Foreign Films...

We have a terrific collection of foreign films in the IMC and have recently added several titles that have won the Oscar in that category. Many professors teaching film appreciation or classes with a cultural emphasis have ordered classics for the collection. Occasionally, however, we run into some difficulties with format and region compatibility....

The IMC now has a multisystem VHS and DVD player that will play PAL format or region 2 films and for those of you who wish to know, a brief explanation follows:



DVDs are usually coded by region... the United States and Canada are Region 1, Region 2 covers most of Europe, the United Kingdom, Japan, Turkey, Egypt, Arabia, and South Africa. See this cogent explanation for a table showing all regions.... Encoding by region is all about distribution, release dates, censored or alternate versions, etc. The region is often indicated on the DVD case and some DVDs are coded to play in all regions.

DVDs are also formatted as PAL or NTSC format and for those of you who wish to know, another brief explanation follows:

PAL format (usually region 2) "refreshes" at 25 frames per second and has a resolution of 720 x 576 pixels. NTSC, the region 1 format, refreshes at 30 frames per second and has a resolution of 720 x 480 pixels. This means that PAL has a better resolution but NTSC renders motion better.

This is all usually not a concern for domestic DVD viewers and unless you get an error message about regions and encoding when you try to play a DVD, you won't need to avail yourself of our multisystem player. If you do, we're here for you....

Currently identified as region 2 or PAL formatted DVDs in the IMC: Colmena (DVD 304,) Pelota Vasca (DVD 368,) Abbasso la miseria! (DVD 322,) and Living with Lions (DVD 769.)