Can foreign films play in US devices?

Question

I have a DVR that I use as a DVD player, and I guess I could use my computers if that doesn't work.

Answer 1

As long as it's in a Region 1 format.

Answer 2

In general, no.  There are two issues here:

1: Region encoding.  North America is Region 1, but Europe and Japan is region 2, other parts of Asia and the Middle East are region 3, and Australia is Region 4.  US DVD devices only play DVDs that are region 1 or region 0 (region 0 = "no region" or "all region")

2: Video encoding.  North America and Japan uses a video standard called NTSC, whereas Europe uses PAL.  The two are not interchangeable.  While most DVD devices can handle both formats, your TV most likely only handles NTSC.  It is possible to convert PAL into NTSC (or vice-versa) but most DVD devices do not have this feature.  Note: Laptop or PC DVD drives can do this conversion as they usually have to convert both NTSC and PAL into the video signal used by the computer.

This means, it's possible to get a region 0 disc from Europe, and still be unable to get it to display on your TV.

If you plan on getting a lot of foreign DVDs you might want to buy a region-free DVD player.  You can sometimes find these in Asian markets, or you can find them regularly on the internet.  

I personally like the ones from Oppo Digital (http://oppodigital.com)  In this case, you'll have to use Google to find the simple command you need to change the region on the player.  However, their players are VERY good, can be used to upscale DVDs if you have a HDTV, can handle tons of formats - including Divx, and can also convert between PAL and NTSC.