DVDs and region codes

DVDs. I have lots of them, well over a hundred, one day I will get around to cataloguing them but that is a post for my private anything goes blog, not this one. So, with all these DVDs I thought I would have a great time in Japan once my computer arrived. Why once my computer arrived? Because we all know that DVDs and DVD players are encoded with a region code (I think there are 6), plus they are also PAL encoded or NTSC encoded. My computer's DVD player is region free and as such it plays anything.

I know there are region hacks for DVD players but I've never tried them, there are also internal hacks, and there's no way in Hell, I'd try that. And then there are DVD rippers and burners where you can change the code. Bugger that. Talk about time consuming. I have a fast computer and fast software where I have backed up some of my DVD collection. A high quality burn takes a few hours, a low video quality takes 40 minutes (why would you want low quality of you are buying DVDs?), that's writing time I don't want to waste (you shouldn't use your computer if you are burning a DVD).

My TV over here has a built-in Bluray DVD player. I am not a Bluray fan but they won the DVD war and in Japan it is very hard to find non-Bluray players. And when you do they are all region 2. Most of my DVDs are PAL region 4 or NTSC region 1. NTSC is the standard Japan uses but the region for DVDs is 2. So I know all my DVDs don't play.

Then I remembered when I was first in Japan I was looking in a video store for a cheap region free DVD player. I found a stack of DVDs for sale at a cheap price $60 (this was like 9 years ago). I enquired of the clerk if they were region free. He said no. In Japan only region 2 (he was very blunt about it). But this DVD player was made in China, and my thinking at the time was that cheap products are built en mass and most likely these DVD players just have a sticker saying what region it was. So, I bought it. The wife was against the purchase. We plugged it in and I rocked while watching region 1 DVDs I had bought online.

So remembering this, I thought I would look in some video stores again and see if I can find the same type of cheap DVD player. No luck in the local stores, I needed to visit a big chain store but in my town there aren't any lol.

Yesterday the wife and I had just got off the train and were walking through the shopping street and we saw a lady selling all sorts of things, cd, dvds, radio players. I went to look at the DVDs as I want to get Resident Evil 4 (haven't seen it yet). The set up was a couple of tables covered with a sheet and heaps of stuff on them. including a made in China DVD player for $20.00. It was tiny. We bought it on the off chance it played region free like the last one. And it does.

Last night the wife and I and Wolf enjoyed Rise of the Lycans (again). Tonight we will enjoy Finding Forrester.

So if you are bringing a collection of DVDs over to Japan with you or you want to buy cheap DVDs online (like I do), then get yourself one of these players. They work a charm. Large video stores have them, I think.