Can this be done (DVD PAL Reg 2 to NTSC Region 1)

[gcutler]

Was looking at some ??????.co.uk web sites and they had some very cool DVD sets. There are british series that will never appear in the US. I don't have a multi region DVD player in the entertainment unit. But I have a question...


1) Can I play these DVDs on my PC (PAL and Region 2)?
2) I have a 3rd Party DVD Cutter utility which can take the VOB files and edit as resave as I feel (already made a "best Of" from multiple DVDs . Can I then take these VOB files and "Re-encode" them as NTSC (non region specific, have TMPGEncPlus util)).
3) Reauthor them so I can watch them on any US dvd player?
4) Will these DVDs be stopped in customs. They are legit DVDs, just region 2.

[Jasonbp]

Originally posted by gcutler
Was looking at some ??????.co.uk web sites and they had some very cool DVD sets. There are british series that will never appear in the US. I don't have a multi region DVD player in the entertainment unit. But I have a question...

1) Can I play these DVDs on my PC (PAL and Region 2)?
4) Will these DVDs be stopped in customs. They are legit DVDs, just region 2.

1) I saw something on Call For Help on TechTV and someone asked about this. The CfH guy said you put the Region 2 DVD into the PC and it would come up with a message saying the DVD wasn't from Region 1 and so it couldn't play. It asked if you would like to change to Region 2 to play the DVD. The DVD then played after being changed to Region 2.

PROBLEM (still from Call For Help): Say you wanna watch a Region 1 DVD. You will them have to change it back to Region 1. Change it back to Region 2 to watch your Region 2 movie, you have problem's. The DVD player will lock into Region 2 mode and you won't be able to switch it back. I guess you could buy a cheap PC DVD player and use that for Region 2. Have one of each. Or get an Xbox/PS2 mod the sucker and watch any DVD from any region on your TV.

4) After being looked at, licked, stomped on, and X-rayed it'll be at your house before you know it! :D It'll be fine. I import video games from Japan and England all the time. Never have had a problem.

I have no clue on 2 or 3.

[raj2001]

Originally posted by gcutler
1) Can I play these DVDs on my PC (PAL and Region 2)?

Yes you can. But you have to either change the region code on your PC or hack the firmware to be all region. The first method can only be done a few times before it locks to one region and the second method can possibly turn your DVD drive into a doorstop, and definitely void your warranty. That being said, both methods will do the job quite nicely.

2) I have a 3rd Party DVD Cutter utility which can take the VOB files and edit as resave as I feel (already made a "best Of" from multiple DVDs . Can I then take these VOB files and "Re-encode" them as NTSC (non region specific, have TMPGEncPlus util)).

Yes you can. You can use a program like SmartRipper which can remove region coding and the macrovision flag. Mind you, SmartRipper is illegal in the US & Canada and any other country that has banned DeCSS.


3) Reauthor them so I can watch them on any US dvd player?

Yes you can, as a matter of fact consumer DVD authoring software only allows you to make them so they play in any region. If they are PAL though, you need to convert them to NTSC using either TMPGENC or another MPEG encoder, or you have to have a multisystem TV. Most US DVD players can output PAL as well as NTSC even though they are only region 1


4) Will these DVDs be stopped in customs. They are legit DVDs, just region 2.

They're not illegal. You're free to bring them in the country or order them from www.amazon.co.uk.

Another option you may have not considered is hacking your DVD player to be region free. In some DVD players it is easy as a few keypresses, in others you have to flash the firmware, and in others you have to change chips on the motherboard.

[gcutler]

Looks like the only Undoable or PITA is the Drive being locked into Region #2.

But here is an alternative. I have in the past copied over the VOB files directly to the hard drive and extracted them there (as if the DVD was a data DVD). I have my PC DVD player set to not auto-play any DVDs. I wonder if that is a workaround, as technically the drive is just copying over the data and not playing the DVD.

I would be doing this enough so that having 1 DVD drive stuck in Region 2 would not be a total waste, but not preferred.

[raj2001]

Originally posted by gcutler
Looks like the only Undoable or PITA is the Drive being locked into Region #2.

But here is an alternative. I have in the past copied over the VOB files directly to the hard drive and extracted them there (as if the DVD was a data DVD). I have my PC DVD player set to not auto-play any DVDs. I wonder if that is a workaround, as technically the drive is just copying over the data and not playing the DVD.

I would be doing this enough so that having 1 DVD drive stuck in Region 2 would not be a total waste, but not preferred.

You can't just copy VOB's. You have to use a ripper, as most commercially produced DVD's are copy protected with CSS encryption.

[gcutler]

Not every movie DVD has copy protection (Nudge-Nudge, Say No More). But I do have a decrypter, but it looks like it only points to the drive. Well I ordered "Allo-Allo Series 1 & 2" and "Yes Minister Series 1 & Series 2" for a total of around $76 (current exchange rate and shipping) + the Potential of one Region 2 only DVD drive.

Is there anything specific about the PC that won't work fine when I put a new region 1 drive in. Or will something be messed up on the OS or CMOS on the PC was well of the old DVD player getting locked into Region 2)? Since a replacement drive DVD-ROM drive is around $50, I can justify the expense of having a Region 2 only drive (and swap them out when necessary)

I just finished migrating the entire "New Statesman" series from VHS and I am doing "The Rise and Fall Of Reginald Perrin", and will do the entire "Yes, Prime Minister" from VHS next. But since I didn't have most/any of the "Yes, Minister" or "Allo-Allo" I figured let me get them in DVD so when I convert them I'm dealing all digital and won't lose much PQ. The VHS converts are Good, but the PQ of the VOBed programs is much nicer :D

[gcutler]

Well Completed the process, not as simple in some areas not as easy as others...

After recieving Region 2 DVDs, do the following

1) Turn off Auto-Play of DVDs and on any CD in drive so CD just sits in drive. Otherwise will prompt about playing Region 2 DVD, and after 1-5 prompts by drive will be stuck as Region 2 drive. No need to bother...
2) Use DVD Decoder SW to remove copy protection, the one I used copies VOB files from DVD in the process of removing copy protection. This why in step 1, turn off Autoplay, you get the VOB files this way, no need to play actual DVD (you can put original DVDs away now)
3) Need to switch from PAL 25 frames a second to NTSC 30 frames/sec. Many products do this, but many not so well, bad products will lose voice sync over time. neoDVDPlus SW I had (not free) does this well, so I used it, authoring options not so great on neoDVD so not goint to use it to create DVDs, (if neoDVD was good authorer would pretty much be done). There are other freebies avaialble to do this. Basically I author a DVD with the VOB files found from step 2. Have it author files to hard drive instead of DVD-R. Even though files are still in VOB, they are NTSC format (biggest hurdle passed)
4) Need to translate VOB files as Encoded MPG file. Can use some powerful tools to import VOB and save as MPG. Or use smaller utils, Used VOBtoAVI to get AVI and then encoded using TMPGEncPlus to get to MPG.
5) Bring MPG into Authoring SW and author away, create DVD


If I was happy with simple publishing of neoDVDPlus, could cut time in half. One set of DVDs I did this way, and if you just want the stuff viewable without any fancy authoring tools then don't need beyong steps 3. But I wanted very custom menus and such so neoDVDPlus end up just being intermediary tool. Kind of expensive tool at $50, but I had purchased it for some abilities, ended up not using it very much because of lame authoring and other tools do similar jobs (but require set of tools, no one tool would complete project like neoDVDPlus)