Canadian Army newsreels on YOUTUBE

[Grant Bowker]

Yes Bob, they do exist in Ottawa - one is Gladstone St at Bay St. NW corner. There must be others too, in other parts of the city as well.

[Jordan Baker]

I checked and there is no mention of any region code on the box or the DVD’s

[Alex van de Wetering]

Thanks Jordan. That means there is at least a chance that they are region free!

Bob, Grant, a friend can probably do the region code transfer for me, but I know for a fact that everyone is asking him for a favor to transfer their VHS tapes to DVD etc., so I rather not bother him with the transfer unless absolutely necessary.
I also remember from years ago that some of the very cheap DVD players were region code free so all DVD's could be played.

Alex

[Grant Bowker]

A quick Google suggests that region free players still exist. Most articles I saw were written from a North American perspective but I presume it should be valid info for the rest of the world.
There were also links to sites that list key sequences on the DVD players' remotes to set the region to "region free" or "all regions" status. One link is https://www.wisebread.com/make-your-...ree-in-seconds but the search string "region free DVD player hack" should give multiple results. Personally, I'm nervous about messing with firmware as I might end up with an expensive doorstop rather than a DVD player if the firmware gets corrupted.

[Barry Churcher]

Hi Alex
I talked to some nice young ladies at the War Amps last week and none of them could answer about the region questions. I just kept getting transferred from one to another. They were all very pleasant and tried to be helpful and the last girl said she would get someone to call me back. Well it took a week but they did phone today and we are out of luck with buying for another region. She did refer me to the HD You Tube versions. She said the videos should work on your computer so we will see. PM me your address and I will get a set in the mail.
mvg,
Barry

[Alex van de Wetering]

Barry,

Thanks so much for contacting War amps directly and especially for your offer to send a DVD set. I will send you a PM with my address.

I am hoping the quality of the DVDs might be a bit better than the vids on youtube.....and it would make it easier to watch all newsreels back to back on a big screen without any commercials.

Grant; I agree....I am also not a fan of messing with firmware, but I am sure I can work something out that allows me to watch the DVD's here in Holland.
And maybe I am lucky and the DVD's will play without issues anyway. We'll see!

regards,

Alex

[Lang]

I had this region code problem a few years ago. I took my DVD player to a repair place and he fixed it in 30 seconds. He told me that the factory repair manuals - normally only available to authorised service centres - have the code combinations to program area restrictions or remove them all together.

He said they "should" not override the settings as there were arrangements between the equipment manufacturers and film distributors (often the same company eg Sony) to artificially restrict international access so they can manipulate market prices.

Many players now on the market, I think driven by the Chinese disregard of copyright in many areas, freely advertise all-region capability.

All you need to do is to download for free one of the many player apps and they will convert and read any DVD which you can put straight on your computer, a USB dongle or burn a new DVD. Make sure you get a good one because some are more capable than others and you need it to do this specific job. Just make sure conversion is on their list or you will have wasted your time and have to try another one.

Lang