1981 Goldberg Variations DVD

[Max Kuenkel <agent8698@seatac.net>]

>>I thought DVDs were
>>supposed to be viewable regardless of region.

Hi Anne,

Did you know that "DVD region" and "video format" are two completely
different things that may or may not overlap? For example:
USA is region 1 and NTSC.
Germany is region 2 and PAL.
Japan is also region 2, but NTSC.

Read about the purpose of these artificial DVD regions here:
http://www.dvdbuyingguide.com/dvd-school/regioncoding.html

European fans with DVD players need two things to be able to watch a region
1 DVD:

1. A multistandard TV that can handle the NTSC video format (which is not
    native to Europe). All newer European TVs can do this. (Europe is years
    ahead of the US in TV technology, and has been for years.)

2. A modified or "chipped" or otherwise "codefree" DVD player. This is also
     very common in Europe, it is a (legal) modification of the DVD player,
     designed to defeat the intent of the artificially imposed region coding
     system. The reason it is common in Europe but uncommon in the US is
     because everybody in Europe wants to see region 1 DVDs
     (USA & Canada), of which there are more and better and earlier releases
     than in region 2 (Europe).