DVD regional encoding question?

[keithhr]

A relative of my wife's is going back to Australia and was planning on taking back her stash of DVD's purchased in the USA and I told her that they would probably not be playable unless they were region 4 encoded discs playing in a US encoded DVD player. I didn't want to be the bearer of unpleasant information but wanted to be at least informative.
Am I correct in telling her not to waste her time taking the discs back to Australia,
thanks for any info,

 

[raggie33]

keith some dvd players can be region hacked

 

[paulr]

US players usually only play region 1 discs. Basically your two approaches are to get a hacked (region free) player that can play any discs, or take a region 1 player back to Australia along with the DVD collection. There are players that are very portable and cheap these days, so both approaches are workable.

 

[Joel]

It really depends on the DVD player that's going to be back in Australia. It may be one of the brands that can be "hacked" to be region free. I recently purchased an inexpensive DVD player (cost me about $25 after rebate) that I could hack (I entered a series of keystrokes with the player remote control) and now the unit is region free. Just Google "region free DVD player" and you'll find lots of different brands to choose from.

 

[GeoffChan]

I know that the newer dvd players are already modified to played multizoned dvds before they leave the factory.

I've seen them start at $80au for one.

Geoff

 

[BB]

I have found that several portable LCD players seem to be "region free"... One was an Audiovox brand (year or so old), the other was a Mintek (only a couple of months old). Both came with cables to connect to a TV.

Also, hang around stores where immigrants buy and sell electronics--many times they have region free players for sale (may have to ask nicely first).

-Bill

 

[gadget_lover]

I read about one brand of DVD player that determined it's region based on the first CD that was played. It also had a way to change the region, but only 5 times.

Daniel

 

[BB]

[ QUOTE ]
gadget_lover said:
I read about one brand of DVD player that determined it's region based on the first CD that was played. It also had a way to change the region, but only 5 times.

Daniel

[/ QUOTE ]

My older Compact Laptop PC does this too...

-Bill

 

[keithhr]

thanks all

 

[georget98]

I don't know about Australia, but in nearby (relatively) New Zealand, it is illegal to sell a region locked DVD player. So, perhaps they can find one locally. Take a look at www.dvdcodes.net