The Great Gattica.co.uk FAQ!

Everything you ever wanted to know about DVD but were afraid to ask!

With ever more people tuning in to the possibilities of DVD, we’re often asked the same questions about this new format. We have compiled some answers here to the most frequently asked questions, which we hope are useful.
If you have a DVD technical question which is not answered here, you can email our resident expert.

• Region Coding
• Visual
• Audio
• Subtitles
• NTSC and PAL
• Superbit

Region Coding

Why are there codes for different regions?

Imposed by the film studios due to the staggered theatrical release of movies worldwide and to protect exclusive markets, region coding was designed as a method of ensuring discs would be playable only in certain geographical locations.

What Is Region 2?

Region 2 (often abbreviated as R2) is code assigned for the geographical locale of the U.K., mainland Europe, Japan, South Africa and the Middle East (including Egypt).

Any disc from our R2 catalogue should be compatible with your particular player.
As demanded by European law, any DVD player bought within the EU (prior to any modification) will be set to R2 as the default region.

R2 discs (excluding those designed solely for the Japanese market) use the PAL viewing standard.

What Is Region 0?

Otherwise known as ‘Region All’ or ‘Region Free’, R0 discs are compatible with any DVD player as they are specifically enabled for all geographical locales. However, Region 0 discs are sometimes encoded in NTSC (the American viewing standard) rather than the usual European PAL format which will require a NTSC compatible TV in order to ensure colour playback. In such a case, we will endeavour to clearly label this in the product information page for the related products.

Why are R1 runtimes longer than their R2 equivalent?

In simple terms, due to the nature of PAL/NTSC decoding standards, PAL titles run 4% quicker than their NTSC counterparts (see NTSC and PAL for further information).

The longer a film the greater the difference in duration between the two formats, even though the content of the movie may be exactly the same. See the table below:

How do I watch DVDs on my PS2?

Like DVD players purchased within the EU, European spec PS2 consoles are set to play R2 discs as default. You should have no difficulties viewing R2 discs with your PS2.

Please note: A NTSC compatible TV is required for the viewing of NTSC discs.

How do I watch DVDs on my Xbox?

To view DVDs on your Xbox console, first you’ll require the Microsoft DVD Movie Playback Kit
Like DVD players purchased within the EU, European spec Xbox consoles are set to play R2 as default.

Please note: A NTSC compatible TV is required for the viewing of NTSC discs.

PC DVD-Rom as a DVD player

Since December 31, 1999, all DVD-Rom drives are manufactured with region restrictions, known as Region Protection Control (RPC2). Like DVD players purchased within the EU, European law dictates that DVD-Rom drives available are set to R2 as default.

Most PC monitors are easily able to display an NTSC or PAL output but if you utilise a TV-Out graphics card to port the signal through a TV set, you’ll require a NTSC compatible TV for stable colour playback of NTSC discs.

NTSC and PAL

What is NTSC/PAL?

There are two different methods for picture decoding standards: Europe (R2) uses the PAL system; North America (R1) uses the NTSC system.

What will I need to view NTSC discs?

In order for stable colour reproduction during playback, you’ll require a NTSC compatible TV, often referred to as a ‘multi-standard’ or ‘world’ specification.

How are NTSC and PAL different?

Firstly, NTSC and PAL differ in the number of scan lines available in the vertical axis of the screen; NTSC has 480, PAL has 576.

Secondly, there is a slight variation between NTSC and PAL running speeds. Where conventional film runs at 24 frames per second (fps), a TV signal runs at 30 fps (60 fields) for NTSC, or 25 fps (50 fields) for PAL.

For a PAL display, the simple method when transferring film is to present the film frames at 25 a second instead of 24 (the 4% speedup as mentioned above) and speed up the image to be synchronous with the images. The speedup raises the pitch of available audio tracks by one half of one tone although it’s debatable as to whether this is distinguishable by the human ear.

The solution for a NTSC display is to spread the 24 film frames across the 60 video fields by alternating the display of the first film frame for 2 video fields and the next film frame for 3 video fields. This process is referred to as 2-3 pulldown and, again, it’s questionable whether this process is noticeable to the human eye.

Which is better: NTSC or PAL?

Neither format is inherently better than the other.

Visual

What is aspect ratio?

Aspect ratio refers to the dimensions of the film image (width to height ratio) as represented on your TV screen. There are two basic formats of aspect ratio; fullscreen and widescreen.

What is fullscreen?

This is the typical ‘square’ image favoured (until very recently) by television presentations. This aspect ratio is expressed as FS 4:3 or (1.33:1 in decimal terms) denoting that the frame is 1.33 times as wide as it is tall.

