h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://www.h2g2.com/A475346

This is a short piece about the fun you can have NOT cracking your DVD player but feeling smug that you have firmly beaten the Studio System's attempts to restrict what you can buy.

Hopefully it's informative too. A lot of people probably don't realise that different region 2 countries sell different DVDs.

Do any other researchers have overseas DVD-buying experiences to share? Or sites in yet other region 2 countries to recommend?

Hi Tatsuya,

That's really interesting, and the sort of life-enhancing info we need round here - especially the lateral thinking about buying from Japan.

It would be nice if you put in a footnote explaining 'cracking' - although it can be deduced from context, a point just making it absolutely clearly will make the piece more readable.

Of course the "this week" reference about fromJP.com hopefully won't outlast the editing process, let alone the lifespan of an article. Best to put in the reference "straight", with a footnote about the temporary interruption, which the Sub can remove once (s)he's checked it's working at that time.

Good stuff, though!

GVI

Thanks for the comments (and the confidence boost ).

I've made the changes you suggest (and also added a link to a region cracking site), and made a couple of other tweaks and corrections.

I enjoyed this article - would it be possile to include a mention of the exact borders of DVD regions, and perhaps mention that DVD drives don't seem to be regional.
Other than that, great.

<BB<

There could be a whole discussion on regionality and multi-region machines/drives - it'll have to be up to Tatsuya whether that angle appeals.

My own DVD drive is regionalised, though it has the capacity to change regions, but only 5 times in the drive's life . I have no idea whether that could be changed by a person with the appropriate technical skills, but the simplest solution for me will be to use a PlayStation2 for Region 2 (when I can get my hands on one) and switch the PC to Region 1.

I like the idea of this entry, but think it could use a bit of an introduction -- i.e., a paragraph explaining DVDs and the whole concept of DVD regions. Maybe even making an analogy to the geographic differences in VCR tape formats.

Plus, many of the links on the entry are in violation of the House Rules.

Mikey

Yes, there's some useful stuff here, and if you follow mikey's advice above you should get near to the edited guide.

Imho the zoning system is on the way out now. It is very very easy to buy multi-zone DVD players for a few pounds extra. Any model is very easily modified. They are readily available in shops with Indian/Pakistani (for example) staff and/or clientele. I am sure the same applies wherever communities want to be able to play imported DVD's. I am sure it will be a forgotten scheme in a few years. Power of the people.

Mikey - I suspect the links are fine because they link to the front page of the various sites, rather than to the "buy here" pages - and because a selection of sites is given, rather than plugging one in isolation...

I agree with GVI that a full discussion of the regionality issue is beyond the scope of this entry - it *could* be done, but personally I'd prefer to see a seperate entry concentrating on it.

What this entry really needs is a link to the excellent Edited entry on "DVD Video" at http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A277427. That solves much of the regionality thing, as well as the introduction thing.

yup, the links are OK (I was absolutely wrong on that one!), but I have to admit that the entry leaves me rather confused.

For example:

This whole sentence pretty much lost me: "Now while it is true that most Hollywood films are released in the US much earlier than Europe, and that there is a large back catalogue available on Region 1, the situation in Region 2 is not as bad as the magazines claiming to list "every region 2 DVD" are making out, particularly if you like art-house or world cinema."

(I got the first part, up to the first comma -- it was after that I got lost.)

Later, it says that you can get UK or France Region 2 DVDs at Amazon. Then, the next paragraph talks about how bizarre it is that you can't get Region 2 DVDs from Amazon. I know I must be missing something here, but I'm not entirely sure what it is.

Help!


Mikey

I think it's saying that region 1 is supposed to have a better selection of DVDs, but really that's not true (particularly if you prefer non-Hollywood movies) whatever the magazines say.

for my own information what are PAL and NTSC?

I'd also like to see a small introduction on DVDs and the regions

but it's definetly an interesting article, and well done

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