I play Region one (Europe)DVD'S on my playstation 2, please does any one know if you can get a code or buy something else that will enable me to play any region dvd's (like region 1 - North American and Candian dvd's),thanks

Not that I know of - you'd have to buy a DVD player that's either a multi-region one or get one from North America to do so.

To play a US or Canada DVD, you must have a Region I player, which is only sold in the US and Canada. A European-bought DVD player will not play US DVDs.

Some will play both.

As long as a DVD is not coded, it will play, but, if it is coded, it will only play within its region. There are some DVDs that are not coded, nor are they required to by law. Europe is Region II, so a disc labeled Region II will not play in regions I or III through VI. There are Regions, VII, VIII, and IX, but they are rarely used.

Source: http://www.hometheaterinfo.com/dvd3.htm

What I am saying is that it is possible to purchase DVD players which play DVDs from any region.

Lots of manufacturers make them now and the prices vary greatly, some are really quite cheap. In the UK we like to be able to play DVDs from the States as they are so much cheaper than those we can purchase in the UK. With so many people from this side of the pond visiting the US on holiday, cheap DVDs are a 'must buy'.

Yeah, they're just more expensive to buy in the US because the entertainment companies are so concerned about copyright infringement (which is why region coding was developed). Personally, I hate it - what if I want to watch a movie that is only released in Europe? It's silly that I can't buy it and watch it on my own player - how else am I supposed to get it?

Same thing as I mentioned above, in the UK we are more likely to want to purchase US tapes than you are wanting to buy our more expensive ones. My cheap video recorder will happily play PAL as well as VHS but having sent VHS tapes to the US I found that the same doesn't apply over there.

Which doesn't help our friend who wants to play on Play Stations!

Actually, you guys have gone off the original question. First of all, Europe is Region 2 and the US is Region 1. The PS2 if bought in the UK or Europe will only play Region 2 DVD's but you can get a disco called "Region X" which at one time was being given away with a PS2 magazine. I believe you can buy one of these on Play.com under the games section. Once you have Region X, it should allow you to change the region depending on what DVD you want to watch.


As to the other argument, Most DVD players have a built in code which will allow the user to change the settings to any region they like. This code is not given to you when you purchase the machine but you can find it on the net. Some DVD players with this feature only allow the change for a certain number of times (just like a PC DVD player) whilst the new Sony DVD players (£500+ as I can't remember what model it is) automatically selects the region when it scans the disc.....how do I know this, because my father bought one and I have plenty of different region discs (1,2,3 and 4).

Is it like the computers where you can only change the region a certain number of times and then you're stuck?

So that wouldn't really work if you alternate between region 1 and region 2 dvds.

Edit to add: Also, I've heard that some DVDs won't work in multi-region players (either those who were 'born' that way or ones where you punched in the secret code).

Nope...the Region X allows you to change the region as many times as you like. The DVD's that don't work on Multi-Region (that's Zero) are usually encoded and so far I have only ever come across one as such. Personally I always select the correct region rather than multi-region.

Yeah, but the 'secret code' thing only makes the DVD player multi-region, as I understand it, so you wouldn't be able to change from one region to the next.

The code depending on the make and model will either make it multi-region or allow you to choose what region you want. I have a 'Limit' make DVD which allows me to enter the code and than choose the region before I play the DVD, it will than stay on that region until I input the code and change the region again.

The whole code scenerio depends on the make and model of DVD player.