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Work, the Sitcom
: The Office, a hit in Britain that gives work and bad management the comic treatment they deserve, may be headed for America.
: Question: I want to buy The Office DVD but it’s set for the UK region, which won’t play on US DVD players. So I can’t play it on my TV.
But can I play it on my PC? Is my PC DVD similarly encoded to stop me from traveling the world?
Yes, PC DVD softwares are set up with regional encoding as well. However, “cracks” are plentiful. Make sure you’ve got some anti-virus software running, though…
Inexpensive Apex DVD players can be “chipped” for about $30 to play DVDs from other regions. (Briefly: you buy a chip on the web for $25, take two screws off the back of the DVD player, pull one chip out of its socket with a $5 tool from Radio Shack and replace it with the chip you bought. No electronics expertise is required. This is as simple as it sounds, really.)
Alternatively, Kim’s Video in New York has multiregion DVD players for less than $200.
Sears has the Apex 3501 player for $60. You can disable region protection from the remote. Plus, it can play either PAL or NTSC disks.
Additionally, you can check at http://www.vcdhelp.com/dvdplayers for specific information on a Region hacks available for your particular player.