Delivery from Amazon

[caroline3sg]

sashimi

I would like to know US DVD format can be used in SG meh? NTSC vs PAL.

Recently I bought close to S$300 worth of DVD from HMV. I am interested in National Geographic (not shipping to SG) and Discovery.

I don’t subscribe to Starhub Cable. I know now Octo & Channel U have the programmes but the DVDs are worth buying for watching (at our own time) and keeping.

Thank you

[schellen]

caroline3sg:

sashimi

I would like to know US DVD format can be used in SG meh? NTSC vs PAL.

Sorry I jump in here....

DVD got NTSC and PAL meh? I thought that's for videotapes only. I thought DVD format is Region 1, 2, 3 and 4. Generally, in SG, you buy Region 3 discs which we don't like cos we don't really need the Chinese/Malay/Indian subtitles and sometimes, the English standard also not good. Plus, Region 3 discs sometimes cut out parts of the show that the US market sees and Region 3 usually leaves out the fun extras that US people get.

So we get Region 1 from US. (Region 2 is Japan, Region 3, SEA and Region4 is Oz/NZ.) Actually, the DVD players that you get here are for Region 3 discs only but if the shops here only sell such players, then they will not sell much. So the shops will \"tweak\" the setting for the players to accept discs from all Regions.

[caroline3sg]

schellen

Thank you. So no concerns on US DVD.

[sashimi]

caroline3sg:

sashimi

I would like to know US DVD format can be used in SG meh? NTSC vs PAL.

Recently I bought close to S$300 worth of DVD from HMV. I am interested in National Geographic (not shipping to SG) and Discovery.

I don't subscribe to Starhub Cable. I know now Octo & Channel U have the programmes but the DVDs are worth buying for watching (at our own time) and keeping.

Thank you

Yes DVDs come in NTSC and PAL, as well as regional codings.

Most if not all players will play both formats - in fact, now it's more a question of High Def, i.e. Blu-Ray, etc. PAL and NTSC are ancient relics now.... But basically I'm not particular, so I don't bother.

Short answer: yes, USA DVDs on NTSC will play fine. In fact, I also buy occasonally from Australia (code 4, PAL if I'm not mistaken). Actually some 90% of my DVD collection is from USA.

Mmmm..... HMV Singapore? You probably should stop buying from them. From what I rem, they have the highest, most unreasonable prices in Singapore. You are likely to be much better off ordering from Amazon.

Give me an example of what you bought from NGC/Discovery? I'll make a comparison?

[schellen]

insider:

So my kids told me Japanese brands DVD players are 'stricter' in decoding while China ones can 'anyhow'... Not sure how true it is.

That's what my dad says too.

[sashimi]

insider:

Some of the DVDs I bought cannot be played in my more expensive DVD players (such as Toshiba) with a display of something like \"Format Not Compatible\" but these DVDs can be played in cheaper brands such as Enzer (those China brands). So, it can be frustrating sometimes... (that I have to stack an Enzer on top of the Toshiba for just in case DVD can't be played).

So my kids told me Japanese brands DVD players are 'stricter' in decoding while China ones can 'anyhow'... Not sure how true it is.

From my limited understanding, this happens when:

a) the player is a high quality player with a high quality lens
+
b) the disc in question was manufactured/burned at very low quality.
or
c) the film on the disc is not a \"DVD\" format per se but one of those computer-related formats, eg. wmv, avi, mp4, mpg, etc. - so basically the player doesn't recognize them.

The irony is that cheaper players are, how to say, designed to play these because of something involving one-eyed sea captains with parrots who go \"aarrhh, shiver me timbers!!\"

In the case of a+b, if I'm not wrong (I am not an expert in this area), basically the low quality disc cannot be played because the player will be forced to make a lot of corrections when reading the data on the disc. Prolonged correction causes the lens to deteriorate. So, to protect itself (and your purchase), the player simply refuses to play the bad disc.

This causes the phenomenon where an expensive, high quality player refuses to play \"cheap\" discs.



Incidently, in recent years some studios (eg. MGM) attempted to introduce new barriers to enforce the region encoding, so that their code 1 discs would spit a \"Wrong Regional Format\" message even if you attempted to play it with a region-free player.

[schellen]

insider:

Coz of all these confusion, I cannot buy my Blue Planet from Amazon (which...eventually I went to buy the $5 version... sshhh...). Still have no confidence to spend on US DVDs and run the risk.

Actually, lousy dvds can spoil good player but the chances of good dvds being spoiled by a low-end player, that I've never heard of. So go invest in your dvds but don't need to spend so much on player. :lol: (sashimi will :shock: if he sees this. )

[clarabella]

Hiya all

So when you purchase DVDs from Amazon, do they get sent to MDA?

[sashimi]

No. The trick is not to buy a huge amount nor any items which are either very new (thus not in MDA’s black book) or risque. If you buy discovery stuff, MDA should just let it through.

[clarabella]

Thank you, sashimi. Like that ah… must wait a while then to get the more interesting titles…

Somehow this thread moved from board games to DVDs hehehe.