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Finding the movies reviewed here |
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Monday, 04 August 2003 |
Most of the movies reviewed on E-Critics.com are available in North America for rent or purchase on DVD. Many of them may be available at local rental outlets and if not, from mail rental companies such as Netflix.com or DVDOvernight.com. There is also a similar service available from Blockbuster. DVDOvernight.com is the only mail rental service which provides single title rentals. All others are monthly memberships. The prices from these companies varies by a few dollars per month, but Netflix.com offers the largest catalog of titles, the most warehouses and generally the fastest turnaround times. Occasionally, a movie is reviewed which is only available on DVD outside North America, but there are ways to see those as well. In order to do this, a little explanation of the different video systems used throughout the world as well as DVD region codes is necessary.
There are basically two different video systems used in different areas of the world. These are kind of like the language used for a video signal by the TVs in that country. North and South America as well as parts of Asia use a video "language" called NTSC, while the rest of the world uses a different "language" called PAL. The first step to watching DVDs from any region of the world is having a DVD player which can convert the video signal from the other language to the one used in your country. In many parts of Europe, virtually all DVD players are capable of converting NTSC to PAL, but in North America, players which convert PAL to NTSC are less common. Oddly enough, the ones which have this feature are usually the least expensive, non brand name models. This feature is often printed right on the box as something like "PAL/NTSC conversion." The nice thing about this feature is that it is completely automatic. Nothing needs to be done by the user.
Of course, the movie studios have seen to it that watching movies from other regions of the world is usually not quite that simple. In an effort to prevent people in one region from watching DVDs produced in another region, they developed a region code system. Most DVDs and DVD players include a "flag" intended to limit them to viewing in that region. Each of these regions has a number. North America is region 1, Europe is region 2 and so on up to 7. The region of each DVD and player is shown by a small globe symbol with a number in it. This is the region that player or DVD is encoded for. The nice thing is, there are players which are not coded for a specific region, or where the region number can be changed or made universal in order to play DVDs from anywhere. There is absolutely nothing illegal about doing this. The region code system is nothing more than a marketing tool created by the movie studios, and buying or renting movies from other regions is no different from renting at the store down the street. The irony is, many movies which are only available on DVD outside North America are ones which were actually made in North America. Finally, not all DVDs are actually coded for one region. Some smaller titles, particularly music related ones, are encoded for all regions and will indicate region 0 on the case. Other studios (Criterion Collection and Ruscico, a company dedicated to Russian films, for example) regularly print that their DVDs are coded for one region when they are actually coded for all of them.
There are several ways to find a DVD player which is capable of playing any DVD from anywhere in the world. Sometimes this involves a "hack" or special set of instructions entered with the remote control to make the player region free, but the simplest solution is to find a player which comes that way from the factory. Two such choices are from Malata. These are the DVP-393A, which is an extremely compact unit, measuring only about 7" wide and lacks a display, and the DVP-580, which is a standard sized unit. Both of these players are available for well under $100 and require no modification or special settings to play any DVD from any country.
Once you have the needed DVD player, then it comes down to getting the DVDs. There are many online retail sites, such as the Amazon divisions in different countries, which sell DVDs and ship them pretty much anywhere in the world. Online auction sites such as ebay are also good sources, but in all cases caution should be exercised to be sure the DVDs purchased are genuine studio releases. In the U.S. there is also NicheFlix.com, a unique service which rents DVDs only available elsewhere. It is done the same way as Netflix.com, with rentals available through a monthly membership. There is no commitment, so viewers can sign up and then cancel before the month is up or continue to rent for several months.
It is also important to be sure the DVDs include soundtracks or subtitles in a language you understand. With English language movies, this is usually not a problem, so long as the subtitles are defeatable if the DVD is from a non English speaking country. Fortunately, most foreign language movies in Europe, even from non English speaking countries, include English subtitles as an option. Most web sites include this information in the DVD details.
Finding movies not available in your home country may seem a bit complicated, but it really isn't. The main factor is finding the right player and access to the movies. Thanks to NicheFlix.com, the second part can be quite simple and inexpensive. For the more avid movie fans, it can be a real treat to finally see some of those titles which are not available domestically. Movies such as the Orson Welles classic The Magnificent Ambersons, several David Lynch titles such as Eraserhead are only available from sources outside North America, but all can be watched at home with a little effort.
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