I FINALLY got to watch my Senna DVD last night because my new multi-region DVD player arrived!!! You may not be aware that the DVD gods, in their infinite wisdom, encode DVDs so that a DVD sold in England (PAL format) won’t play on an American DVD player (NTSC format), which is apparently so that Hollywood can ensure maximum profits by controlling movie release dates in different parts of the world. Since movies are released in theatres in different parts of the world at different times, a movie which is already out on DVD in the US might still be in its first theatrical run overseas and those poor film studios can’t have someone skirting jacked-up cinema ticket prices by having a friend in the US send them the DVD or ordering it off eBay. There are also some nasty allegations floating around the web that the encoding is really all about price-fixing for different regions due to currency fluctuations and regional demand, but I digress.
I was kinda aware of this as I have a friend who lives in Germany and we’d discussed how we couldn’t swap DVDs, but it didn’t occur to me that this would be a problem with the Senna DVD for two reasons. First, it’s not a movie per se , that would need to be timed to coincide with press junkets and actors doing Leno and Letterman. Secondly, the description has nothing similar to what Amazon says regarding my King Crimson “Eyes Wide Open” DVD: "Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. This DVD will probably NOT be viewable in other countries.)". Considering that Ayrton is venerated as a god in Brazil (I’m not exaggerating), that Brazil is Region 4 (not UK-compatible any more than the US is) and the website didn’t have a similar warning or a place to specify which region you needed, I figured it wasn’t encoded. I was wrong. PAL format. Much censored language issued forth.
In case you ever need to know, here are the region designations for DVDs:
Region one: U.S., U.S. Territories, Canada, and Bermuda
Region two: Japan, Europe, South Africa, and the Middle East, including Egypt
Region three: Southeast Asia, East Asia, including Hong Kong
Region four: Australia, New Zealand, Pacific Islands, Mexico, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean
Region five: Former Soviet Union, Indian subcontinent, Africa, North Korea, and Mongolia
Region six: China
I ask you, is it not absurd that the US is not the same region as Mexico? Oh, and to further complicate matters, some DVDs are multi-but-not-all-regional. For example, a DVD encoded as Region 1 & 2 is fairly common. Okay, back to ME.
After my DVD player refused to play my Senna DVD, my brother made the brilliant suggestion of playing it on my Playstation 2. This idea, like my brother, only sorta halfassed worked. [Sorry, Bo, I didn’t really mean that - it was just funny.] I tried it and was elated for about three seconds because the PS2 was cool with playing the Senna DVD, but then my AMERICAN NTSC TELEVISION wouldn’t display anything other than “TV format does not match”. So I could LISTEN to my new DVD, but not WATCH it. Sigh. Yes, I was so desperate for Sennasation that I did exactly that for a time, but once they started talking to Viviane, his sister and, not surprisingly, a Brazilian who speaks Portuguese, and Nicola Larini, an Italian who speaks - you guessed it, Italian - it was kinda pointless without subtitles.
Anyone who knows even 1/100th of the depth of my Senna devotion will realize that I had but one option: buy a European DVD player. Let me give a shout out to Bombay Electronics, from which I ordered it. I was kinda leery because I’d never heard of them and didn't know anyone who’d ordered from them; although it did say “guaranteed to play any DVD on NTSC televisions”, I still had visions of getting ripped off or getting the player but blowing it up with American current, all sorts of problems, but Sennalove convinced me to risk it. They had what I wanted in stock, processed my order and sent a confirmation immediately, it got here in three days, it was packed in tons of protective styrofoam, it has a regular normal American plug, English on the remote buttons, its input/output plugs and cords matched the other necessary equipment, it plays all regions and all formats on my normal American TV and everything was perfect. In short, all went as it was supposed to; those of you who know me recognize what an extraordinarily rare occurrence this is in my life (see “Helly gets a new DVD", above). I was most pleased. It’s not just European, but multi-regional - it’ll play anything. Also, it’s the cutest little wee DVD player, only about 8" x 8" and shiny silver (I like shiny things).
Of course, watching my beloved Ayrton brought the polor opposite racing matter to mind. Have I ever chanced to mention that I really, really hate Juan Pablo Montoya? I think I will put my education in the Classics to good use - see, Mom, I told you it would pay off one day! I shall follow the example of the esteemed Marcus Portius Cato, a/k/a Cato the Elder, a/k/a Cato the Censor. Cato gave a famous speech during which he said, "Censeo Carthaginem esse delendam" (I declare that Carthage must be destroyed), and he similarly ended each speech until his death, by which time Rome had taken his advice and was waging the Third Punic War, by saying "Carthago delenda est" (Carthage must be destroyed). Henceforth, each of my blog entries will end with my version of this assertion.
