Almost all our DVD's are Region 2 (R2) which is the correct standard for fhe following countries:

• Europe, including France and Greece,
• Turkey
• Egypt
• Japan
• South Africa
• The Middle East
• Greenland

Because many have been sourced in the USA however, they require a TV set capable of playing NTSC as well as the usual PAL encoding. This is not a problem with most modern equipment.

We also sell some DVD's which are clearly identified as for Region 1 only, (eg North Shore) because many of our customers have multi-region equipment.

Imposed by the film studios due to the staggered theatrical release of movies worldwide and to protect exclusive markets, region coding was designed as a method of ensuring discs would be playable only in certain geographical locations.

Region 1 (R1) is code assigned for the geographical locale of the U.S., Canada and U.S. territories.

In order to view R1 discs in Europe, you'll require a multi-region DVD player and a NTSC compatible TV. If you are unsure as to the compatibility of your equipment, please consult your technical documentation or the supplier/manufacturer of your TV.

Otherwise known as 'Region All' or 'Region Free', R0 discs are compatible with any DVD player as they are specifically enabled for all geographical locales.

In simple terms, due to the nature of PAL/NTSC decoding standards, PAL titles run 4% quicker than their NTSC counterparts (see NTSC and PAL for further information).

Many DVD players can be made multi-region by the inputting of a code via the machine's remote control. Please be aware that such an operation may invalidate your player's warranty.

However, players manufactured by Sony, Panasonic, Pioneer and Toshiba all require hardware modification, known as 'chipping', in order to become multi-region. Some older hardware modifications are not RCE compliant so please contact the supplier of your machine if in doubt.

Since December 31, 1999, all DVD-Rom drives are manufactured with region restrictions, known as Region Protection Control (RPC1). Like DVD players purchased within the EU, U.S. and Canadian law dictates that DVD-Rom drives available are set to their native region as default: in this case, Region 1.

It is possible to change the region code of your DVD-Rom drive up to five times, depending on the particular drive (you can see how many changes you have left in your PC's operating system settings). Once these changes have all been used, the drive will be locked in one region. Getting around these limited region changes is achievable through altering the drive's own region checking software (known as firmware) although permanent damage may be caused to the drive if performed incorrectly so make sure you know what you're doing first!

Most PC monitors are easily able to display an NTSC or PAL output but if you utilise a TV-Out graphics card to port the signal through a TV set, you'll require a NTSC compatible TV for stable colour playback of NTSC discs.