So a DVD Disc is created with a specific "output" in mind (like NTSC or PAL), then it's the DVD Player's jog to read and display it correctly on a TV Set, right? So a multi-region DVD player with NTSC and PAL capabilities, would output fine through a SCART cable to a TV-Set, right? (even if I have to set the DVD Player to read NTSC or PAL - but wait ... if a DVD player can read both, shouldn't the selection be automatic?)
First part, yes.
Second part, not necessarily. Assuming we are talking about a player that reads both NSTC and PAL and can be hooked up to both NTSC and PAL tvs. The player reads the disc, then when it sends the signals to the tv it has to know whether the signals need to be in NTSC or PAL. However, the only way it would know is if the tv was sending a signal back to the dvd player, telling it that it is a NTSC tv. As far as I know there are no tv/dvd players that do that so you would need to set it manually.
Are u talking about a DVD player on a PC, or a separate DVD player system? Because in the PC I understand we can twist/crack/update a firmware, but on a hi-fi DVD player, I don't know how to do it, unless I am an electronics expert, to change a chip, or something like that ...
I'm talking about a standalone player. It's just like with a PC, flash updating the firmware. DVD players are really are just stripped down PCs in many ways (APEX even uses standard IDE dvd drives in some of their models). Depends on the dvd player, some need to have a new chip soldered in, others just require a firmware flash. If you check out the nerd-out forums you'll be able to see which players are the ones you can hack with a firmware upgrade. Took me about 20min to do mine (10 of which was spent trying to get the drive to read the cd I created, apparently it doesn't like the black bottomed ones). I just downloaded the new firmware, burned it onto a cd with NERO with ISO9660 and all that specifically set (follow the directions exactly, just like you would flashing your BIOS), loaded the cd into the dvd player, and followed more instructions to get it to read the cd and update.
Yeah, it's a bit unnerving at first but once you do it, you realize that it's no different that updating your BIOS or similar. This was the 10+ one I've hacked.
Uhm ... I'm not really undestanding how a movie can "sound" different from region to region. Are we talking about [Available Audio Tracks: English (DTS), English (Dolby Digital 5.1), English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
I think he means that if there are different language soundtracks on the disc, it may read the wrong one. Say you wanted to watch Brotherhood of the Wolves (French movie), the player may always try to play the French soundtrack and French subtitles even though you want it to play the English ones. So just go to the menu to change it. Like he says, minor inconvinience. Many players also have a setup where you can pick the default language so you can set it to whatever you want.
So concluding, IF I buy a DVD with multi-region switching (not just general Region 0), I can get ANY DVD Disc Region1 or Region2 to play in it, with no problem (regarding that NTFS and PAL situations I ask above). Right?
Yes, you should be able to. But as always with stuff like this, there are no guarantees. Not that I've ever had a problem, Chinese/Russian <-hint, hint, region 1 discs, RCE discs like Charlies Angels, Japanese porn, it's faithfully played everything so far.
Man it's getting late. 4am, need to wake up in a few hours. I was busy watching Out of Africa cause they were showing it on tv. Good night.
