For answers to all of your technical DVD questions, please see the excellent DVD Demystified site by Jim Taylor. Here are shortcuts to his desciptions of Region Codes and NTSC / PAL formats.

It is hard to say which TV formats are in which region, because they are scattered around the world. Although they are for the most part in specific areas, NTSC tends to be in the North American region, as PAL tends to be in the more European areas. Asia is mixed between PAL/NTSC. See similar questions...

We normally produce PAL DVDs, as they are both the Australian and International standard, and produce the highest quality output (625 lines of resolution instead of 525). However, these will not work in the USA or Canada. We can also produce NTSC DVDs for the USA and Canada upon request. See similar questions...

We can do either. If you wish for your DVD to play in PAL TV's, the Authoring process and format must be in PAL in order to play on the PAL formatted Televisions/players. See similar questions...

It's a common misconception that simply because a video format is digital it is no longer PAL or NTSC. All digital video formats (DVD, Mini-DV, DVCAM, etc.) are still based on the PAL, SECAM, NTSC video systems. See similar questions...

We are producing them in both formats. Currently, the Air Safaris DVD is only available in PAL format for Australia, New Zealand and most of Europe. We will shortly put out an NTSC version for North America and Japan. If you are not sure which one you should order for your country, click on this link: See similar questions...

Different countries use different methods of recording and playback. Please go to Video Standards for a complete explanation of this. See similar questions...

Yes! As a general rule, all our DVDs and VIDEOS we offer are available in both PAL and NTSC. All DVDs and VIDEOS we send to USA and any other NTSC countries are automatically sent in the NTSC system, open region if it is a DVD. The few DVDs we have marked as NTSC only or PAL only on our site are often available on VHS in NTSC or PAL, same price. These are usually "A" prefix coded. Just put VHS in the special instructions section of the on-line order form for a DVD listing. See similar questions...

There are two basic formats of television signal. In the UK and Europe (and Japan) the standard is called 'PAL', yet in America the standard format is 'NTSC'. DVD discs can be encoded in either of these two formats, and this should not be confused with Region Coding as this is something completely different. In almost all cases, NTSC discs can be played within the UK and Europe without any problems. See similar questions...

These are two different TV picture standards. Region 2 (Europe) uses the PAL standard whereas region 1 (USA and Canada) uses the NTSC standard. These standards are incompatible with one another and to be able to view a region 1 DVD on a UK TV, you'll need to have an NTSC compatible or multi-standard TV. See similar questions...

Yes, as long as the alternate-format DVDs are region 0 (zero - sometimes called "region free"). In other words, you can play DVDs that match the region of your DVD kit, plus all region 0 DVDs, regardless of PAL or NTSC video format. See similar questions...

PAL and NTSC are the television standards for different parts of the world. There is also a third - SECAM. NTSC covers the United States, Canada, Japan, and a few other places. SECAM covers France and Russia. PAL covers the rest of the world. PAL, SECAM, & NTSC are basically a different way of displaying the picture on the television. The main differences are in the number of horizontal lines displayed on the screen, and the number of frames per second displayed. See similar questions...

Some non-U.S. discs from Warner, MGM, and Disney are marked with a distribution zone number. "D1" identifies a UK-only release. These often have English-only soundtracks with BBFC censoring. "D2" and "D3" identify European DVDs that are not sold in the UK and Ireland. These often contain uncut or less cut versions of films. "D4" identifies DVDs that are distributed throughout all of Europe (region 2) and Australia/New Zealand (region 4). See similar questions...

Yes. Kaleidescape Players and Readers are only able to read Region 1 DVDs as shipped. The installer can use the Web Utility to set these components to any other region, but it is not possible to set them to be region-free, and you can only change the region of a given component up to four times. These restrictions are dictated by Kaleidescape's CSS License Agreement with the DVD Copy Control Association, Inc. You can have multiple Players and Readers in the same System set to different regions. See similar questions...

Can I read/write PAL video on an NTSC camera, or the opposite, via firewire? Johnson Ching reports that you can freely read and write PAL or NTSC tapes on either a TRV900 (NTSC) or TRV900e (PAL) camera through the firewire. Here is a letter from Jerome Maro explaining the situation: What I understand about how those cameras are working is the following (tested with a PAL TRV900 and also a PC-1 (also PC-100, tnks James)). If you have a DV cassette recorded at 25 p/s (from a PAL camcorder.. See similar questions...

This question is particularly important when buying VHS tapes. If you live in North America or Japan, your VCR is (most likely) set up to only play NTSC VHS tapes. If you live in Europe or Australia, your VCR is (most likely) set up to only play PAL VHS tapes. There is also another Region Code Called SECAM that is used in parts of Africa and Russia, but these are not carried by Freedom Footbags. See similar questions...