My Global Quandary of the Month

No, it's not about global warming. I have recently, thanks to the influence and recommendations of a good friend, become enamored of certain British films and a certain British actor. I have also recently learned that certain DVDs of said actor's films released in the US are not always up to par with those released over the pond, in the UK (ie. more deleted scenes, more bonus material, etc.) No problem, I thought. I'll just order the movies from Amazon's UK site. DVDs made for European consumption are of course encoded for Region 2; I actually knew that already, and learned that lesson the hard way (another story for another day). Part B of my brilliant plan was to just buy a new DVD player that plays multi-region. No big deal, I thought, since DVD players are so cheap anyway, and my office VCR died on me months ago. So I try to order my British DVD and a multi-region DVD player (good price) from Amazon UK. It can't be done-- their DVD players are only for UK consumption! So I move on to other overseas websites, because I have also found out that you simply cannot buy a multi-region DVD player here in the US. I guess I am the only American who wants to watch foreign videos?! I found quite a few Asian and even American websites selling these special DVD players, which are basically Region 1 DVD players that have been expertly hacked to become multi-region. A very few sites sell players that are actually manufactured to be multi-region, no hacking required. Great, I'm on a roll again! $30 for my DVD plus roughly $80-100 for a hacked DVD player. But not so fast . . .

Ok, so it's actually quite a convoluted thing-- apparently,movies sold in Europe are not only Region 2, they must either be played on DVD/VCR players that are PAL standard (basically dictates what kind of resolution you're getting) or viewed on a TV with this PAL standard. And OF COURSE, DVD players and TVs in the US use a NTSC standard, which is actually inferior in resolution to PAL (525 lines of resolution v. 625; are we as tech savvy as we think we are?) The TV I had planned to hook up my new stuff to is ancient (in electronics time); I bought it in 1993 when I entered grad school. Should I buy a new TV? My aging TV cannot support the new overseas stuff. Apples and oranges, indeed!

Not to be outdone just yet, I decide to keep searching for *the* machine that will work with my old TV. Finally! I figured it all out! For slightly (ok, alot) more $$, I can buy a multi-region DVD player that will work with ANY of my NTSC TVs at home and play ANY region DVD from around the world (supposedly).

This assiduous research on electronic matters, which is sooo not my thing usually, took the better part of several days, and done while my kid was napping. I was so disappointed by how much effort it took just to figure this out, and really confused as to WHY our world is so electronically divided! Like if I ever wanted to or had to move overseas, I wouldn't even be able to bring my TV with me?! If our world can't get together over TV and DVDs, how are we ever going to get together about really important stuff?

I've shelved the *new DVD player* project for now. Maybe my husband will surprise me at Xmas with it, although I won't hold my breath! Meanwhile, there is a charming, just-released-in-the-UK-only 10th anniversary edition of BBC's 'Pride & Prejudice' DVD just waiting for me overseas . . . !