[ken6217]

I just bought a dvd player that plays all regions. I was told that region 2 dvd's are better visually. I am in Hong Kong right now on business and the dvd's here are region 3. Does the same hold true for region 3 as region 2?

I appreciate your comments.


Ken

 

[digitalboy]

For Region 3 DVD's, I would say that the Korean ones are usually better than HK DVD's, but of course, they are a bit more expensive.

 

[Einold]

When one says region 2 is better, one usually means that the Japanese DVDs (which are region 2 & NTSC) are more often than not better encoded than the NTSC DVDs in other regions.

 

[ken6217]

So should I look for Japanese made region 3 in Hong Kong? So being region 2 or 3 doesn't automatically make it a better picture?


Thanks,

Ken

 

[starlite]

Ken,


I think you are right... Being region 2 or 3 does NOT guarantee better picture. I own a number of regions 2 & 3 discs (korean, chinese, japan, hong kong, and british), and the quality varies. Some are excellent (much better than the region 1 counterpart), and some are not. I found region 2 & 3 discs often have softer picture and saturated color even with better clarity. A lot of them have DTS tracks when its region 1 counterparts don't. I bought some region 2/3 discs just to have DTS track, and I think the DTS tracks on korean and japanese disc are very well done.


One thing to be carefull about though... Sometimes, hong kong dvds look legitimate and plays great, but they are not. They are copied dvds, but they have all the color artwork and the discs are mass produced with title directly printed on the disc. It is almost impossible to tell. Well, these discs are cheap (I mean, really cheap), but they often have playback problems (freezing, skipping, audio breakup, etc.). So beware...

 

[ken6217]

I bought a couple of dvd's in a music store in a mall here. I would doubt they are counterfeit. I spoke to the salesman there. He said that region 3 is similar to region 1 in thay they are NTSC. He said that reegion 2 are usually always better from UK. What you want to get (which region 2 usually is) is PAL dvd's. I bought a Coldplay dvd in PAL. He said it was very good.


Ken

 

[FoxyMulder]

There is no set rule saying one region is better than the other i shop for my DVD's from around the world i have many region 1,2 and 3 and 4.


Sometimes you get DTS ( sometimes fullbitrate ) sometimes you just get better packaging or additional features and sometimes you just get cheaper prices with the same quality as america or the UK has, it pays to shop around and i actually review some of the imports on my website.