Downton Abbey

[BlueToffee]

We recently bought series 1 and 2, having missed it when broadcast. Now we are keen to purchase series 3 and 4.

Thumbing through the pages of eBay I notice a lot of those offered for sale say, Region 2 or Region 4.

I really would appreciate it if someone could explain the difference between these 2 Regions

[JoolsTwo]

This should tell you all the regions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD_region_code

[BlueToffee]

Very grateful Jools, thank you.

[mikey4444]

I have never really understood why DVD need regional coding in the first place. In the early 70's I cam back from my first trip to the States with arm loads of LPs, and cassettes, as they were much cheaper there. Years later I brought back CDs. But these could be played anywhere, on pretty much anything. So why did DVD's have to be different ?

As it is easy to buy a DVD player that plays any regions DVDs, what is the point in coding them ?

[Zacs-Master]

Mikey:
http://hometheater.about.com/cs/dvdlaserdisc/a/aaregioncodesa.htm

[Ellipsis]

> As it is easy to buy a DVD player that plays any regions DVDs, what is the point in coding them ?

It didn't use to be so easy. The region code was built in to the DVD standard and the early DVD players. It was very frustrating at the time.

The article posted by Zacs-Master seems as if it was first written during those frustrating early days of DVD, but that was all a long time ago now. Region-free players (i.e. players that ignore the coding standard) are now widely available.

[mikey4444]

Thanks zacs and eliipsis. I can see now why DVDs were produced years ago in regional versions but I can't see why older films, released on DVD are still coded. The Guns of Navarone, et all, were made many years ago, so hardly need any protection now. And as universal DVD players are now so widely available, I can't really the reason why new DVDs need protecting either.

By continuing this daft practise of coding only seems to add to the confusion.

I have an even bigger problem. Some friends in America have sent me a wonderful DVD all about my favourite architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, but I can't see how I can play because it isn't in PAL format, but NTSC instead. Any help gladly accepted !

[bhg481]

Mikey - if you type "ntsc to pal converter" into Google you should come up with some free software.

[Ellipsis]

Sometimes a distributor only has rights in a certain area so region encoding can stop grey market imports, etc. Plenty of DVD players are still sold with region coding, which is enough to make film companies continue to use the system. E.g try buying a region free DVD player from Currys.

As for your NTSC problem, have you tried just playing it? Many combinations of DVD player and TV would play it these days. Again, it's something that used to be a bigger problem than it is now. See this article, for example, for more details:

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/askjack/2007/jul/05/watchinganntscdvdjustpres

[mikey4444]

Thanks you last two...as soon as I get home I will give it a go ! ( Still on hols in West Somerset at present)

[Memore]

You can get Series 3 through Netflix\Lovefilm - get the 30 day free trial and then cancel it - I watched Series 4 through ITunes for 16.99 for the whole series.