Will most DVD players play both PAL and NTSC movies?

Question

I live in the United States and I have a friend that has a movie in PAL and I'm just wondering if I have him bring it over here to watch if I'll be able to watch it on my DVD player? Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

It's a bit more complicated than that, I'm afraid.

There's the issue of differing video formats - which you're aware of but then there's the larger issue of DVD regions.

DVDs are region-coded and most DVD players won't play a DVD that isn't the same region as the player.  North America is considered region 1, Europe and Japan are region 2.

Regardless of what video format the DVD is in, your friend's DVD won't play on your DVD player simply because it's the wrong region.

There are region-free players out there, that will ignore the region code, or can be configured to be of a specific region.  However, even then, you run into the other problem here - video format.  The DVD player will be able to read the DVD, but unless your DVD player can convert PAL to NTSC, or your TV can natively support PAL, you still won't be able to watch the movie.

A DVD player in a computer can handle this, but most of them aren't region-free.  It is possible to switch the region of the DVD drive in a computer, but you can only do this 4 or 5 times - after that the drive will be permanently locked to the last region you chose.  (yes, this is stupid.)

There are devices you can use to convert from PAL to NTSC, but I just prefer to use a DVD player that can do this for me.  The players from Oppo Digital (http://www.oppodigital.com) are highly regarded as amongst the best players on the market, yet they aren't very expensive.  They are all region-free, can convert NTSC and PAL, and will upscale up to 1080p if you have a HDTV.  Not bad for a $200 player.