Forum Home
Press F1
Thread ID: 19962	2002-05-26 19:00:00	DVD Standards	Guest (0)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
50907	2002-05-26 19:00:00	Yesterday we were having a conversation about DVD players - how they are down to $400, and the greater selection of DVD movies in the video stores. I mentioned that it was only a matter of time before we would get one to run along side the VHS tape, for movie viewing. My friend said the problem is that there are 4 or 5 DVD standards on the market today, so he cautioned against buying a DVD player now, and reminded me of the old video tape standard that bit the dust 20 years ago (was it called beta format?). What is the truth with DVDs? Surely the DVD movies at the video stores will play on any machine, right? Thanks.	Guest (0)
50908	2002-05-26 21:54:00	Steve, As far as I'm aware, your friend is incorrect. Pre-recorded DVDs you buy from a store will play on any DVD player. There is a new technology that has just been introduced that may or may not become standard, but currently no players on the market can play that format (it is VERY new, and still really in test phase). Your friend may be getting this confused with Writable DVDs. Currently there are about 4 or 5 systems you can use to write DVDs (like CD burners etc.) for example 'DVD R', 'DVD RW', 'DVD+RW', and I forget the last one. These are all totally different formats, and it is not clear which one will yet become standard. This won't be a problem to you however if you never plan to play copied DVDs in your DVD Player. The only thing really you need to look out for is what Region you DVD player can play, and make sure if it can only play region 4 (New Zealand and Australia) that you don't buy DVDs from overseas, because they probably won't play. You can however buy 'multizone' players, which will play DVDs from any region. HTH Mike.	Guest (0)
50909	2002-05-26 21:57:00	There are *not* multiple standards for DVD players. What there is though is different regions. So that technically a DVD purchased from the US (Region 1??) will *not* play on a DVD player purchased in NZ (Region 4). You will find that *most* DVD players will me multi-zone meaning that it can play DVDs from any region. Even those $269 jobs are multi-zone. JM	Guest (0)
50910	2002-05-26 22:58:00	Interesting point this. On Wednesday 20th March 'WhatIs.com' released their 'word-of-the-day' which was a term 'blu-ray'. The article can be found at the following URL: whatis.techtarget.com I hope this helps...I think it's really interesting and can see the next step would be to produce Blu-Ray DVD players which have red laser playback ability. This would mean the new Blu-ray would become the standard and all existing red laser DVD players would become obsolete and unable to play the new standard (if it becomes standard) Anyway, have a read it's quite interesting. HTH Callum	Guest (0)
50911	2002-05-26 23:00:00	The URL I gave above is to a definition for 'Blue Laser' This is the URL to the Blu-Ray DVD article: whatis.techtarget.com	Guest (0)
50912	2002-05-26 23:18:00	Just to add to the confusion.... There are multiple regions for DVD's Region 1 - The U.S., U.S. territories and Canada Region 2 - Europe, Japan, the Middle East, Egypt, South Africa, Greenland Region 3 - Taiwan, Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia, Hong Kong Region 4 - Mexico, South America, Central America, Australia, New Zealand, Pacific Islands, Caribbean Region 5 - Russia, Eastern Europe, India, most of Africa, North Korea, Mongolia Region 6 - China Theoreticaly you can buy a 'multizone' dvd player which is actually set as zone '0'...that will play discs from all regions...... That was until they started encoding some discs to only play on a DVD player for that region not multizone players.....eg: if the disc is region 1 it checks to see that the player is region 1 as well...if it isn't it will refuse to play...this includes region '0' players... It is all part of the movie companys paranoia about people watching the DVD instead of buying the movie tickets......with a lot of the movies they are released in region 1 while they are still playing at the theatres here.......	Guest (0)
50913	2002-05-27 03:38:00	Mike - the format you couldn'r remember is DVD-ROM. My 2 pesos. G P	Guest (0)
50914	2002-05-27 07:31:00	Ah yes, this was the 'new technology' I referred to in my earlier post. It is still in 'beta' type phase, and as yet it hasn't been released commercially (as far as I'm aware anyway). And thanks JM and GP, DVD-RAM is the one I couldn't remember. Mike.	Guest (0)
50915	2002-05-27 22:56:00	Hello.... Many thanks for your astute answers to my question. Cheers - Steve PS Now to decide which DVD player to buy (low end inexpensive, or more $$?), and then to contemplate if we need a new TV...and wondering if watching DVD movies is worth the extra expense...!)	Guest (0)
50916	2002-05-28 01:03:00	Your right JM. I wish the 'O' key was by the 'A' key, cause then I could blame my stupid gloves for the typo - how are you handling the cold weather we're having. G P	Guest (0)
1