Military related video Help!!!

[Barry Churcher]

Once again I would like to call upon the expertise of this forum for a computer/video problem. I have been given a copy of the Dutch movie Zwartboek and the KTR magazines on DVD. The problem is they are in the European PAL format and I can't watch them on my computer or my DVD player. The local business that can transfer them to the North American format can't do anything that is copyright. Is there any kind of computer program that I can get or do I have to buy another DVD player that will do both? That seems kind of $$$$$.
Barry

[RHClarke]

Look for the region indicator on your DVD case. It usually is a single digit up to 9 and including 0 as follows.

Region Countries

0 No Region Coding
1 United States of America, Canada
2 Europe, including France, Greece, Turkey, Egypt, Arabia, Japan and South Africa
3 Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo and Indonesia
4 Australia and New Zealand, Mexico, the Caribbean, and South America
5 India, Africa, Russia and former USSR countries
6 Peoples Republic of China
7 Unused
8 Airlines/Cruise Ships
9 Expansion (often used as region free)

Check your DVD software to see if you can select the region and enjoy the video.

Cheers!

[Geoff Winnington-Ball (RIP)]

There's another way too... one of our people at work did it for me for a couple of Keefy's DVDs. It involve dumping the contents of the DVD onto your hard drive, changing the code and then burning a new DVD. No, I don't know where that is located, but I might be able to find that out for you tomorrow.

Be advised the picture on PAL is of slightly different dimensions, so (IIRC) a little of the top of each 'frame' will be cut off - it's generally not intolerable though.

Let me know if you want me to dig into this - others, perhaps Keith, might have a better idea.

Jif

[Keith Webb]

Originally posted by Barry Churcher
Once again I would like to call upon the expertise of this forum for a computer/video problem. I have been given a copy of the Dutch movie Zwartboek and the KTR magazines on DVD. The problem is they are in the European PAL format and I can't watch them on my computer or my DVD player. The local business that can transfer them to the North American format can't do anything that is copyright. Is there any kind of computer program that I can get or do I have to buy another DVD player that will do both? That seems kind of $$$$$.
Barry

In theory you should be able to watch them on your computer - but if there were a region conflict you would expect some sort of error to that effect.

DVD players and modern TVs in most countries (other than North America) play both PAL and NTSC but for some reason they are hard to find over there... perhaps you should ask your local superstore whether they can advise which cheap Chinese or Korean made DVD player will support PAL as well - they will also be able to tell you how to make it region free - they almost all seem to be able to be cracked with some simple inputs from the remote - again ask before you buy. Even the extremely cheap ones (sub $100) here are capable.

HTH, Keith

[Paul Singleton]

There are quite a few programs available to allow the watching of DVD movies. I did a search and found this one,

http://www.dvdregionmaster.com/

There is probably free software available with some searching.

At one time I had a Philips DVD player that allowed the selection of the region code in the main menu, maybe some are still around but I don't remember the model.

Paul

[wim sikkelbein]

Barry, the KTR-dvd is for your computer only, it will not play on a dvd-player. also if you have a dutch zwartboek dvd then i'm not sure that you got english sub-titles.

[Barry Churcher]

Thanks to everyone who replied. Great support on this forum! Dirk did as Keith suggested and went to Canadian Tire today and bought a Chinese model on sale that will do both PAL and NTSC. Wim, the lack of English sub titles in Zwartboek is not an issue because I only want to watch Carice van Houten anyway. The bad news is the KTR video only working on the computer, so I will have to do as Paul suggested and spend some time looking for a download or prevail upon Jif to help. Thanks again for everyones input.
Groet,
Barry

[Rob Beale]

DVD players that support DivX format can often play computer video files on a TV

It may be worth trying out at a retailers shop?

Rob

[Barry Churcher]

Well as many of you have indicated, there may be a region problem. We played Dirk's DVD on the new machine and it was perfect and the subtitles were in Dutch, as Wim pointed out. When Dirk got home he sent me an English subtitled version and also a DAF test track DVD. The DAF one played perfect but the Zwartboek says wrong region. Emails to Daytek, the manufacturer got no response. After doing some research on Rob's post on the regions I found that there are sites to crack the code using your remote. There are no cracks for a Daytek. Why sell a machine that does PAL and HSTC but wont play a different region movie?
Frustrated
Barry

[Peter Nenadovich]

Greetings All,

The Paul Verhoeven movie was released in North America several weeks ago under the title "The Black Book". It's easily rentable from most video stores. I saw it, it's quite an engrossing thriller.

Peter Nenadovich