Question on region 4 in US

[bongoman31]

I'm trying to get season 4 of TV's 24. It's only been released in some other international markets. I'm in USA. So, I've found it on ebay from Australia; says it's region 4. Will this be NTSC or PAL? or is that even a relevant question? I'm not sure if my DVD player will play multi-region; I've got several. But can I back it up and convert it to region 1?
Thanks

[smiller667]

You might be looking at a bootleg. The season 4, part I release is due for October, see e.g. http://www.ezydvd.com.au/item.zml/782227 .
Australian discs are indeed PAL, at least 99% of the time. That said, region code and PAL/NTSC are two quite separate things: region coding can be easily removed at ripping time (and you might be able to make your standalone region-free using a remote hack - try e.g. http://vcdhelp.com).
Changing a PAL disc to an ntsc one involves re-encoding the video and audio tracks and is not quite as simple. As for whether your player will do a pal->ntsc conversion at playback time - check the manual of your player(s).

Steve

[Mug Funky]

hehe... while you're on ebay pick yo'self up a multiformat TV and multiformat DVD player. and maybe some international power adaptors (though you wont need a step-down transformer - our stuff generally runs on 240 or 120 volts, 50 or 60 Hz). america is the only country that doesn't have multiformat as standard nowadays... get with the times, gosh! :devil:

region 4 is mostly PAL. there's a few releases that are NTSC. off the top of my head, Ah! My Goddess! was NTSC, as are both boxsets of Soap, and several Karaoke Rock $5 DVDs... Goddess sold REALLY badly, so madman never did release another NTSC disc in australia (though we've done heaps of NTSC for america).

additionally, heaps of stuff gets released here with no region code at all. if you're after PAL movies of european/asian films, then that might be interesting to know.

not sure if 24 is out yet - i don't go to the shops much, and tend not to look at DVDs when i do :)

[Zyphon]

@smiller667

Are you sure? Im sure that I have seen adverts here in the U.K advertising the release of 24 season 4 on DVD, unless I was confused.

Can anyone else in the U.K confirm or correct me on this matter please. :D

[smiller667]

No idea about the r2uk release, I was only referring to the Australian R4 mentioned by the original poster.

[rjgn]

@smiller667

Are you sure? Im sure that I have seen adverts here in the U.K advertising the release of 24 season 4 on DVD, unless I was confused.

Can anyone else in the U.K confirm or correct me on this matter please. :D

Yes Season 4 of 24 was released on the 08/08/05 in the uk.

[Oki]

Changing a PAL disc to an ntsc one involves re-encoding the video and audio tracks and is not quite as simple. As for whether your player will do a pal->ntsc conversion at playback time - check the manual of your player(s).

I never had problems playing my European region 2 PAL movies in my NTSC DVD and TV when I was living in the states. I can even play my region 1 NTSC movies in my European (PAL) DVD and TV. The only thing you need is the region hack for your DVD player.

[adam]

Your DVD player must have had a PAL->NTSC converter then. Without such a feature in your player a PAL disc will not play properly on pretty much any NTSC tv. There are plenty of players with built in converters but most don't have feature and for those that do, the quality of the conversion is often not too great.

Pretty much all PAL equipment supports NTSC. Its really a non-issue.

[Zyphon]

Yes Season 4 of 24 was released on the 08/08/05 in the uk.

Thanks for the confirmation mate. :D