Panasonic NV-VP33 and NV-VP60 DVD-players and multiple Regions, and another matter related to playing 'home-made' discs
Ken
adult education class on film history and I want to play brief excerpts
from various feature movies which I have on commercial DVDs from various
Regions (1, 2, and 4). The technician tells me that there are two
DVD-players available: Panasonic NV-VP33 and NV-VP60. He says that one
of these is Region 4 and the other is 'no Region' (I'm not exactly sure
what the latter is - it's not the same as 'multi-Region', is it?). Will
the 'no Region' machine be able to handle all of my discs? Does someone
have a code we could enter in the machine to make it play all of my discs?
There's a time-consuming partial alternative. I have the software to
copy the various discs onto Region-free discs. But I'm not sure that
the Panasonic machine will then play such 'home-made' copies of feature
films.
Can anybody advise on any of these matters?
Thanks - Ken (in Oz)
P.S. I may cross-post this request for help on one or two other groups.
I hope that doesn't offend anyone but I'm racing against time for
any help I can get.
P.V.
news:4a9e7dab$0$1157$afc3...@news.optusnet.com.au...
> Hi guys. I'm in Australia (Region 4). Next Monday I have to conduct an
> adult education class on film history and I want to play brief excerpts
> from various feature movies which I have on commercial DVDs from various
> Regions (1, 2, and 4). The technician tells me that there are two
> DVD-players available: Panasonic NV-VP33 and NV-VP60. He says that one of
> these is Region 4 and the other is 'no Region' (I'm not exactly sure what
> the latter is - it's not the same as 'multi-Region', is it?).
Several other terms are used as well for 'region-free' or 'multi region';
'no region' sounds just like one of them. I can't imagine what else it could
mean.
> Will the 'no Region' machine be able to handle all of my discs?
Most likely it will be able to play all region 2 and 4 discs, just some
region 1 discs might be problematic, as on some of them something called RCE
is used. Wikipedia article
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD_region_code
explains it under the section "Region Code Enhanced".
Now that I'm reading the article, under the same title there seems to be a
suggestion on how to circumvent the RCE: if one of the discs doesn't work,
instead showing a warning about being used in wrong region, just try another
disc with same region code first; after that the "troublemaker" disc might
start to work properly.
> Does someone have a code we could enter in the machine to make it play all
> of my discs?
>
> There's a time-consuming partial alternative. I have the software to copy
> the various discs onto Region-free discs. But I'm not sure that the
> Panasonic machine will then play such 'home-made' copies of feature films.
Unless it's a very old player from the pre-DVD-R-era, yes it will. The
player can't tell whether a home-made disc inserted into it is a copy of a
commercial disc or your home video.
I would be more concerned about how sure you are you would actually be able
to copy just any of the discs. Movie publishers are very creative in adding
some non-standard features on DVD's to make them tricky for copier programs.
So I wouldn't count on any said program to be able to copy every disc out of
bunch of randomly-chosen discs; quite likely one or more of them would carry
a copy-prevention scheme unknown to your copier.
Anyway, try the 'no-region' player -- if necessary, try the afore-mentioned
trick with it.
P.V.
Ken
about RCE and the tip for overcoming it. Also, if 'no-Region' =
'multi-Region', that gives me hope.
As for copying of my commercial discs and making them Region-free, I do
have the (commercial) software to do that. My concern is that the
resultant 'home-made' discs will NOT play on the Panasonic machine/s - I
read somewhere that they have something called 'macrovision' (whatever
that is) and that they don't play copied films.
- Ken (in Oz)
P.V.
news:4a9eb16c$0$6090$afc3...@news.optusnet.com.au...
> As for copying of my commercial discs and making them Region-free, I do
> have the (commercial) software to do that. My concern is that the
> resultant 'home-made' discs will NOT play on the Panasonic machine/s - I
> read somewhere that they have something called 'macrovision' (whatever
> that is) and that they don't play copied films.
Make of the player doesn't matter on Macrovision: the film industry required
all VHS recorders manufactured after a certain date in 80's or early 90's to
have Macrovision capability built in them. When DVD players and recorders
were introduced same requirement applied to them as well.
Practically it means that if Macrovision is in use in the source material
(in this case, the disc), all players must output Macrovision signal
properly. The signal tells to the receiving device that the maker of the
film doesn't want it to be copied. TV's of course just ignore the
Macrovision signal, as otherwise it would be impossible to view even the
original legitimate films. But all devices capable of recording video signal
must recognize the Macrovision signal and when such is found, either
sabotage the recording or completely refuse to record the video.
As you are not copying the films by hooking up to the player a recorder in
place of TV, Macrovision isn't your concern. But if you want one day to be
able to copy the self-made discs with this outdated method, you can probably
find in your copying software a setting to leave Macrovision out of the
self-made copy. Such option is commonly available on copying software, as on
DVD the Macrovision is practically just an attribute telling the player
whether or not it's supposed to generate Macrovision signal and output it
alongside with the analog video signal while playing the material on the
disc.
P.V.
Ken
- Ken (in Oz)
P.V.
news:4a9ee9a3$0$29475$afc3...@news.optusnet.com.au...
> Many thanks for the information about Macrovision, P.V.
Glad to be able to help.
P.V.