Just bought a couple of DVD's from the local charity shop and got them home only to find out they are region 1 and my DVD player wont play them.

I have looked on eBay and have seen a gadget that will mod the DVD player to make it region free.

Just wondering what the quality is once you get them playing. As NTSC is a different standard to pal is the resolution and screen picture worse?
If its worse then back to the shop they go.

Very little difference, PAL is 720 x 576 at 25fps, NTSC is 720 x 480 at 29.97 fps. The data rate is the same, the smaller vertical resolution is compensated for by the higher frame rate. This is similar to HD. 1920 x 1080 interlaced at 25fps (1080i) is equivalent to 1280 x 720 progressive at 50fps (720p50). With some content 720p50 can look superior.

Might be worth seeing if they play on your PC unless you want to spend out on a region hack/converter.

Note that most PC DVD players can change regions but only a couple of times and then they lock to the last used region. - there are region unlocks to get around that as well.

Software could be used to remove the region coding and then you burn a non region version, albeit at the same NTSC quality, which should play on your home DVD player. Assuming you have a PC with DVD recorder of course.

Have a look at this http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2026504

Thanks Graham for that info. I think I will sell them on as the gadget is around £20 and hardly seems worth the effort. Think I will just check next time what region they are before buying.

I tried them on the PC first. That's when I realised they were a different region. I wont bother changing the region as one of the films is almost 4 hours long and would rather watch from the comfort of the lounge rather than in front of the PC.

It's not normally the fact that they are NTSC that stops them playing it's down to the region code.

If you have a modern TV the frame rate will not be an issue

Many DVD players can be hacked for free to make them region free using a remote control.

Google Region Free Hack for my DVD player make and model

I have tried that but my model (panasonic DMP BD75) needs an extra remote gadget to fix the issue.

That's quite common. Buy one from anywhere on the internet, use it for the code and return it under the distance selling regs

Bit naughty.

Also its eBay so not sure that still counts.

Normally all you need is a specific universal remote control. You can generally buy from anywhere. Having now have identified the model, I see it's not as simple as that.

Can't you connect your PC to your TV ?

best way around is either find a region free code for your dvd ALLEGEDLY or buy a region free dvd player ..... or even take them back to the charity shop and get replacements!

i would have noticed them as R1 myself, since i did some time in charity shop

I could but its simply not worth the hassle tbh. Have learnt my lesson but at least the charity shop benefited from my ignorance.

I have never had any problems with a region free DVD player when watching NTSC DVDs.

The thing with me is I'm not a fan of NTSC, I'm just so used to the PAL format. The picture quality is so much superior to me.

I know it's a bit late as OP no longer had DVDs but for future reference, there is a freeware package called "DVD region killer" that bypasses the region lock on PC DVDs so you do not use up your 5 changes. Also works if you have used up 5 changes.

Or you could just use VLC, which will ignore any region coding, to play them on the PC.

Interesting point - especially for users of windows 8+ which does not provide an mpeg2 codec for windows media player. This was (allegedly) to avoid licensing charges.

I was unaware VLC could bypass region codes but admittedly I have never tried it.
Do you have to copy DVD to hard disk first?

I assume windows 10 has same issues re. mpeg2 and dvds. Will need to check.

No, it will play the NTSC DVD. This is on a Dell desktop with Windows 8.1 64-bit and the latest VLC Media Player 2.2.0 (64-bit), but it used to work the same with earlier versions of VLC on Windows XP.