Question About US DVDS (R1)
Submitted by Rushmore on Tue, 05/17/2005 - 03:50
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- Hi, i was wondering if maybe anyone has any asnwers to these questions:
- 1) are Canadian and American DVDS the same region? (US = R1)
- 2) on My Everybody Loves Raymond dvd (R1) it has a "canadian rating" label which is round and blue, do all dvds in the USA have these on them or just canada?
Thankyou for your time
1. Yes -- 99% sure, at least (as I have one DVD from Canada that I've never had problems with.)
2. I've never seen such a label -- I don't recall seeing one on my eXistenZ DVD (my one Canadian DVD). So I'm thinking just Canada, if it's not some weird flukey thing. Is the label on the box, or the DVD itself?
thx Kza, much thx. the label was just on the box, i've only seen it a couple of times from US bought dvds, so yes could be a fluke. anyway thankyou for clearing that up.
1. Yep, both are R1, definitely. :)
2. As far as I know, PlayUSA [which I assume is where you ordered from] get DVDs from Canada; Canadian DVDs usually have a Canadian Home Video rating sticker on, similar to the BBFC ones here, whereas US DVDs get away with a singular minor mention in small print on the back.
:-) ah i see. i think what i'll do is check out dvdconcept, order one from there, also because of the speed of arrival. have you come across the blue sticker yourself then? thx.
I have, it's been on many of my US DVDs, including Simpsons, King Of The Hill, The Waltons, Malcolm In The Middle, and possibly Frasier. Wondre if DVD Concept use Canadian DVDs too..
Also, if you do try DVD Concept, tell me how you got on!
Then I have an additional question (don't want to highjack your post here, but since it's already answered. :) )
I'm from Europe and have a region free DVD player, can I play American DVD's? (So region isn't an issue, but I've heard things about PAL and NTSC or whatever they are). I've asked around when I was in the US, but no one could give me a definite answer. :)
I'm Canadian living in the UK, and I played my Lord of the Rings DVD (bought in Canada) on my friend's region-free DVD player with no problems. My understanding is that most DVD players sold in the UK now are region-free, but they aren't really allowed to advertise as such.
As for PAL/NTSC, video tapes are not so easily got around. I don't think there are many video players that will play both (if any?). We're selling all of our video tapes here in the UK before moving back to Canada. It really sucks because my boyfriend is English, and had accumulated a really good collection of movies over the years. Oh well, time to move on to DVD I suppose.
I have a question, though. I know that most UK DVD players are multi-region, but are they readily available in Canada? Is it worth it for me to buy any DVD's while I'm here in the UK to bring back with me when I move home?
well first check the specs on your dvd player, and yes most now are multi-region or region free, but i do think its worth checking your dvd player before buying a UK dvd, just incase it does not work
You're from Europe, so I assume you have a player originally designed for R2, and as Japan (which comes under R2) uses NTSC, that won't be a problem for the player itself. As long as your TV can handle it - and most, if not all, TVs can - it will be fine. When you play a US DVD, however, you may need to manually change your player to NTSC if it doesn't pick it up automatically. Things are slightly more difficult the other way around (American multi-region player trying to play an R2 PAL disc) as no R1 areas come under PAL areas, so the players often can't handle PAL by themselves, but that's not an issue for you.
I can just advice you to be careful, if you want to watch it on your PC. My DVD-ROM is Region 2, and I once inserted a DVD R1. After that, I could buy a new DVD-ROM!