Playing foreign DVD's on Indian equipment

liesme

We consider taking downloaded DVD's to India, for our own entertainment. Downloaded from a North American site.
We wonder if we can play those on an Indian make player or need to bring our own player.

cyberhippie

DVD is an international format but with one restriction, they have region codes!!
So Theoretically your American DVDs won't play in a standalone bought in India unless it has the facility to play other region codes (I'm not sure how widespread these are, maybe someone else knows??)
However as you downloaded them from the net the code may have already been removed, have you formatted them to DVD from DivX or mpeg if so they won't have the region codes embedded and they will play on any standalone!
I ask because most movie downloads are normally in some kind of compressed format like DivX, VidX, VCD/SVCD, Mpeg or Avi (which don't use region codes) to reduce download time Unless you get them from a paid service or "secret newsgroup"
These formats can later be reformatted (without region code) to play on a DVD player, any DVD player!
Can you find this out, then we can give you a better answer!!

shere

Downloaded.....

You mean pirate copies off the internet ?

If they are pirates I would not bother unless you want to risk the possibility of Indian customs finding them and accusing you of being a big time pirate DVD merchant. You dont want to turn a holiday into time in police cells.

If they are DVDs off the internet the internet they would have been ripped using a software ripper and more than likely the region coding has been removed.

If they are DIVX etc then there is no region coding.

GoanCanuck

You will need to get a universal DVD player to play those. These are available in Vancouver. If you want to buy one let me know, my friend owns the store that sells these multi-system TV's, DVD players, VCR etc.

crvlvr

I understand region codes were designed to prevent american and other western european countries from playing DVDs that were purchased for less in 3rd world countries. DVDs are priced differently for different markets. The DVD players in asian countries usually do not follow the region coding. As their customer have receive the best deals on DVDs anyways. And why stop them if they want to pay more for a DVD from the west?

cyberhippie

Ssshhh your not supposed to say that

Is that really the case though are all DVD players in India region free so to speak, it certainly makes sense what you say but my experience with DVD standalones has only been with Indian DVDs and western ones with the erm code removed

Anyone care to clarify this!!!

Theon

As far as I know, Indian players can play Region 1 DVDs. So no need to bring a player.

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My First Time to India

Jens C. Tipp

Hi, if you take legal DVD's (Originals) to India from country's with different code, you have to dislock your DVD player to 0 (zero). That's not illegal as it is your property! How to do? Go to www.videohelp.com and do search for your DVD-player, follow up the manual and dislock your player to country-code 0. You are allowed to make one legal security copy of those DVD's you do own legaly. There are very good freewate tools in the Net, b.e. DVDDecryptor and DVDShrink who do copy without any problems and remove the country code at the same time.

shere

With regards to making one legal copy of DVDs you own. This is very much dependent upon the country you live in. I understand and beleive in fair use rights but in some countries such rights do not exist and it is illegal to backup DVDs you own.

I would be careful about taking copies to India. The customs wala are always looking for an excuse to fleece someone.

rangss

Not an expert in electronix but my cheap Phillips DVD (made in China, bought in India) plays any DVD. No problem so far with foreign DVDs.

__________________
...and I took the road less travelled.

liesme

THX to all!
Our intention was, to legally copy from the internet through membership of one of those copy-libraries. Never thought about customs roaming our boxes for hidden copies!
Again: we got lots of suggestions and for cyberhippie: technically we did not go into dephts suggested by your answer. If I come accross anything that might be of interes for you ... I'll let you know!

Brownlikejames

I bring tons of pirated dvd's to India for my relatives, and I buy tons of pirated dvd's for myself to take back to america and not once have i had any sort of trouble with customs and I've been doing this since 2001.
On the topic of region coding, India is supposed to be Region 9 or something like that and I have not come across even ONE region 9 dvd player in India - they are all region free or at worst region 1...in fact most of the legit indian dvd's you buy at big chains like music world and planet m are all encoded in region 1! So if you have dvd's, by all means bring them if you want, if you think you'll get into trouble with the customs-walla's, you're just being paranoid.

shere

Its not paranoia its a risk you run. Just because you have got away with it does not mean others will.

I have no problem taking pirate DVDs out of India as I know where I stand with the law in the UK but I would never bother taking them into India. Not really worth the risk of getting some dipstick customs man on your back. Plus you can buy as many pirated DVDs when you are in India for 70/80RS so why risk it with customs.

Most legit Indian DVDs you get in India are region free not region 1 as you state.

It is very rare to get a bollywood DVD with region coding. Most region coded discs are limited to original releases of films like Bride and Prejudice, Mission Kashmir, Kaante, Lagaan, Monsoon Wedding, Ashoka, The Warrior.

Pretty much all are NTSC region 0.

crvlvr

brownlikejames,

FYI they are cracking down on video pirates, yes, even in India. With your "tons" of DVDs you might get mistaken for one..

From the Hollywood Reporter:

liesme

We decided to just not bring the copies in. Thinking of Indian prices and -indeed- risks of a customs related problem ... why bother. Thanks again! All of you!