Can the HD from a camcorder bought in US, downloaded to DVD by computer in Australia play on my US computer?

Question

Will DVD's burned on a computer play in all computers and/or DVD players worldwide?

Answer 1

What No Name is trying to say is that an HD movie in a digital file will play on any computer - regardless of the region its DVD is set for (NTSC, PAL, or SECAM).

If you have an HDV tape that was recorded in one region, it may not play properly in a camcorder from another.  You can record over the tape again in any camcorder regardless of region, but reading the video recorded may be a problem depending on the region each camcorder is set to.   Once the video is captured to a computer, you can view it on any computer or video device regardless of region.  You can also transfer the video to a camcorder from a different region.

You can bring camcorders from one region to another.  The camcorders from one region will film perfectly fine in another region - just be aware that other regions also use other power systems, so you may need to adapt your power cord for that region and voltage.  You can also connect a camcorders from one region to any computer in another region, but you can not view a video on a camera from one region on a TV set for another region unless the television is a newer multi-region model (explained later).

If an HD movie is burned to a MOVIE dvd, the dvd will only play in a dvd player set with the same the matching region that the dvd is set.  This ONLY applies if the dvd is burned as a MOVIE disc for play in a basic console dvd player.  If you burned the movie file to a DATA dvd, the dvd can be read in any computer's dvd drive because the dvd is acting like a huge data cd.

You can bring dvd players from one region to another, but the dvd player will only play movie dvds from the region it is et for.  The set region on many DVD players (especially those in computers) can be changed, but this can only be done up to 5 times.  After that, the last setting chosen is permanent.  If you need to view movie dvds from another region on your computer and you have extra drive bays (with extra data cable connectors inside the computer), you can purchase a new DVD drive for very cheap and set the that drive to the region you  need.  The new drive will data dvd but it will only read movie dvds for the region it is set.

Most dvd burners can be programmed or set to burn the disc for a particular region.   This is done in software settings, so if your burning program has this ability, it can be done as many times as needed.  If your DVD does not play in another DVD player due to region issues, there is a simple solution.  Find out what region that DVD player is set for, and if you still have the original digital video, you can burn a Movie dvd in that particular region.

You can also try using your computer to make a disc-to-disc copy, if you have a program that will do this - such as Nero.  Your disc-to-disc copy program may allow you to copy a dvd in one region format and save the new dvd in another region.  Many dvd programs may not allow this due to copyright worries.

One of the regions television is going digital is because digital video is not region specific.  Many HD televisions can accept connections from camcorders and other devices from any region and play their video regardless of the region in which the TV is located.

SD movies are sometimes region specific (depending on the format used), but they can also be transfered to a non-region specific formats as well.

Answer 2

Agree with mpcsecondtime...

You can use a DVD two ways...

==> If you burn a DVD with a video data file - like an .avi or .wmv or .mov or .mp4, then those files will play back in any computer that has a working DVD drive and a media player that can handle those data file formats. Most regular DVD players cannot read these computer data file formats.

==> If you burn a DVD as a movie DVD, then the computers will probably be able to handle it, but only certain DVD players will be able to use it - this is where the PAL vs NTSC issues and DVD zones come into play. There is no single DVD movie format that will play on every single regular DVD player worldwide.

Answer 3

pc's support ntsc and pal format so i do not see why not. but not all dvd players do.  depending on what region the player is in you can burn that dvd for it.