There are basically three TV broadcast standards. The result is that not all videos are compatible with all video players and TVs.

The 3 standards are:

* NTSC (used in USA, Canada, Japan & others)
* PAL (used in Great Britain, mainland Europe, Australia & others)
* SECAM (used in France, Greece, Russia)

Each TV system is different, NTSC uses 525 horizontal lines per image, wheras PAL and SECAM use 625 lines. The encoding system in PAL and SECAM are not campatible, hence we have three TV standards. These standards are widely used in other countries not listed above.

TVs and VCRs are usually wired to work with only one broadcast standard (e.g. PAL) so that a PAL TV and VCR will only correctly play PAL tapes and transmissions. The video tape format (e.g. VHS) has no bearing whatsoever on the ability of the TV to reproduce the signal. In other words, if you put an NTSC VHS tape into a PAL VCR, you will not get a viewable picture, and that goes for the other mediums like DVDs and laserdiscs. In some countries PAL/NTSC compatible TVs are sold commonly.

These are the main 6 DVD regions (or "zones"):

There are primarily 3 video storage formats in common use, VHS, DVD and Laserdisc. These are storage formats like audio cassette and CD and are NOT to be confused with TV standards, since pre-recorded titles on those mediums are only 'formatted' for PAL or NTSC display. Laserdiscs are still a good format that gives good quality picture and sound, but the technology is dated and DVD has become the next logical step. It could be said that DVDs have picked up where Laserdiscs left off. Japan is perhaps the only remaining country (or mighty close to it) that is still producing some laserdisc titles (as of 2001). However, it's only a matter of time before the makers stop manufacturing the medium for good.

What makes the DVD format so special?

The picture quality is double that of VHS and you can get a lot of extra things on DVDs that VHS and even laserdiscs were never meant to support, for example more than three multiple audio tracks and a capacity to include up to 32 optional subtitles.

Can I watch your DVDs/videos in my country? + What is "regional encoding"?

Most of the DVDs that we carry are coded for Region 2. With DVDs, aside from having to deal with the NTSC/PAL/SECAM issue as with VHS tapes, one has to take the "regional encoding" issue into consideration. The world is sliced up into 6 DVD "regions (zones)", and regional encoding limits what countries a disc can be used in. For instance, a region 2 encoded disc will not playback on a player normally sold in region 1 countries and vice versa. However, DVD players of different regions can be obtained through some specialized dealers in many countries, as well as code-free and code-switchable players. Some major publishers started using an active region checking program code on their DVD titles which checks for the proper region setting in the player. This program is called Regional Coding Enhancement (RCE), and these "smart discs" employing RCE won't play on code-free players that are set for all regions. Manual code-switchable players that allow you to change the region using the remote control can play RCE discs (for now).

Are the titles English dubbed or carry English subtitles?

Unless otherwise specified in the product description, all DVD titles of Japanese movies and animes are in Japanese language only. In general, all DVD and video titles of non-Japanese movies carry language tracks in their original languages, unless a VHS title is specified as a "Japanese dubbed" version. Most DVD subtitles are optional (I.e. removable). Laserdiscs and VHS videos of non-Japanese movies have Japanese subtitles that are not removable as in the case of DVDs. However, letterboxed laserdiscs containing movies in Cinemascope and Panavision aspect ratio (2.35:1 or 2.40:1) usually carry subtitles on the bottom black bar so as not to obstruct the movie's image.