simple question....
should i buy a european or american playstation 2.
main reason is most of my dvds are R1
and ive heard that ps2's sold in europe
only play R2 discs.
thanks
p

It depends on a few factors but I'm sure there are others in additon to the below.

Does your TV accept NTSC? I am assuming that it does as you already own Region 1 DVD's, but if you already have a DVD player that plays Region 1, why bother with a US PS2.

Remember that if it goes wrong, you may have trouble getting it repaired.

You will have to buy a converter for the power pack.

You will have to pay over the odds for US import games.

I am personally buying a UK PS2 for the above reasons.

thanks for the advise
i thought i might be able to pick one
up cheaper from the states
p

You could get one from the states if you wanted to but I doubt you could get your hands on one. The US have had their allocation cut in half to 500000 until the end of the year.

Lets hope the UK allocation isn't reduced.

I'd just wait on my ps2 purchase for a while and see how the modchip situation turns out. I gather sony has made it quite difficult for modchip developers this time round so it will probably be a while before we see a reliable dvd/game modchip for all ps2s.

I think in the long term you'd be better off buying a PAL machine just incase something goes wrong with it after you receive it. It would be harder to claim the warranty on an import.

Chris

Sony have just confirmed that the UK allocation has been cut from 200,000 to 165,000; even those who have preordered it aren't guaranteed to get it now, it seems.

I don't have one of these, but I have a friend who e-mailed me who does have
one. I'd like to have a couple of definitive answers. BTW, I told him the answers were NO and NO but I could have been wrong. I'm looking for some quick affirmation.

1) Is the Playstation 2 capable of playing regions other than 1 and 0?

2) Can the PS2 convert a PAL movie to NTSC to play on a standard U.S. TV.?

I'm pretty sure that the player was bought in the U.S. However,
if, by some small chance, it was purchased in Japan, would the answers to
the above questions be any different?

3) Is there any quick and easy way to mod a PS2 so that the answers to 1
or 2 or both would be YES (if they are not YES already)

I define quick and easy as a firmware flash perhaps or a chip replacement.
Of course, I would tell them that doing any mod would most likely void the
warranty.

Let me suggest that you try the following link to Amazon UK where you can check out the DVD Region X by Datel.

I am not sure about the PAL to NTSC conversion, but if you read through the user comments/reviews, you might be able to find all of the information you require. It has certainly gotten good reviews at the Australian DVDTalk equivalent DVD Plaza.

Edit: It appears that Amazon UK don't ship software outside of the UK and Europe, so you might want to try The Game Zone

Hope this helps.

regards, Tim..

1) No if purchased in U.S. If it's from Japan, it will play R2 & R0 only, but will only play Japanese PS2 games as well, so it's unlikely to be from Japan.

2) No, both U.S. & Japan are NTSC

3) There's certainly no easy way to get conversion, but afaik there are mod chips and the like for region-free play. I don't know how reliable or easy to install they are, though.

Thanks for the info. I'll be sure to pass it along. I wasn't even aware
of DVD Region X. It sounds like an interesting piece of hardware. From what I've read, it sounds as if the NTSC -PAL-NTSC is only fair at best.

I'm not really into video games anymore except the occasional game of Doom, so I don't see myself getting one. I'll tell my friend though.

From what I can tell, it doesn't do conversion at all, which is why you need an NTSC-compatible TV.

and 2)

2) Does it matter if the VCD is PAL or NTSC?

Thanks.

No.

Allow me to elaborate...

No.

and 2) yes.

Playstation 2 cannot play VCDs, but almost every player that can play VCDs can play either PAL or NTSC VCDs. Conversion is part of the VCD spec. I've tried playing a PAL VCD I have on 4 different brands of DVD players (NTSC) and they play back fine.

I was at an electronic store in the mall that I work at. I was looking at Pal Ntsc coverters. The salesman told me that those coverter were only for video cameras. He told me he had a cd that cost $120 that will make any dvd player region free and do pal ntsc conversions. So I told him can I see this magic disk. He showed me a Psx 2 region x. When I told him that it is only for the psx 2. He got angry and said to me"I know what I'm talking about." So I left the store. My question is Can I watch Pal disk on a regular Ntsc player if I have a Pal to Ntsc coverter? Should I just save up and get a player that does the conversion itself? Any info on the magic cd would also be appreciated.

If he's going to charge you $120 for the region X disc, I would just buy a Daewoo 5800 or Apex 1500 DVD player and use the controller to switch regions on it. You can buy a Daewoo for $90 from Sam's Club.

There are places to get DVD Region X online for $20. The answer: NO. This will not have any sort of PAL -> NTSC conversion.

i got a region x if you have anything to trade for it.

email me: [email protected] if interested

most US dvd players won't even attempt to play a PAL dvd. even if u have an pal to ntsc converter, it will depend on your player if it supports pal tv outputs at all.

Does anyone know if a similar device will be coming out for the X-Box soon? That way I won't have to get a Malata in order to watch HKL discs.

Head over to Best Buy or their web-site and buy the Cyber Home CH-500. It was on sale for $69 last week and does the proper PAL-NTSC conversion, can be made region free with a few clicks on the remote and to top it off is a progressive scan player. Worth the money to watch PAL DVDs.

Hi peoples.

I was just wondering ...

I have bought a DVD here in the UK ( says its region 2 on the box ) and I was wondering if Playstation 2's bought in the US will play it ? I am going over to the US for a few weeks and just wanted to know if I could show my girlfriend this nifty movie

Thanks in advance

- Happs

No PS2's from the U.S. are Region 1, unless you happen to have one of those from the first batch put out which didn't have any region coding (actually that may only have been in Japan, anyway). Not sure if they do PAL either.

Here is a review of a PS2 GameShark from ign.com. It says that it makes a PS2 region-free for DVDs. Unfortunately, it doesn't mention wheather it can do PAL->NTSC conversion or vice-versa, so there's no way of knowing. Unfortunately, most DVD players that can do the PAL->NTSC conversion, are not able to simultaneously convert anamorphic video to fit on a standard 4:3 TV, which makes them fairly useless, IMO.