DVD Player programming question

[doc47]

DVD players are programmed for different international zones. Does anyone know how to re-set a DVD player for a different zone? or where to find instructions to do so on the internet?

 

The machine I brought from the States is having a hard time digesting European-generated DVDs.

[Bill_Walker]

I think you're out of luck, Doc. North America uses the NTSC encoding system, Europe and others use the PAL system. I'm pretty sure the differences are built in to the hardware.

 

Unless you're just talking about the "region number" coding. You _might_ be able to fix that. I'd check over at avsforum.com if I were you. Lots of A/V wizards over there. Probably an FAQ on it.

[Allen Rowand]

I don't know if you can reset the zone coding; it's usually written into the firmware. You would need to purchase a region free player to read the disc. I have no idea as to reputation, but take a look here:

 

http://www.regionfreedvd.net/

 

These also seem to convert between NTSC and PAL.

[DavidEBSmith]

Try the list here and look for your player. You might get lucky.

 

A DVD drive in a computer will allow you to change regions, but only 5 times until it locks to the last region played. So could have a region 1 drive for US disks, a region 5 drive for Africa disks, etc.

[doc47]

A Swedish guy here told me that if you set the machine to Region Zero it will be region-neutral. His impression was that the machines are re-progammable but that the manufacturers kept mum about that.

Thanks for the references. I'll check them out and report back.