Job Discussion Forums

[Katlo]

Hi,

I'm teaching in China and I'm returning home to South Africa for a holiday.

I've accummulated an extensive DVD collection, and I've heard rumours that they might not be able to work in other countries.

Has anyone brought their Chinese DVD's back to SA?

Cheers man, thanks for your time,
Katlo

[alcmarr]

Katlo,

DVDs are usually zone-specific. Those sold in Europe, for example, won't play on US DVD players which are all zone 1. I'm pretty sure SA players will be zoned as well, but here in Morocco, for example, they sell de-zoned DVD players that can handle about anything. On top of this, you have to know what TV standard is used in China---- the US is NTSC, Europe is PAL, and there might be a few in between. Again, here in Morocco, most TVs sold are multi-system, but I don't know about SA.
On a computer with a DVD drive, there are programs you can download---- I think one is called Fox--- to override the zone set on the DVD player. If you look at the properties of the DVD drive of a computer, you'll find that it lets you change zones manually about five times, and then stops. That's why you need the program I mentioned.

I all this sounds complicated, I think it is. I find it amazing that there are so many media standards in the world, but I guess that's what capitalism is about: creating captive markets.

Lastly, I didn't ask, but if the DVDs you have bought are part of the many pirated goods China is so famous for, let's hope SA airport customs don't look too hard. US customs, if they happened to find such things being brought into the US, could be very unpleasant, seeing as how piracy is a crime.

Let's hope those films are worth trouble

Good luck