i was wondering about european dvd?
are they the same as us dvd movies?
if not, then what can i do if i wanted to buy a dvd movie in europe and watch it with on my jvc?
what are some good european online stores?

There are two main areas to consider.

1. The region code. Europe ( South Africa & Japan ) are in Region 2. You need a DVD player capable of multi region playback in order to view.

2. The picture format is different. Europe uses PAL not NTSC. You would therefore require a standards converter to view. Some DVD players have the capability to convert from PAL to NTSC but I believe it is very rare. The other possibility is if your TV has standards conversion built in ( again I understand it is rare for an NTSC market TV to have PAL capability ).

One possibility to avoid the standards conversion issue is to buy Japanese Region 2 as they are NTSC.

- North America = USA and Canada = Region 1 = NTSC = 30fps (frames-per-second)

- UK = Europe = Region 2 = PAL = 25fps

- the PAL television system (Europe) is incompatible with the NTSC television system (USA)

- however, most European television sets will let you watch NTSC programming, which is why many European DVD fans have 'chipped' Region 2 players, so that they can watch their imported Region 1 and 2 (also 3 and 4) DVDs

- the average US television set will not show PAL programming - tough, but true... - there are ways around this, and I'm sure some kind soul will come to your aid on this, soon...

! ;) !


[Edited by Hendrik on 02-13-01 at 06:13 AM]

...oh, almost forgot - here are the DVD 'Regions':

http://www.pioneeraus.com.au/multime...region_map.jpg

...and here are the three[!] mutually incompatible television systems (you can ignore the 'SECAM' sytem, since it does not apply to either Laserdiscs or DVDs):

http://www.high-techproductions.com/pal,ntsc.htm

. .. ... ;) ... .. .

ok then what are laser disc and how do the differ from regular dvd's? will laser disc play on my dvd player???

...before the advent of DVDs - which feature digital pictures and digital sound - the cat's meow (or dog's bollocks) of home video was the Laserdisc (now fast becoming obsolete), which -originally- featured analog picture and sound (like VHS tapes, but much better quality), later improved to analog pictures and digital sound. In-between the LD and the DVD there was also the VCD - but, certainly in the USA, you can forget about those (although they are very popular in the Far East).

...and, no! you cannot play LDs (which are the size of LPs!) in your DVD player...

! ;) !

play LD's in a DVD player
ah give me a hammer and some time and ill fit them in
;)
p