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Kleetus
Joined: 17 Apr 2006
Posts: 12
Location: Mie, Japan
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 Posted: Wed May 10, 2006 7:20 pm Post subject: bringing a laptop (dell) |
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I'm arriving in August and I'm currently laptop shopping. I'd like to spend only about $500, but I'm wondering if a cheapo dell will be fine in Japan.
While searching this forum, I read that DVDs are coded differently over there; are there certain specs that I should look for over here so I will be prepared in Japan?
Any insight on what other people have brought would be great.
Also, does anyone know about dell's warranty internationally? |
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earthmonkey
Joined: 18 Feb 2005
Posts: 188
Location: Meguro-Ku Tokyo
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| Posted: Wed May 10, 2006 11:09 pm Post subject: |
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Don't worry about the DVD encoding. It should work fine. Being in the U.S. you should definitely buy before you come. The price at dell.com is about half of what it is at dell.jp. You also might want to take a look at the "outlet" section at the dell site. You'll get the a better computer for the same money. As for features, I'd recommend getting one with a wireless network card. Depending on where you live, there may be free Internet "hotspots" nearby.
I don't know about the warranty. You should ask them. Get your computer at least a month or two before you come. It'll give you a chance to return it to have it fixed if something is wrong. Usually, if something is going to break, it will break right away.
Happy shopping. |
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Gordon
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 5309
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Wed May 10, 2006 11:21 pm Post subject: |
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I agree, get it before you come. Computers cost a lot more here especially if they have an English keyboard.
My toshiba laptop I am typing on right now cost 250,000 yen 3 years ago and it is a piece of junk, always was too. |
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JimDunlop2
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Posts: 2286
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Thu May 11, 2006 12:05 am Post subject: |
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| earthmonkey wrote: |
| Don't worry about the DVD encoding. It should work fine. |
Um, no. That is completely incorrect unless I misunderstood your intentions.
Japan is DVD region 2 and North America is region 1. Region 2 discs WILL NOT play on a region 1 player or vice-versa so this is definitely something to worry about.
Having said that, I will also say that there are numerous ways to defeat or bypass region encoding, especially on a laptop... But I don't have time to provide the details at this very moment. Just be aware of the difference in region. |
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karleyv2
Joined: 17 Apr 2006
Posts: 13
Location: halifax, ns, canada
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| Posted: Thu May 11, 2006 1:12 am Post subject: |
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| i have a dell and when i pop in foreign-encoded dvds, it asks me to select a region. no problem at all. |
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Gordon
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 5309
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Thu May 11, 2006 1:20 am Post subject: |
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| karleyv2 wrote: |
| i have a dell and when i pop in foreign-encoded dvds, it asks me to select a region. no problem at all. |
Yes, no problem, BUT there is a problem when you go from region 1 to 2 back to 1 again. Unless you have a region free dvd software you are only allowed to switch back a nd forth a set number of times before it is locked into a particular region. |
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ava77
Joined: 03 Jun 2005
Posts: 100
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| Posted: Thu May 11, 2006 2:42 pm Post subject: Region Selection |
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| Since I have changed my region to watch Chinese, Austrailian, Japanese and Canadian DVDS it now tells me I can't change it back. It also says if you reinstall Windows etc it still can't be changed. Is there a way to by pass this? |
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JimDunlop2
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Posts: 2286
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Fri May 12, 2006 3:52 am Post subject: Re: Region Selection |
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| ava77 wrote: |
| Since I have changed my region to watch Chinese, Austrailian, Japanese and Canadian DVDS it now tells me I can't change it back. It also says if you reinstall Windows etc it still can't be changed. Is there a way to by pass this? |
That is true. The reason for this is simple. There are no less than 3 layers of encryption protection preventing you from changing back your player region. 1: physcial -- the DVD player itself has its region setting altered; 2: operating system -- the DVD region setting is also set in Windows; 3: program -- the DVD player program itself also has a region setting. In order to play a DVD, all 3 region setting layers must match. So the quick answer to your question is: maybe. There likely IS a way to bypass this, but the solution will not be simple.
Ok, now that I have time to answer this question more thoroughly and completely, here's the scoop. Long-winded answer will ensue. 
As you may already know, all DVDs produced today have something called "Region encoding." This is a digital encryption technique that restricts that DVD to being played only in the geographical region where it was intended to be played.
