DVD's, REGION CODING. & Television Standards.

When you are purchasing a DVD  from Amazon.com links on this site, please be aware of the region code of your DVD player.  If you live in the UK your player will probably be coded Region 2.  Unless you have had it modified to play all regions of DVD, or if you bought an all region player.   Neither of which by the way is against the LAW!  

Also DVD's bought from Amazon.com (USA) will also be in the NTSC standard of television transmission not PAL as in the UK.  But if your DVD player plays NTSC disks, it will play any NTSC disk that is not region coded.  A lot of companies who know people buy DVD's from all over the world leave their disks Region code free, or Region 0,  Which means as long as your DVD player plays NTSC it will play this disk.

SO:-

Region 0 (region free) Disks   Means no region coding!

A dual player (NTSC & PAL) with all region coding is the best way to not get screwed!

Buying Videos.

Buying videos is a little simpler.  You do not have to worry about it being region coded like DVD's all you have to worry about if you are buying videos from Amazon.com. is does your video machine play NTSC Videos?  In the UK most new video machines sold play NTSC videos from the USA, even the cheapest machines!

All of this information can be found in the manual for your machine, and sometimes on the front of the machine.

Also most new televisions sold in the UK play NTSC media, but this may need to be checked in your manual also!

Importing and the Law.

Also buying a DVD or  Video  from Amazon.com in the USA, and having it posted to you in the UK, even if that video is banned in the UK, it is not illegal for you to import a video or DVD like this if it for your own personal collection.  It is only illegal if you then start copying and distributing that video or DVD, as it would be for movies that are available in the UK.  Please check applicable laws for other countries!

None of this has to be worried about with CD's fortunately!


For those of you who didn't know I hope this helped.
Giovanni P.
Paradise Cinema.