Movies

[visaveteran1 33]

My wife asked me to bring some English language movies when I visit her soon, so she can work on her English skills and also so I'll have some non Russian movies to watch for entertainment. With all the issues about security and computers, cameras and electronic devices at airports, etc, is carrying movies on DVDs, etc. a problem going into Russia? I mean, will they be confiscated or maybe damaged by the x-ray process?

[Jason-Sasha 1]

I always take a nice library of films with me when I go to Russia. And I've been there many times. 2 weeks before each trip I begin burning movies onto disks. I keep them in a nice cd case and have never had any problems. Its no longer the Soviet Union, so they won't be looking to confiscate your American films. And xray devices shouldn't harm them either. but if you're concerned, burn them onto disks that you can throw away without losing your originals. Is this your first trip to Russia??

[visaveteran1 33]

I always take a nice library of films with me when I go to Russia. And I've been there many times. 2 weeks before each trip I begin burning movies onto disks. I keep them in a nice cd case and have never had any problems. Its no longer the Soviet Union, so they won't be looking to confiscate your American films. And xray devices shouldn't harm them either. but if you're concerned, burn them onto disks that you can throw away without losing your originals. Is this your first trip to Russia??

Thanks for the info! Glad th hear no problems with movies. This will be my fifth trip to Russia.

[Chris Parker 10]

My wife asked me to bring some English language movies when I visit her soon, so she can work on her English skills and also so I'll have some non Russian movies to watch for entertainment. With all the issues about security and computers, cameras and electronic devices at airports, etc, is carrying movies on DVDs, etc. a problem going into Russia? I mean, will they be confiscated or maybe damaged by the x-ray process?

I don't think there is a problem bringing them in, but will they play?

Does anyone know if region-free DVD players are the norm in Russia?

I want to bring a region 1 DVD to Russia, and I'm not sure if the player will accept it?

BTW - Every DVD I've ever bought in Russia and brought to USA turned out to be all an all-region DVD, even if it was marked for Region 5.

[Kazan' Tiger 1]

I've never had a problem with customs, whether inbound or outbound. However, the discs probably will not play as they are, most likely, regionally coded. I ripped mine and made copies (Don't start with the copyright #######, I really don't give a hoot.) and re-encoded them from Region 1 (North America) to Region 5 (Russia). Now my fiancée can watch them on her player with no problems. I also left her a small Region 1 player with PAL output for discs that I could not successfully rip that I wanted to leave for her.

[Chris Parker 10]

I've never had a problem with customs, whether inbound or outbound. However, the discs probably will not play as they are, most likely, regionally coded. I ripped mine and made copies (Don't start with the copyright #######, I really don't give a hoot.) and re-encoded them from Region 1 (North America) to Region 5 (Russia). Now my fiancée can watch them on her player with no problems. I also left her a small Region 1 player with PAL output for discs that I could not successfully rip that I wanted to leave for her.

PAL output actually isn't a problem in Russia, as 99% of the TV's there support NTSC and PAL.

Playing PAL in the U.S. is another problem though, since that isn't the case here. However, at least for DVD's, my DVD players have always been able to convert PAL to NTSC fairly easily.

Where did you get a Region 1 player which runs on 220V (or, was this a portable player with/screen?)?

[visaveteran1 33]

I've never had a problem with customs, whether inbound or outbound. However, the discs probably will not play as they are, most likely, regionally coded. I ripped mine and made copies (Don't start with the copyright #######, I really don't give a hoot.) and re-encoded them from Region 1 (North America) to Region 5 (Russia). Now my fiancée can watch them on her player with no problems. I also left her a small Region 1 player with PAL output for discs that I could not successfully rip that I wanted to leave for her.

My motto is "nothing is easy!" and so it seems this is again true about playing movies. This reminds me of the same frustrations with mobile phones between USA & Russia phones.

My wife can only play movies via her computer so I wonder about compatibility issues with DVDs on her computer. She has a desktop and laptop computer. I know the laptop is a Russian version of an HP computer. Not sure about the desktop.

Do you think we can play USA DVDs on her computer? I could convert to either Quicktime or WMV format also. Will that help?

[russ 1]

Do you think we can play USA DVDs on her computer? I could convert to either Quicktime or WMV format also. Will that help?

