DVD's: do you know what (WS SUB) - 1 - US and Canada means?

Question

I want to purchase a DVD (uk) & was wondering wether (WS SUB) - 1 - US and Canada means I cannot play it in UK? or is it incompatible... what does it mean?
Thank you in advance guys.

Answer 1

WS = Widescreen format for 16:9 TVs
SUB - Movie has option for sub-titles for those with impaired hearing.

1-US & Canada means it will only play in a region 1 DVD player.

All UK DVD players are supposed to be supplied as region 2 (Europe) encoded and cannot play region 1 (North American) disks.(They can only play regions 2 & 0) Some retailers will modify your player to play disks from any region and some manufactures have a code that you put into the remote control that allows you to switch regions.

The short answer is that unless you have and unlocked or modified player you cannot play the region 1 disk.

Its the film industry's way of making sure that if a DVD is released in the US before the film goes into the cinema in Europe then the disks don't find there way into Europe denting the box office sales at the cinemas.

Answer 2

The only to to add, is the fact that most DVD players sold in the U.K. are actaully Region free i.e. they will play DVDs from any region. All three of the DVD players I have owned have been Region free from new. You are very unlucky if your player is Region 2 only.

This is because the manufacturers of DVD players don't agree with the film industry's Region coding idea and make them Region free anyway...