Forums > Specific Focus > Technical Mexico

S & C

Jul 8, 2005, 10:17 AM

Post #1 of 9 (1856 views)

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DVD players

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I need some help with understanding this.
I had planned on bringing my US purchased DVD player to Mexico but now wonder if it would it play DVD's rented from Mexican stores?

I understand that DVD's are coded for geographic areas and that the USA is area 1 whereas Mexico and Central America is area 2. I also heard that DVD players will only play what is designed for that area. My DVD player is a decent one but by no means is it top of the line.

Can anyone shed any light on this? Can a US purchased DVD player work with Mexicn DVD's?

Thanks
Stan
http://CasaTropical.com
Stan

Brian

Jul 8, 2005, 11:03 AM

Post #2 of 9 (1850 views)

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Re: [S & G] DVD players

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It will work down here if it is designated as "multi-region". If not, I would suggest you leave it at home and purchase a multi-regional player in Mexico. No point in buying one up there and then having to pay import duties. Places like Costco carry them for about the equivalent of 100 USD. Lots of people get Netflix down here so it is imperative that it be able to play content from both countries.

saludos

Brian

kirkswig

Jul 8, 2005, 4:23 PM

Post #3 of 9 (1836 views)

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Netflix

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I had heard that this was done, but wasn't aware it was a widespread practice.

Isn't this impractical? I'm imagining that you use a NOB-forwarding address to subscribe to Netflix, yes? They receive the DVD's, then ship them off to your Mexico address, fine. But either you don't receive them until weeks later or your paying exorbitant shipping costs, right?

Then you have to send them back to your forwarding address, which once receives them sends them back to Netflix and only then do any new DVD's get sent out.

It seems to me you'd be lucky to achieve a one-month turnaround on your rentals, and paying high shipping costs as well.

What am I not seeing here?

(I was an *extremely* satisfied Netflix customer when NOB, and I would love to be again, but alas, i'm in Mexico.)

To boldly go where no wig has gone before.

Brian

Jul 8, 2005, 5:19 PM

Post #4 of 9 (1828 views)

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Re: [kirkswig] Netflix

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It sounds like your mail forwarding service is very slow in which case Netflix wouldn't make sense. A friend of mine uses my mailbox in SMA just for this purpose and he receives the envelopes in standard mail no more than a couple of days from when they arrive at the US mailing address. It costs him 5 pesos to send them back when he has seen the movie.

saludos

Brian

kirkswig

Jul 10, 2005, 12:04 AM

Post #5 of 9 (1801 views)

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Re: [Brian] Netflix

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Yeah, it's coming up on the time to renew my mail forwarding service. I've been using escapees.com. I have to say, they're horrible. They don't follow any of my instructions and then they overbill me.

Five pesos to return isn't too bad really. Maybe I'll try one of the courier services.

I'd love to get Netflix back.

To boldly go where no wig has gone before.

sfmacaws

Jul 10, 2005, 3:47 AM

Post #6 of 9 (1799 views)

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Re: [kirkswig] Netflix

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Wow! I'm surprised to hear that Kirk. I've used Escapees for 4 years with no problems. I email them when I'm in MX and have them FedEx my mail to me. I'm sorry you've had a different experience. Have you emailed the CEO Cathie Carr at headquarters with your problems? You'd probably get an answer and hopefully they'd fix it.

Jonna - Mérida, Yucatán

kirkswig

Jul 11, 2005, 1:29 AM

Post #7 of 9 (1764 views)

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Re: [sfmacaws] Netflix

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You know, I haven't tried emailing them. I'm always using the phone. I ask for the supervisor, but the supervisor is never there.

I will try the email, and based on your good recommendation, give them ONE more chance.

Thanks for the advice.

To boldly go where no wig has gone before.

talosian

Jul 14, 2005, 6:17 AM

Post #8 of 9 (1721 views)

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Making your DVD player "all regional)

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There is a code which you can input to your DVD player from your remote which will make it all regions. You can get it from eBay and other sources. One guy in the U.K. send it to me in ZIP format and it has the codes for over 1,000 DVD players. Cost was under US$3.00
"When all logical explanations have failed, we must look to the illogical for the answer.

johnv

Jul 14, 2005, 8:43 AM

Post #9 of 9 (1712 views)

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Re: [kirkswig] Netflix

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Could anyone post information on the codes and a full explanation on what to do and how to make your laptop DVD unit region free? I just spent 45 minutes searching on Google on how to do this, and got nowhere. My HP zd8000 laptop, has an LG brand, model: HL-DT-ST DVD-RW GWA-4080N, dual layer, DVD+\-RW writer.