Working around region encoding is easy. US DVDs will be NTSC, so they won't work anyway. (the 29.97 framerate won't work on a 25 fps PAL TV). There are NTSC-PAL converting DVD players, though they aren't always cheap. Oppo Digital makes a nice on in the US, this should play just about anything in the world for about $150. Probably harder to find in Russia.

Frame rate conversion is a difficult thing. For NTSC from film sources, this involves what's called 3-2 pulldown. (show on film frame 3 times, then the next 2 times). For PAL, usually the just add a frame once a second (24 film -> 25 PAL fps). Converting back and forth from NTSC/PAL is ugly, since you need to detect the source frame rate, and results are ususally ugly.

If you watch them on a laptop, you should be fine anywhere.

[Chris Parker 10]

Working around region encoding is easy. US DVDs will be NTSC, so they won't work anyway. (the 29.97 framerate won't work on a 25 fps PAL TV).

ALmost all TV's in Russia and Europe will display an NTSC signal just fine---that will not be a problem! (even NTSC videocassettes will play fine in Russia). The reason is because it is very easy to support an NTSC signal on a PAL-designed system, but very difficult to go the other way.

[Chris Parker 10]

Do you think we can play USA DVDs on her computer? I could convert to either Quicktime or WMV format also. Will that help?

You'll have much more problems on the computer if you want to play discs from both regions on the same machine. DVD-ROM drives typically are limited to 5 changes in region per lifetime. If you go into Control Panel | System | Hardware | Device Manager | DVD/CD-ROM drives, click properties, then DVD region, you'll see the currently selected region and the number of remaining changes allowed.

Region-free DVD players are the best solution, in the U.S. they are available, in Russia they might be standard, but does anyone know for sure?

[shikarnov 7]

Do you think we can play USA DVDs on her computer? I could convert to either Quicktime or WMV format also. Will that help?

You'll have much more problems on the computer if you want to play discs from both regions on the same machine. DVD-ROM drives typically are limited to 5 changes in region per lifetime. If you go into Control Panel | System | Hardware | Device Manager | DVD/CD-ROM drives, click properties, then DVD region, you'll see the currently selected region and the number of remaining changes allowed.

Region-free DVD players are the best solution, in the U.S. they are available, in Russia they might be standard, but does anyone know for sure?

Been in Russia for two years, and I ALWAYS come back with a filled DVD album of store-bought discs to watch. I've never had any problem with them, on my Russian TV and DVD player, my fiance's brothers player, or any local computer. The only DVD related issue I ever had was trying to get a disc bought at a Russian outdoor bazaar to play on my American Macintosh computer.

Customs was a piece of cake. I've never had a problem at Passport Control, nor have I ever been searched by Customs (when entering Russia) -- although I've seen the officials there treat people of Middle Eastern descent pretty roughly. The same goes for my bags -- never searched.

Good luck,

Z

[Kazan' Tiger 1]

No, it is a stand alone DVD player with dual voltage (only needed to buy a small plug adapter) very small. I can not remember the brand. It was actually abandoned by my daughter's former neighbour and was to be trashed. I rescued it and took it to Russia.

Where did you get a Region 1 player which runs on 220V (or, was this a portable player with/screen?)?

[Kazan' Tiger 1]

They are not standard, but can be found at any Russian electronics store. like Это or М-Видио.

Region-free DVD players are the best solution, in the U.S. they are available, in Russia they might be standard, but does anyone know for sure?

[Kazan' Tiger 1]

Our Russian newer set did not! We had to convert the output to PAL in order to have the proper image.

ALmost all TV's in Russia and Europe will display an NTSC signal just fine---that will not be a problem! (even NTSC videocassettes will play fine in Russia). The reason is because it is very easy to support an NTSC signal on a PAL-designed system, but very difficult to go the other way.

[Igor&Elina 0]

Do you think we can play USA DVDs on her computer? I could convert to either Quicktime or WMV format also. Will that help?

You'll have much more problems on the computer if you want to play discs from both regions on the same machine. DVD-ROM drives typically are limited to 5 changes in region per lifetime.

Actually computer is the best solution. In order to bypass the issue of 5 changes limit, I suggest using DVD43: http://www.dvd43.com/. Use it and you'll never have to worry about regions. A computer will also play both PAL and NTSC without the need for conversion.

There are also ways of permanently unlocking region codes of DVD-ROM drives, but that depends of the manufacturer and model.

Edited December 18, 2007 by Igor&Elina