PAL vs NTSC DVD compatibility

[UKbob]

Do most UK computers/laptops play american DVD's - and are codecs freely available to enable play in the UK? Never really experimented or read up on regional compatibility, seem to recall coming into possession of al gores environmental preaching flick once, which wouldnt play on anything except the computer, ahem.

[martinmac]

Dont know f this will help but there are websites which give you codes to programme DVD player to handle different region discs. I seem to remember they are mostly made the same but the region code is programmed in depending where they are sold.

This is one site from a google search "dvd regional codes" but there are plenty.
Hope this is of some use.

http://www.dvdcodes.net/

[jimmyjimjim]

Yes, you can play UK/US DVDs wherever you like, says he with a UK PC in the US.
The easiest thing to do is ditch codecs altogether and go with the VLC player:-

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

Free, and the most versatile player out there.

Other players tend to ask you to change the region that the pc is in; after a very few times the pc becomes effectively locked to that region. Videolan just plays the bloody thing.

[Zumbruk]

BTW, the DVDs are not encoded in PAL or NTSC - these are encoding schemes for *broadcast* TV, not recorded media.