Page 1 of region 0 discs from usa

I have a Toshiba sd125e wich will notplay region 0 discs from usa.
Have i to do something to the set up to get it to play non uk region 0 discs as I belived that a region2 player would play region 0 discs

discs from USA are Region 1, unless they are Asian imports of which most are Region 3, theres a few sites trading Region 0 Discs based in the states and these are selling pirate copies from Maylasia ect, there are very few legit Region Free titles unless of course they are special interest titles or from studios with worldwide licencing. if you hunt hard enough your find region free firmware on the net for your DVD player but of course use this at your own risk. that said true Region 0 discs should play on a R2 player...

All DVD players should be able to play region free (aka `Region 0`) DVDs.

What actually happens when you attempt to play an American region free DVD on your Tosh? Do you get a `wrong region` error message, or something similar?

One thing to bear in mind is that American releases are invariably NTSC, whereas DVDs released in the UK are almost always PAL. (This is a completely separate issue, and has absolutely nothing to do with region coding.) If your Tosh is outputting a NTSC video signal when playing NTSC DVDs, and your TV isn`t compatible with that signal, then the picture will be unstable and/or in black-and-white.

Mike

I am suffering from a unstable picture is it a case of my tv not compatable with the signals as the DVDS play perfectally on my sons Panasonic who obtained the dvd via the internet as being compatible for a region 2 dvd.
When he asked if they wouldplay inthis country he was told they were zero region and as such would play on any dvd.
Thanks for the assistance

Yep, it`s down to your TV.

"When he asked if they wouldplay inthis country he was told they were zero region and as such would play on any dvd."

They were right about this, but you do need a TV that`s able to handle whatever video signal the DVD player puts out ;-)

Mike

You say the picture is "unstable" but give no further details. From that I`m guessing that the picture is scrolling - this sounds like your TV won`t handle 60hz signals very well.
Most new TV`s will handle NTSC (60hz) as standard, because let`s face it - the use of NTSC in DVD`s and games is becoming pretty widespread (Even some DVD`s released in this country are NTSC).

I`m guessing your TV is either quite old or is say a Matsui? If it`s a Matsui you may have a horizontal hold button on the back - you could try adjusting this to stop the scrolling. Matsui`s are one of the few TV`s I`ve heard of that don`t handle NTSC.

If this isn`t the case (If it`s black and white or something - that is a common but very easily corrected problem with NTSC), then post the details on here and myself or someone else may be able to give further assistance and get this sorted for you :)

When the DVD is set to Pal auto the disc plays perfectly in black and white.
Is there any way of getting colour please
cheers
Lemmie

This item was edited on Tuesday, 27th May 2003, 20:35

PAL auto - hmmmm

It sounds like your DVD player uses this setting as "auto" - ie it will play PAL as PAL and NTSC as pure NTSC.

There are two alternatives - both should work -

1 - Set your DVD to output PAL60, also called pseudo-PAL. This is basically PAL colour with NTSC line structure. I`m not sure what the setting will be in your DVD players menu for this - have a look in the manual - it should be there somewhere. It MIGHT be in - setup - picture - PAL/AUTO - set this to PAL. If this isn`t right - it will come up with an error message when you try to play an NTSC disc - in which case simply change it back to AUTO. (You might have to turn it off and on again for the setting to work)

2 - Actually the better option - output your signal as RGB. You need to make sure that your scart is plugged in to your TV`s RGB compatible scart socket (Usually it`s scart number 1 if there is more than one scart socket), then in the menu - select RGB. (setup - picture - you have the options of PAL/s-video/RGB - select RGB, if your TV accepts RGB you will notice an immediate picture improvement)

RGB is accepted as one of the best ways to view DVD`s.

Hope this works and your problem is solved. I don`t think there is anything else I can suggest - but this really should solve your problem. To be honest, if this doesn`t work - it could be an excuse to get a new TV. Let us know how you get along anyway.

The TOSHIBA budget models(is yours one?) do not offer PAL60.In your setup menu,you have PAL or AUTO to choose from.In PAL mode,it will not play any NTSC discs,regardless of region.If you set it to AUTO and they are in black and white,then your tv will not accept pure NTSC.Solution:you will have to change the tv,or buy a dvd player that outputs PAL60,although,if your tv is old,then PAL60 can be B&W aswell.Then the only route is a player that outputs PAL50.This a conversion completely into PAL,a feature common on the bargain basement players.The Dansai range from Tesco can do this.

This person is not quite correct.Although most US discs are region 1,there are many many region 0 discs of quite major releases.All the Criterion Collection discs are 0,even stuff licensed from major companies.Most of Anchor Bays discs are region 0,although more recently their Disney and Studio Canal ones are coded.Cult material from the likes of Image Entertainment and other companies dealing in horror from Europe etc are also uncoded.To say that companies dealing in Region 0 discs are offering pirated discs is almost libellous.