Trigger

Yes - PAL R0 discs look fantastic on an Xbox. The framing is great. I don't have a widescreen TV, so I can't comment on how the anamorphic presentation looks on a widescreen... I also don't have a hi-def set, so I can't say if it looks good on a hi-def set. I can say though that the PAL stuff looks amazing on my 36" sony set. Colors are great etc...

Hendrik

...as someone who lives in a PAL 'Region2' country, what confuses me in this thread is that people keep talking about PAL Region0 discs...

...where do these come from?... some titles please?...

(...to explain: in my sizable DVD 'collection' I can think of only a handful of made-in-Region2/Europe and released-on-European-labels discs that are in fact encoded Region0, and not Region2 - !!! BUT !!! - these discs are also all encoded NTSC, and not PAL... hence my question above...)

(signed) Bewildered

. . . . . .

samuelowens

Hendrik, there are quite a few PAL R0 discs in Australia and the UK. Some that spring to mind are Shallow Grave (Aust), Withnail & I(UK), Malcolm (Aust). Obviously, most of the major studios in Australia release discs with region coding but smaller distributors often do not. www.michaeldvd.com.au lists the true region code of most Australian discs.

Electric2k

Hendrik, like I mentioned above, I think most music titles are not region encoded. I have about 10, including that Prince disc I mentioned. Also, SOME of the Hong Kong Legends titles are not region encoded either.

Hendrik

...ahh... thanks for that explanation samuelowens and Electric2k !... another one of life's great mysteries has been solved!...

NOTE: I own a respectable number of DVDs from all over, including discs from Australia - but hardly any of music as such, except for some US releases of operas - these are indeed R0, but NTSC...

. . . . . .

Electric2k

Not to talk you out of the HKL Iron Monkey disc, but now that the region 1 disc is out I can't imagine watching any other disc.

The picture and sound quality are HUGE improvements here. I've seen the HK version of the DVD quite a few times, and I actually prefer the US cut.

But I can see how some want absolutely no cuts in this film, so enjoy which ever version you chose.

elengineer

with regards to PAL All-Region discs...
I can tell you three titles from my personal experience that are UK PAL releases, yet are region 0.

HKL's Drunken Master (Anamorphic widescreen)
HKL's Snake in the Eagle's Shadow (Anamorphic widescreen)
Eastern Heroes' Shaolin Temple 3: Martial Arts of Shaolin (widescreen)

As Electric2k mentioned, there are several other HKL region 0 titles out. Check out this old thread for a brief discussion, if you are curious...

http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...hreadid=131499

Can anyone comment on how the anamorphic widescreen discs look on a widescreen set when played via the XBOX?

toot

just to give you a bit of hope for making your xbox's multi-region:

http://www.play.com/Play247.asp?page...X&title=100483

this one only works on UK xbox's, but they may make a US/NTSC version it's certainly possible to do.

there's nothing illegal about playing Any movies from other regions anyway, is there?

Prancetron2000

I heard that there are a few HKL DVDs such as Police Story that really need the X Y scaling feature present in the Malata player in order for it to be framed properly. The X-Box doesn't have such a feature, so how will it look??

tiger121

lets just hope they make one for the US xbox

Electric2k

Ok. The X-Box will spit out a picture with the EXACT same aspect ratio as the transfer on the disc. Aparently I've not been able to get this fact across. If the authoring of the DVD is wrong, well then that's the manufacturer's problem...

You might be getting confused with most DVD players that convert PAL to NTSC, as they cannot do the aspect ratios properly.

Player1327

i agree with electric2k, i've noticed how everyone mentions how somethin isn't good player b/c it doesn't have x/y scaling....i admit, x/y scaling is a great feature, but most dvd players will probably never have this feature. the xbox seems to be a great dvd player for conversion of Pal to Ntsc (even greater should regionx come out for it in US)

ipkevin

Just wondering if anyone else has tried their HKL PAL discs on an American X-Box and a NTSC 4:3 TV. I know Electric2K has graciously answered our questions but I just wanted to get a second or third opinion here to be sure. Is it really a perfect conversion with the correct aspect ratio? With the new price drop and inevitable region-free kits/mods, the X-Box could really be a great low-cost player to watch foreign DVDs.

Prancetron2000

I got the HKL R0 copy of Purple Storm and it looks just as good as any other DVD I'm used to seeing, although the dark colors don't look very smooth I guess you could say, but that's been a little problem with every DVD on my X-Box. It's not that big of a deal though.