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Watching German DVDs in the US | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Music, Movies, TV & Radio |  | |
| soclydeza85 Senior Member United States Joined 3905 days ago 357 posts - 502 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German, French | Message 1 of 5 06 January 2015 at 4:56pm | IP Logged | ||
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I know that Germany (or any other country for that matter) uses a different DVD format than the US. What would be my options for watching them in the US? Can computers (with DVD drives) handle these?
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| rdearman Senior Member United Kingdom rdearman.orgRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5234 days ago 881 posts - 1812 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French, Mandarin | Message 2 of 5 06 January 2015 at 5:12pm | IP Logged | ||
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This is a particular problem for standalone DVD players because you have the region set when you buy it. Your options are:
1) If you cannot "unlock" your existing DVD player, the most obvious and straightforward way to overcome DVD region codes is to purchase a DVD player from the same part of the world as the DVDs that you want to watch. You'll have to buy a DVD player for the German market, and a power adapter to play in the USA. 2) Windows machines can switch regions 5 times before getting your DVD locked. There is some third-party software you can get that gets around this 5 switches only issue. 3) Install Linux on your computer, region codes are not a problem for Linux users. The Linux platform has a number of multimedia players that can play DVDs, including "xine", "kaffeine", etc. These software packages have the capability of "pretending" that the DVD has whatever region code the DVD drive requires. 4) Write your senator and complain about the stupid DRM laws. Option 3 is probably the easiest. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5260 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 3 of 5 06 January 2015 at 5:25pm | IP Logged | ||
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In addition to rdearman's excellent advice. I would add that on a windows machine you can install the VLC Media Player which doesn't care an iota about regions and won't lock your player to a certain region.
You can buy a "region free" dvd player, like this one on ebay for around $40, making sure it has US 110 volts and a US plug- NTSC/PAL compatible. When rdearman was talking about "unlocking" your player. It may be possible to search online for an unlock code for your particular player. It involves entering in numbers and a combination of other keys with your remote. It may, or may not work. My advice, download VLC for your computer and/or fork out the $40 for a region free player. EDIT: After reading Michel1020's post, VLC may or may not work on your machine. It works well on mine. Edited by iguanamon on 06 January 2015 at 5:55pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Michel1020 Tetraglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 5015 days ago 365 posts - 559 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish, Dutch | Message 4 of 5 06 January 2015 at 5:46pm | IP Logged | ||
Source : http://www.videolan.org/support/faq.html#DVDS
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| soclydeza85 Senior Member United States Joined 3905 days ago 357 posts - 502 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, French | Message 5 of 5 07 January 2015 at 1:38am | IP Logged | ||
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So the region code is more about licensing than format? I thought they wouldn't play because they were encoded differently or something, not because of some laws, that's just stupid. It does make me more confident that I can figure my way around it though.
I use VLC, though I've never tried it for this purpose. I also don't mind dishing out a few bucks if need be. Thanks guys! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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