There are two big problems that most of us in the U.S. face when buying DVDs from overseas. I'll try to address them both and hopefully clear up some of the confusion:
1. Region Codes. To give distributors greater control over DVD distribution schedules and DVD content, the world DVD market is broken up into 6 regions. So, for example, a DVD bought in America is a Region 1 DVD, a DVD bought in the UK is a Region 2 DVD, a DVD bought in Thailand is a Region 3 DVD, and so on. The big problem here is that most DVD players have a form of lockout technology so that a DVD bought in one region will not play on a DVD player bought in a different region. In other words, if you live in the States and have a Region 1 player, there is a good chance that the import DVD of BATTLE ROYALE 2 that you got from Japan will not play in your player. Now of course, there are many ways around this. First, many DVDs can be made so that they are Region-Free or Region 0. Basically, a DVD producer has the abilty to say, "screw the regions, I want anyone to be able to play my DVD." An example is DVDs purchased from Hong Kong. For the most part, HK DVDs are Region-Free so pretty much anyone in the world can buy the latest Johnnie To, Wong Kar-wai, or Twins DVD from Hong Kong without any worries. I'm *assuming* most footbag DVDs (since they are made by small, indie companies) are Region-Free. Another way around the region problem is to purchase a Region-Free DVD Player, a player that uses internal technology to hack the region code and play any DVD. Region-Free players are becoming more and more popular and are now quite easy to find. Many companies like Panasonic, Jaton, Malata, and Daewoo make great Region-Free players that can be easily found online or at local electronics stores (I bought mine here:
http://www.hkflix.com/home.asp). A third option is to use your computer DVDROM. Many computers play DVDs from any region. If not, one can easily find Sharware that will essentially turn your computer DVDROM drive into a Region-Free player hence allowing you to play anything on your computer (just do a quick Google search and you should find plenty of options).
2. PAL vs. NTSC. Now this is probably going to be the big kicker for most of us here in the States. The MPEG video on a DVD is stored in digital format, but it's formatted for one of two mutually incompatible television systems, PAL or NTSC (there is also a format known as SECAM, but that's not important for now). These formats differ in terms of vertical frequency, picture dimensions and pixel aspect ratio (720x480 vs. 720x576), display frame rate (29.97 vs. 25), and surround audio options. The bottom line is that there are two kinds of DVDs: "NTSC DVDs" and "PAL DVDs." In the States we use NTSC, in most of Europe PAL is used. Almost all PAL DVD players will play both types of DVDs, however (sadly) most NTSC players will NOT play PAL DVDs. Again, what this means is that most of our U.S. DVD players will NOT play a European PAL DVD. Again, there are many ways around this. Most computers will play anything and will have no problem playing a PAL DVD. For those with some money, there are many DVD players that do PAL to NTSC conversion (in fact, these players are getting cheaper and cheaper, a decent player that does the conversion can now be had for under $100). Just look for DVD players that claim they can convert PAL to NTSC. There are other problems with PAL as well. Many have probably heard of the notorious 4% speed-up, but that's a whole other beast.
I guess the moral is "caveat emptor", let the buyer beware. Be careful when buying a PAL DVD. Make sure your player can handle it and always check Region Codes.
hope this helps,
Matt Kain
Quick note: Progessive Scan is a way of encoding and decoding more scan lines within an image. So if you have a Progressive Scan DVD and a Progressive Scan DVD Player, you will, in theory, be able to get a better quality image (very important for people with big screen TVs).
If you have a 30 dollar dvd player, i'm guessing, you got what you payed for.