MONTOYA DELENDA EST! <---note the use of the senatorial purple
I was kinda aware of this as I have a friend who lives in Germany and we’d discussed how we couldn’t swap DVDs, but it didn’t occur to me that this would be a problem with the Senna DVD for two reasons. First, it’s not a movie per se , that would need to be timed to coincide with press junkets and actors doing Leno and Letterman. Secondly, the description has nothing similar to what Amazon says regarding my King Crimson “Eyes Wide Open” DVD: "Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. This DVD will probably NOT be viewable in other countries.)". Considering that Ayrton is venerated as a god in Brazil (I’m not exaggerating), that Brazil is Region 4 (not UK-compatible any more than the US is) and the website didn’t have a similar warning or a place to specify which region you needed, I figured it wasn’t encoded. I was wrong. PAL format. Much censored language issued forth.
In case you ever need to know, here are the region designations for DVDs:
Region one: U.S., U.S. Territories, Canada, and Bermuda
Region two: Japan, Europe, South Africa, and the Middle East, including Egypt
Region three: Southeast Asia, East Asia, including Hong Kong
Region four: Australia, New Zealand, Pacific Islands, Mexico, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean
Region five: Former Soviet Union, Indian subcontinent, Africa, North Korea, and Mongolia
Region six: China
I ask you, is it not absurd that the US is not the same region as Mexico? Oh, and to further complicate matters, some DVDs are multi-but-not-all-regional. For example, a DVD encoded as Region 1 & 2 is fairly common. Okay, back to ME.
After my DVD player refused to play my Senna DVD, my brother made the brilliant suggestion of playing it on my Playstation 2. This idea, like my brother, only sorta halfassed worked. [Sorry, Bo, I didn’t really mean that - it was just funny.] I tried it and was elated for about three seconds because the PS2 was cool with playing the Senna DVD, but then my AMERICAN NTSC TELEVISION wouldn’t display anything other than “TV format does not match”. So I could LISTEN to my new DVD, but not WATCH it. Sigh. Yes, I was so desperate for Sennasation that I did exactly that for a time, but once they started talking to Viviane, his sister and, not surprisingly, a Brazilian who speaks Portuguese, and Nicola Larini, an Italian who speaks - you guessed it, Italian - it was kinda pointless without subtitles.
Anyone who knows even 1/100th of the depth of my Senna devotion will realize that I had but one option: buy a European DVD player. Let me give a shout out to Bombay Electronics, from which I ordered it. I was kinda leery because I’d never heard of them and didn't know anyone who’d ordered from them; although it did say “guaranteed to play any DVD on NTSC televisions”, I still had visions of getting ripped off or getting the player but blowing it up with American current, all sorts of problems, but Sennalove convinced me to risk it. They had what I wanted in stock, processed my order and sent a confirmation immediately, it got here in three days, it was packed in tons of protective styrofoam, it has a regular normal American plug, English on the remote buttons, its input/output plugs and cords matched the other necessary equipment, it plays all regions and all formats on my normal American TV and everything was perfect. In short, all went as it was supposed to; those of you who know me recognize what an extraordinarily rare occurrence this is in my life (see “Helly gets a new DVD", above). I was most pleased. It’s not just European, but multi-regional - it’ll play anything. Also, it’s the cutest little wee DVD player, only about 8" x 8" and shiny silver (I like shiny things).
Of course, watching my beloved Ayrton brought the polor opposite racing matter to mind. Have I ever chanced to mention that I really, really hate Juan Pablo Montoya? I think I will put my education in the Classics to good use - see, Mom, I told you it would pay off one day! I shall follow the example of the esteemed Marcus Portius Cato, a/k/a Cato the Elder, a/k/a Cato the Censor. Cato gave a famous speech during which he said, "Censeo Carthaginem esse delendam" (I declare that Carthage must be destroyed), and he similarly ended each speech until his death, by which time Rome had taken his advice and was waging the Third Punic War, by saying "Carthago delenda est" (Carthage must be destroyed). Henceforth, each of my blog entries will end with my version of this assertion.
MONTOYA DELENDA EST! <---note the use of the senatorial purple
1 Comments:
I got mine from GandhiAppliances.com
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Anonymous, at 1:09 PM
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