs from an Irish website. The website proclaims that the DVD is playable Worldwide, or else I would not have ordered it, duh. Well it arrived today, and after my daily chores I put it in the player and sat back to enjoy the music.
Not.
When the disc is put in the player this text comes up:
Disc Error
–Please eject the disc.–
Playback feature may not be available on this Disc.
Did I receive a DVD which won’t play in the USA? (A rhetorical question, I fear.) It isn’t the player, as I immediately tried a couple of my own known-to-be-playable DVD’s, and they began with no hesitation. I have emailed the seller in Omagh, Co Tyrone, but it would be helpful if I had some spot on information just in case the seller proves less than helpful.
I do not know. I have examined the DVD and the case and see nothing which would indicate such. The Sony/BMG and Columbia trademarks are there, and the fact that it was made in the EU.
How can I determine, when buying online from Ireland and Scotland specifically, that what I get will work with my machine? Any suggestions?
North American TVs and DVD players play video in the NTSC format, while the UK, Ireland, Australia, and a bunch of other places play in PAL. This means that the video is different resolution, and also runs at a different speed (frames per second).
Because the US is such a big producer of content, plenty of players in PAL countries also play NTSC. It is also quite possible to buy players in the US that will play PAL. A friend of mine had one, and it only cost him about $50.
One place where this won’t be an issue is on a computer. Basically, computers don’t care which format the DVD is in; they will play either PAL or NTSC discs without a problem. Pop your disc in your computer and see if it works.
I just searched their site and found no general information at all about DVD formats. I think this is inexcusable for a company that takes international currencies and ships order overseas.
Some individual videos warn about compatibility issues. For example, this one warns that the DVD is PAL, and will not play in the US.
But then there are DVDs like this, which says “This DVD will play in all DVD players Worldwide.” This is almost literally impossible. What they mean, i’ll bet, is that it is a region-free DVD. This means that it doesn’t matter what region code your player is. But even region-free discs must be either PAL or NTSC, and cannot be both at the same time.
They really need to get their act together regarding video types.
I have never had a problem playing a PAL DVD in my computer, no conversion required (although region coding can be an issue).
mhendo I am getting the desktop fired up to try running it there, and am bookmarking your link AngelSoft.
Oh frabjous day! mhendo you totally rock! Thanks! I need to switch out the smaller moniter for the big one, but I’ll happily sacrifice space for this. You made this little grey duck very happy.
AngelSoft thank you, too. I will look more closely to the information you sent after the show, thank you too!
I still think it’s a bit, what? Disingenuous to market a DVD as compatible worldwide.
Yes, that is the site. I won’t be ordering from them again.
It’s more than disingenuous. It’s complete bullshit, is what it is.
They clearly know that there’s a difference between Region Codes, on the one hand, and PAL/NTSC formats, on the other, because they specifically say that some of their DVDs are PAL only, and cannot play in on NTSC equipment. Yet they still market other DVDs as being compatible with ALL players, which is basically impossible.
I can’t believe they haven’t receive a multitude of complaints about this from previous customers.
Anyway, glad you’ve got it working on the PC, at least. I don’t mind Christy Moore myself, although i prefer his brother.
I agree, but having it play at all made me too happy to be pissy right now. I will be waiting to see what they have to say, assuming that they answer this type of email. It’s not as if I am going to show up on their doorstep in the morning. Caveat emptor, I guess.
Luka is on my playlist too, although I am very fond of Christy. They do a great duet on I’m a Bogman. I think Luka made a good choice of stage names. :g:
Some Irish DVDs are released marked “Region-free” but I’ve had trouble playing them in US DVD players. However, the same discs usually played ok on a laptop’s DVD drive for some reason.
US DVDs will play OK on my (rechipped) player, and the TV (which isn’t new by any means) shows them OK. Unfortunately US viewers won’t have that same compatibility.
If you play them on the (Windows) PC more than a certain number of times the PC adopts that Region as its permanent one and won’t play other Region’s discs. It is apparently possible to fix this, though.
The reason, as mentioned above, is that there are at least three potential areas of incompatibility - the DVD region code, the video resolution, and the video frame rate. The latter two together are informally (but, strictly speaking, incorrectly) referred to as PAL, NTSC etc. A “region free” DVD only solves the first problem.
To handle the latter two you need a player and display device capable of handling them. Any computer should be able to, many DVD players and TVs aren’t.
Thank you for the responses. While I understood that not all DVD’s are created equal, I naively assumed that if a vendor sold DVD’s as playable worldwide that they would be. My ignorance was fought, and I learned a couple of new tricks. All’s well that ends well.
I have no trouble with this thread being hijacked An Gadaí, unfortunately, I haven’t a clue. Perhaps someone else much more knowledgeable will come in here and enlighten us.
I am getting on a bit with Irish pronunciation, btw. What a pretty language.
Yes, but you’d have to have the same footage encoded on it at least three times- like on discs which come with widescreen and normal versions of a film on the same disc. You’d need one PAL version, one NTSC version, and one in SECAM (for Japan and the Far East).
The problem is that PAL has a higher resolution and lower framerate. The framerate is not a problem in itself, but the resolution is. Regular cathode-ray TVs can only display a set number of lines. That may not be a problem with LCD or plasma screens, now that I think about it.
It’s technically a problem, since LCD and plasma screens only physically have a certain number of lines, but they’re already scaling a standard DVD up anyway, so it isn’t really a problem. As such.