Hi, I am going to sign up for Geoff's online PDC when registration starts next weekend. One thing which is slightly bothering me is the set of videos which accompany the course, "24 x Disk set encoded in NTSC format suitable for viewing in North America", as I live in France and our format here is, I believe, PAL, the videos will not work, my question is, will I be sent PAL format discs or am I going to have to buy a new DVD player, one which will play NTSC, if anyone could shed some light on this I would appreciate it. Regards William
Hello William, My partner received all the DVDs from last year's course and we've had no troubles playing them on the computers. Haven't tried a DVD player (as we have none). Maybe Craig will see this and respond ... if we don't hear from him shortly, we can pose the question to him directly. It actually appears that France may be SECAM, not PAL:
After some more investigation, I found the following: https://www.webmasterworld.com/video/4611133.htm Essential points: Our DVD set states: Region Free - NTSC All Perhaps the PRI sends the appropriate format for your country of registration? I'll pulse Craig to get more info.
Hi Guys. If the DVDs are NTSC format only (I'll take your word for it), then you will either need to play them on an NTSC compatible DVD player, or simply play it from a computer (a computer will play either format). Many people play from their computers, and if they want to watch it on a bigger screen, they normally just connect their computer to their bigger screen via an HDMI cable, thus bypassing the dedicated DVD player, with its limitations. I hope that helps. If not, let me know.
Thanks for the replies, 9anda1f and Craig, I have had a look at about a dozen of the Dvd,s which I have bought here in France and all say region 2 PAL, now I am really confused as I hate to admit it but I had not heard of secam until I saw the above map. Craig, I sort of got the idea that the dvd,s are NTSC as that is what it says on the registration PDF which was released on Friday the 21/03/2014. It is no big deal if I have to buy a dvd player, I just want to be prepared for when the course starts and dont want to be trying to source an NTSC dvd player at the last moment. As Craig and 9anda1f have said, most dvd,s will play on a computer so I think I will try that if the disc,s turn out to be NTSC. Thanks for the info guys much appreciated. regards William
Hi 9anda1f, Until I saw the above map I had no idea secam even existed, I really am spending far to much time in the garden, lol. william
Craig, Thanks for the info, I think I can forgo all heartache by just putting the "potential problem" in the lap of my 7 year old, I have no doubt he can show me what to do, often times a problem is a great opportunity to learn something new. william
Ca va? If you run Windows, any version with a dvd player in your computer you already have the software to watch the videos that are provided with the course. If you run an Apple OS, I have no idea. Bon Soir and hope to see you in class!
Why are the dvds being region coded? The only reason for region coding dvds is to stop commercial release of tv and movies to areas that haven't shown them on broadcast or cinema release yet. That doesn't apply to the PDC. All macs are region locked. You can change the region settings 5 times and the fifth time it locks in. So anyone watching region 2 dvds on a mac sold into a non-region 2 market is going to have problems. There are firmware hacks for that, but they void the computer's warranty. Best work around is to rip the dvds to an mp4 format. This is legal if for your own use. There will be less digitially savvy folk out there who will find that a challenge though.
Our DVDs are not region coded, they are coded "All". They are however NTSC, which is a 30 frames/second format (which works with the 60 hz mains power) as opposed to the PAL or SECAM formats which are 25 frames/second and work with 50 hz main power. = )
Okay! I just received an email stating the 2014 Geoff Lawton Online PDC registration is now open! Watch the introductory video and sign up here: https://www.geofflawton.com/sp/13753-sales-page
Thanks for all the info Guys, I am sure I can sort something out. Anyway as 9anda1f stated the registration is now open, I have been waiting for this for months, so here we go, registration here I come. William