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"Jason H. Schaumlau" <> wrote in message
news: om...
> What's the point of this? You could play VHS anywhere

Actually you can't. Different regions use different TV systems, so you can't
just stick say a British PAL format videocassette into a North American NTSC
format VCR.

>so why this dvd
> coding nonsense?

Its to protect regional distribution and copyrights. For example you want
to prevent folks in one part of the world from buying DVDs from another area
of a film thats already been out there, but hasn't been in your market. Or
company X has the rights to someone's material in region 1, while company Y
has the rights in region 2.

tim gueguen 101867

On Sun, 31 Aug 2003 02:28:49 GMT, "tim gueguen"
<> wrote:

>
>"Jason H. Schaumlau" <> wrote in message
>news:. com...
>> What's the point of this? You could play VHS anywhere
>
>Actually you can't. Different regions use different TV systems, so you can't
>just stick say a British PAL format videocassette into a North American NTSC
>format VCR.

But you can put an NTSC tape into (some) PAL players.

"DT" <> wrote in message
news:...
> On Sun, 31 Aug 2003 02:28:49 GMT, "tim gueguen"
> <> wrote:
>
> >
> >"Jason H. Schaumlau" <> wrote in message
> >news:. com...
> >> What's the point of this? You could play VHS anywhere
> >
> >Actually you can't. Different regions use different TV systems, so you
can't
> >just stick say a British PAL format videocassette into a North American
NTSC
> >format VCR.
>
> But you can put an NTSC tape into (some) PAL players.

Nearly all new PAL players can play NTSC tapes......but nobody bothers with
VHS anymore.

> Nearly all new PAL players can play NTSC tapes......but nobody bothers with
> VHS anymore.

Most PAL tv's can actually become NTSC tv's at the touch of a button anyway.