I don't think that's how it works.

hmmm... the paramounts are back up to 14.95 on amazon...

Just a word of warning L'ARMEE DES OMBRES (HD-DVD) has NO English subs.

And yes, the titles are about 8.26 Euro each after Vat removal, and it was 4.96 to ship my whole order. 29.74 EUR = 46.4151 USD which is less than $15.50 a piece. FWIW I have never been hit with a fee, either.

PAL/NTSC does not exist in HD land. However, that doesn't mean that your HD DVD player will play standard PAL DVD's. It's only when they are HD DVD's that this is a moot point. That PAL designation is probably just old habit with them going back to standard DVD days.

Wish I could find a cheap 1408 HD DVD import.

I also noticed that they bumped up the $13.95 Universal titles to $14.95 and the $17.95 titles to $19.95. Maybe they are prepping for a BOGO.:fc:

HDMI has nothing to do with region coding, it only job is to carry video/and or audio... yes, it carries a crap load of different types of signals, but region coding is not an issue with this. HD DVD's themselves do not have region coding, so a HD DVD from anywhere in the world can be played in any HD DVD player...BUT, if you buy a HD DVD from a country that uses the PAL based system of 25 frames per second where as US is 30 FPS, it might not play even though there is no region coding. The ability of your HDTV also is an issue. I bought my sony bravia in europe, so it can handle both PAL and NTSC, so I would be able to play a region free HD DVD that was shot at 25 FPS in Europe.

Now, when you buy an HD DVD player, it is still region locked to the country you purchased in..so regular DVD's that are region coded will not work unless they match the region of player. So the players themselves are region coded, but the HD DVD's themselves ar NOT. Hope this helps;)

I have a Panasonic Plasma which in the spec manual says it accepts NTSC, SECAM, PAL, and PAL60. Guess I'll cross my fingers.

Yeah. I was considering the Criterion version a while back, but I figured, what the heck, might as well get in HD (almost didn't get it but decided for around $15...). I know a little French and German, but it's going to be an interesting night watching this, regardless.

On a more crappy note, buying overseas is going to get worse with the US dollar. :(

you should be good to go if its in the manual;)

started getting ezydvd shipping notices :)

Actually it does exist in HD Land. There have already been a few PAL releases in Europe, Death Sentence (HD DVD) comes to mind. And I know Sony has PAL formated HD master available for some titles.

I know they wanted to standardize everything to one format, but unless Europe changes their power system, you will not be able to do it.

fitprod

After an extensive search on the internet, I could not find Death Sentence on HD DVD as PAL?? Its an import from Germany...yes, but not PAL, and like I said even if it does mention anything about PAL... it is refering to standard DVD's, or the frame rate in which the movie was shot or transferred... but it does not mean it is region locked! Still have not found ANY HD DVD that is region locked;) which is a good thing... once again, the only limitations are in your TV's ability to play PAL's frame rates... But the players themselves will play Death Sentence here in the US if bought from Germany...

also, what do you mean by "standardize everything to one format, but unless Europe changes their power system, you will not be able to do it"? are you talking about the players or tv's or what?
*Note- if your tv is multi region, there is a good chance that it is multi voltage also...like mine:)

can anyone give me any info on the easydvd AU Battlestar Galactica set? was it plagued by the same problems as the U.S. one? i've heard a lot of horror stories about it and never bothered with it, but for $37 shipped it would be hard to pass up. (doesn't seem like the AU set has the miniseries included either?)

The frequency cycles in the power systems are different between the US and many European countries.

Ex: US is 110V/60Hz while The UK is 220V/50Hz.

Television refresh rates are based upon the frequency (60hz vs 50hz) of the local power system. PAL sources at based up 50Hz cycles, and will not match up with the NTSC counterparts. HD does not solve this problem, the resolutions are consistent, but the refresh rates are still different.

Even when the player can play back disc encoded at difference frequency rate, you may end up with audio pitch issues, "PAL Speed-Up," unless the film's soundtrack is adjust in post.

Moderators, perhaps this discussion should be taken out of the Clearance Sale Thread.

fitprod

fitrod, refresh rates are controlled by the tv's hardware, not the power they run off of. you are confusing me now..
Ex:mitsubishi lt-52144 52" LCD has 120 hertz refresh rate.
Either way, your right...we need to get back to HD DVD's on clearance..LOL

Q: But aren't these in the PAL format?

A: No, PAL/NTSC formats are a thing of the past with HD. Most movies are encoded in 1080p24 with the signal (50 Hz or 60 Hz) determined by the player.

Q: But *my store of choice* has it listed at a Region 2/PAL release!

A: Again, there is no such thing as region coding with HD-DVD. Most of the time when a store has a title listed as PAL or some different region, it's because they just copy & paste'd the DVD info.

HD-DVD players are region locked for DVD playback.

HD-DVD players are region free for HD-DVD playback. Any HD-DVD from around the world will play on an HD-DVD player.

Let's hope they're prepping for something. Their site still clearly states that all HD DVDs are a minimum of 30% off, despite having titles listed for $14.95 that have an MSRP of $19.95. It seems strange to have that discrepancy unless they're gearing up for a new sale.

Let's hope for a B1G1.

this is the key point that i think fitprod is missing. very few HD DVDs are on the disc at anything other than 1080p24. and the players that output at 50Hz most likely do a pulldown conversion that preserves the audio pitch. the "PAL speedup" is a mastering issue when it exists, not a player output issue. with HD content, the differing refresh rates are an issue with the hardware but almost never an issue with HD DVD software.

What are the differences (if any) between the HD DVDs that are Netherlands based as opposed to French releases? I ask because sometimes both are €9,99 while sometimes only one version is cheaper, does it matter which one I order?

For anyone in the Chicago area looking for cheap Weinstein titles, Fry's in Downers Grove looks to have freshly stocked about 15 copies of each Weinstein title - all are priced 9.95.

I poked my head in at my local Walmart Super Center.

They had a few HD-DVDs on clearance for $12 and a few @ $17. They were mostly the titles we've seen on sale at Amazon / DDD /etc.

I wrote Amazon earlier today to ask why some HD DVD titles were being sold for 20% - 25% off list when the main page stated everything was at least 30% off. Some rep just wrote me back and said that if I placed an order and brought it to their attention, they'd adjust prices to make it a 30% discount. I'm still leaning towards thinking they're getting ready for something along the lines of a bogof over the weekend.

^

The Universal titles are back down to 30% off.