Transformers - US to Paris

[Tom F.]

Hey guys!
I'm going to be teaching in Paris for a month and I have a lot of DVD's I want to show the students. This may be a dumb question...but will my DVD's work over there or do I need some kind of region free DVD player?
If so, would something like this work?
http://www.110220volts.com/CodeFreeDVD/Code%20Free%20DVD%20Players%20(Region%20Free).html
Any other suggestions for cheaper ones?


Thanks!
Tom

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Those are pretty inexpensive. Yes, Europe is Region... I think Region 2.

Otherwise, you could bring a Region 1 DVD player (like, the one in your living room now) and just use a voltage converter. (Assuming that it accepts 220v. Mine does, for whatever reason.) But you'd have to use HDMI or something, otherwise you'll run into that PAL/NTSC issue.

 

[piasabird]

I am guessing the Disks have something on them that makes them a specific Region. So they have to be played on a DVD player with firmware for that region. So you have to play them on the region Player like they were encoded on. DVD players are not that expensive. Just buy a new one for the division you are going to. This is a suggestion.

Might also want to have an international version of Windows.

I suppose there is some way to just encode them with some software so you can play them right off a hard drive.

 

[AnitaPeterson]

I think many (if not most) of the DVD players sold in Europe are region-free...

But if you want to be sure, go around and look at what cheap players are available at the stores in your area, and check out the display models to see if the power voltage is 100~240 (most of them are). That would solve your problem - you'd only need a plug adapter from a dollar store. Or you have friends who already live there, you can ask about the existing equipment, and look up the model number online to see if it's region-free (videohelp.com has an excellent database of region-free players and hacks - see here http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks )

 

[mfenn]

All that DVD region locking cares about is whether the player and the disc are the same region. So if you're bringing both the player and discs, then you're set.

As far as power goes, most electronics these days have auto-sensing 100-240V 50/60Hz power supplies. Check the input ranges on your player, they should be printed on the back or on the power brick.