Region 1: United States, Canada
Region 2: Europe, including France, Greece, Turkey, Egypt, Arabia, Japan and South Africa
Region 3: Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo and Indonesia
Region 4: Australia and New Zealand, Mexico, the Caribbean, and South America
Region 5: India, Africa, Russia and former USSR countries
Region 6: Peoples Republic of China
Region 7: Unused
Region 8: Airlines/Cruise Ships
Region 9: Expansion (often used as region free)
Region 0: No Region Coding (Region free)
ALL DVDs and DVD players are encoded to one of the above regions, whether it's a stand-alone DVD player OR a computer DVD-ROM drive. When you CREATE a DVD using your DVD writer, you may choose to encode your product with a region code, or select "Region 0" which makes it playable on any DVD player.
About computer-based DVD players:
Depending on where you bought your computer, your DVD player will usually be pre-set to the appropriate region. Ie. If you bought your computer in North America, it will likely be set to Region 1. If you bought it in Japan, Region 2. Unlike stand-alone players, computer-based DVD players have the advantage of being able to switch between regions on demand. However, here's the kicker. You can only do this a certain number of times. The usual standard is 5 times. After you've changed your computer DVD player's region 5 times, it will "lock" into the last region it was changed to.
So my DVD-R is locked into a region. Now what?
There are several possible answers to this.
1. Send your computer back to the manufacturer. Often, the manufacturer has a universal "reset" function whereby they can reset the number of region changes you have left on your player. Of course this sounds like a real pain in the butt to do, doesn't it? As a sideline, let me point out that often manufacturers too only have a limited number of "resets" available to them, after which your DVD player will be forever locked into the last region selected. At this point you must replace the DVD player, lest you end up with a very expensive paper-weight.
2. Region-freeify your player. http://forum.rpc1.org/portal.php If you don't know what the hell you are doing, DO NOT VISIT WITH THIS WEBSITE! If anything, get a friend who's a computer geek to help you with this. There is always a chance that if you try to do this, you will permanently muck up your computer! Not fun! And if you DO bugger things up despite my warning and because I provided you with the URL, don't tell me about it because I will just laugh at you... Besides, explain that to the computer manufacturer. "I was trying to hack my player and now nothing works!" Whenever my friends present me with a laptop to help set-up for them (ie. install an English OS, show them how to use it) I usually region-freeify it for them whenever possible.
3. Obtain a program to reset the region selector option. This is essentially what the manufacturer does... But sometimes you can find the utility you need up on the Internet. If you can, happy day! Download it, reset your region count, and be careful next time... Which leads me to option 4.
4. Get a program that will play DVDs regardless of their region. Pretty much all of the ones that I know of are either shareware or retailware. Remember I talked about there being 3 layers of region settings? These programs usually take care of the operating system and program THINKING that everything is A-OK.
Something to make note of: not all computer DVDR units are hackable or region-freeable. There are some which resist even the most invasive attempts to cross-play DVDs even using the most expensive commercial software out there. Sometimes you just can't do it! If you have such a player and you insist on cross-playing different region DVDs, then it may be best for you to invest in a new player that CAN be made region-free.
Another couple options out there... If you have an American-bought laptop, buy a Japanese stand-alone player. Or vice-versa. I have friends who brought an American stand-alone DVD player so they could watch their American DVD collection.
This leads me to.... region-free stand-alone players. You can buy a stand-alone DVD player that's already region-free and many players can be "hacked" to be region-free. My DVD players were dead-simple... I have a regular stand-alone unit for my TV as well as a portable LCD unit for taking on trips. Both of them require you to enter in a secret "maintenance code" and they can be set to whichever region is required -- in my case, region 0. Heck, when I enter the secret code to my player, the menu that comes up even says in big, block letters at the top of the screen: SECRET MENU. I get a kick out of that....
Go here http://www.dvd.reviewer.co.uk/info/multiregion/hackable.asp for more info on How-to. Once again, full disclaimers on knowing what the hell you are doing still apply. If you don't, stay away from this website. Get someone to help you. |
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TK4Lakers
Joined: 06 Jan 2006
Posts: 159
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| Posted: Sat May 13, 2006 1:25 am Post subject: |
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| I brought over a Dell Inspiron laptop, and it works fine. The only minor problems I have encountered are no interenet at my schools/trouble printing from the local network connections. Other than that, its been reliable and a good note to me. Good luck finding a good one! |
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