How do you watch UK DVD's in America?

Answer 1

DVDs (and Bluray discs) are coded to prevent a disc bought in one region (UK and Europe for example) being played on a player bought in another region (North America in our example).

There are several tedious and not particularly reliable processes that can be used to rip the disc to a computer, remove the copy protection and regional coding and then play it on the computer or burn it to a new disc.

However, if this is a regularoccurrence, it may be worth buying a low cost UK DVD player at under £20 and simply taking it to America with the discs.

Before buying one, make sure that it will operate on 115 Volts, the North American standard voltage and also ensure it has an HDMI output. Having an HDMI connector does not give you HD quality but it does mean that the signal will be in a format that almost all American televisions will handle.

You will need to change the mains connector from the UK type to a North American one or use an adapter. If you choose to use an adapter, buy it in the UK because they are almost impossible to buy in the US other than at airports.