need help asap with multi region dvd player!

[Porschetech]

i just picked my my arcam dv 137 dvd player today. i hooked it all up this evening and used the '1 1 1 1 1 3' code to set it to a multi region player. i rechecked the menu setting using '4792' and it showed it was now a multi region player.
so i put in one of my region 2 dvd's and no picture. i get sound, but i get a message displaying 'mode not supported'. am i to believe that our tv's can't use multi region players? i'm pretty pissed off about this now as i've just wasted a whole evening doing this and got no results, hopefully not wasted all my money.

any suggestions???? ......is this a dvd or tv problem?

 

[Adam]

Is the DVD video in PAL format? If so, then you'd need a player that will convert PAL to NTSC if your TV doesn't do that.

 

[Porschetech]

Is the DVD video in PAL format? If so, then you'd need a player that will convert PAL to NTSC if your TV doesn't do that.

yes the dvd's i was putting in (tried 3 of them) are region 2. ......i know in the setup menu it does have ntsc, pal or auto for output selection. thats about all i know/understand right now. like i mentioned earlier i now have sound, but no picture

 

[Adam]

Just to be clear - the region doesn't matter, but the video format does. There are Region 2 discs that are NTSC, and there are Region 2 discs that are PAL. If it's Japanese, then it's almost surely NTSC. If it's European, then it's probably PAL.

If your TV can only do NTSC, then set the output on the player to NTSC. Hopefully, it will convert the PAL video (assuming that's what your DVDs have) to NTSC.

 

[Adam]

An update for you, as I just read a bit of the owner's manual for the DV137.

If you set the display standard to NTSC (assuming that your TV is NTSC-based), the unit will convert PAL video to NTSC. Note that the video won't be perfect, but I've been happy with my player when it does it. So, set it to NTSC. If you leave the display standard set to "Auto", then the player will output whatever video is on the disc - and that's not what you want.

 

[Porschetech]

Just to be clear - the region doesn't matter, but the video format does. There are Region 2 discs that are NTSC, and there are Region 2 discs that are PAL. If it's Japanese, then it's almost surely NTSC. If it's European, then it's probably PAL.

If your TV can only do NTSC, then set the output on the player to NTSC. Hopefully, it will convert the PAL video (assuming that's what your DVDs have) to NTSC.

yes they are PAL, as i got them from england (i'm a brit living in the states). so if the player is unlocked to region free and the video output set to auto.....shouldn't it just play? sorry for sounding like a noob. the tv i have is a samsung 46" lcd.....850 series

 

[Adam]

Sorry, I posted while you were replying. See my post just above yours. You can have it always output NTSC, which is what you'd want for most TVs bought in the USA.

EDIT: I'll check to see if your TV can handle PAL video (but there's probably a setting for it somewhere).

 

[Porschetech]

wow......you are a star!. i'll try this later this eve . yes both my dvd and tv are ntsc

 

[Adam]

No problem!

To update on what I found on the TV, I searched the owner's manual for the Samsung and didn't find any references to PAL or NTSC. So, I'm going to assume that it doesn't have a menu selection to switch between them, and it is almost surely set at the factory for the country of sale (in the USA, it would be NTSC).

 

[Porschetech]

No problem!

To update on what I found on the TV, I searched the owner's manual for the Samsung and didn't find any references to PAL or NTSC. So, I'm going to assume that it doesn't have a menu selection to switch between them, and it is almost surely set at the factory for the country of sale (in the USA, it would be NTSC).

yeah i think you're right. i was getting worried as i thought it would be another be of expensive equipment that i bought which end up being useless

btw, where's the best place to sell used equipment? i have a rotel 5 channel amp and rotel cd player to try and get rid of. gotta pay for this dvd player somehow

 

[Adam]

Hmmm, best place to sell gear? Others here know about that much better than I do. I've seen recommendations to sell here (you need 25 posts), craigslist, eBay, your local buddies, and some others. Hopefully someone else here who has actually sold something will chime in. Otherwise, you can search this forum for ideas - I know that people have asked that question before.

 

[Porschetech]

Hmmm, best place to sell gear? Others here know about that much better than I do. I've seen recommendations to sell here (you need 25 posts), craigslist, eBay, your local buddies, and some others. Hopefully someone else here who has actually sold something will chime in. Otherwise, you can search this forum for ideas - I know that people have asked that question before.

yeah thats correct.....need 'x' number of posts before you can sell on here. i've tried craigslist, but nothing more than time wasters. other than that i don't know anyone else. i'm in no rush to sell. it just would be nice for someone to make better use of them than me

 

[Porschetech]

Update!

soooooo.........i just reset the video output to NTSC only and it works!!!!!
PAL region 2 dvd's looks amazing too. thanks again for the help

 

[Adam]

Thanks for the update! I'm very happy that it's working well for you now.

 

[Pyrrho]

soooooo.........i just reset the video output to NTSC only and it works!!!!!
PAL region 2 dvd's looks amazing too. thanks again for the help

I am not familiar with your particular DVD player, but if it is an upconverting player that upconverts first and then converts to 60 Hz (what may be labeled "NTSC" in your menu), you will get more lines of resolution with PAL discs. This is because the PAL format has more lines of resolution than the NTSC format. But if your player is not upconverting, then those extra lines of resolution are thrown away in the conversion process to NTSC. Also, some upconverting players are made such that they convert to NTSC and then upconvert, in which case the extra lines of resolution were thrown away.