[lastpaige]

For those who aren't frequent international travellers, I thought I'd warn you to not bother buying movies in Polish for your older children to enjoy back in the states. We thought it would be fun to have a few like, "Autos" (i.e. "Cars"), etc.

Anyway, the dvds spin at a different rate in Poland and won't work in the states. (Unless you buy a dvd player there and bring it home too!)

[Mom2_4]

Hi All,

The entertainment industry created "zones" to slow down DVD piracy. Here is the wiki link the explains why:
DVD region code - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

If you have a really old DVD player, you might be able to play european DVDs (big maybe)

Also there are geeky-techno ways to break the coding factor (especially on DVDs players on PCs). The Polish CDs sold in America by American based company's like PolArt, will work.

Also, if you live in or around Chicago, you should be able to find workable DVDs in Polish bodaga type stores.

[LisArno]

DVDs are based on regions and are coded. There are code-free DVD players available (mine was $40), but if you don't have one, you can make yours code-free. You can type something like "hack name/model of DVD player" into Google or other search engine and it will tell you what to do. We were given the code to our other DVD player when we purchased it - was a series of buttons to push on the remote, like fast forward, rewind, fast forward, stop,... and then it worked.

[lastpaige]

Very cool - thank you, we'll have to try these options!

Happy Thanksgiving!

[taia]

Usually you can watch them on your computer. Also, very often the cheapest DVD players would play most of the Polish DVD's. Europe has a different zone, but computers give you a chance to set it to the European zone. It may ask you after the fourth or so time to choose your preference. It can be done. I do it all the time.

[lastpaige]

We ran them on our laptop in Poland, but after the 4th time we had to choose the permanent setting. Haven't tried it on our desktop here at home though - thanks for the idea.

[tony_nyc]

Here's a good site for finding out the "geeky-techno ways to break the coding factor":

VideoHelp.com - Forum, Guides, Tools and hardware lists

Before I purchased my last DVD player I made sure it had a region 0 hack so I could play any Polish DVDs.

Your geeky-techno friend,
Tony

[lastpaige]

Ha - I was thrilled when I figured out how to put a picture on my blog! I've forwarded this link to my husband and will see if he can break our dvd settings. Thank you for the link!

Your non-techno (but I can cook!) friend,