Fullscreen presentations will fill the entire screen area of standard ‘square’ fullscreen televisions. When viewed on a widescreen set, black bars will be visible on each side (right and left) of the screen.

What is widescreen?

Widescreen is the characteristic ‘rectangular’ image favoured by film presentations since the 1950’s. There are several aspect ratios but the most common are expressed as, in order of width, WS 1.66:1, WS 1.78:1 (also referred to as 16:9), WS 1.85:1 and WS 2.35:1.

Each of these denote the width to height ratio of the particular widescreen presentation; i.e. 1.85:1 illustrates the frame is 1.85 times wider than it is tall.

On a standard television, a widescreen image will be characterised by the black bars visible at the top and bottom of the screen. How thick these bars are will depend on the aspect ratio of the widescreen presentation; the wider the image frame, the thicker the black bars.

What is letterbox widescreen?

Letterbox widescreen (sometimes referred to as LBX) is a method of preserving the rectangular image of a widescreen presentation.

Unfortunately, letterboxed presentations (depending on the aspect ratio) do not always reach the sides (left and right) of viewable screen on a widescreen TV set, prompting the need for viewers to use the 16:9 or ‘Zoom’ feature of their DVD player or TV to expand the image causing a loss of resolution. This issue relates only to widescreen TVs.

What is anamorphic widescreen?

Anamorphic enhancement is a process for widescreen TVs where the original image is compressed by 33% in the vertical axis during encoding. When the player decodes the image, the vertical axis is decompressed giving a higher resolution and greater clarity.

Anamorphically enhanced DVDs can be viewed just as easily on fullscreen TVs as widescreen ones although the process is usually not discernible. PC monitors, despite almost universally being 4:3, have a higher resolution than TV sets and so can display the widescreen image in a window (854x480 pixels or higher for NTSC, 1024x576 or higher for PAL).

Despite a common misunderstanding, the term ‘anamorphic’ does not ensure that the image will entirely fill the screen of a widescreen TV set.

How can I tell if a widescreen DVD is letterbox or anamorphic?

In the ‘Technical Details’ section of the page for each listing is a field highlighted as ‘Screen’. In this field you should find the aspect ratio listed for the DVD in question. Only titles with confirmed anamorphic transfers will display ‘Anamorphic’ in this field. If it does not, the widescreen presentation will be letterbox.

Why can I still see black bars on my widescreen TV?

Widescreen TVs have an aspect ratio of 1.77:1; the same ratio can be expressed as 16:9. Widescreen presentations with aspect ratios higher than this (i.e. 1.85:1 or 2.35:1, for example) will still exhibit black bars at the top and bottom despite these being much less than those on a standard 4:3 ‘square’ TV set.

Audio

What is Dolby Digital as a sound format?

Dolby Digital is a system capable of multi channel digital audio, coded using technology previously known as AC-3, often abbreviated as DD.

What is Dolby Digital (1.0) Mono?

A single channel of digital audio. On a surround sound system, the audio stream will be directed through the front centre speaker.

What is Dolby Digital (2.0) Mono?

Somewhat confusingly, this is actually also a single channel of digital audio. The same audio stream is directed to the front left and front right speakers. Very few discs use this format.

What is Dolby Digital (2.0) Stereo?

Two channels of digital audio. One stream will be directed to the front left speaker, the other to the front right speaker.

What is Dolby Digital Surround?

Initially known as simply Dolby Surround, this is an audio mixing technique that bolts on a rear channel and a centre channel onto a standard two-channel signal. With a two speaker sound system, these extra channels will be automatically mixed into the audio streams for the left and right speaker

What is Dolby Digital (4.0)?

Four channels of digital audio. On a surround sound system the audio streams will be directed to the front left, front right, rear left and rear right speakers.

What is Dolby Digital (4.1)?

Four channels of digital audio incorporating an additional low frequency effects channel (denoted by the ‘.1’, this channel is otherwise known as LFE). On a surround sound system the audio streams will be directed to the front left, front right, rear left and rear right speakers with the LFE channel directed to the subwoofer.

What is Dolby Digital 5.1?

Five channels of digital audio incorporating a LFE channel. On a surround sound system the audio streams will be directed to the front left, front right, rear left and rear right speakers, the low frequency channel directed to the subwoofer with dialogue generally confined to the front centre speaker.

What is Dolby Digital 5.1 EX?

Five channels of digital audio incorporating a LFE channel, including support for a rear centre speaker by mixing across sound from the rear left and rear right speakers.

What is Dolby Digital 6.1?

Six channels of digital audio incorporating a LFE channel. This format differs from DD5.1 EX as it provides dedicated support for a rear centre speaker. This format is fully compatible for owners of a traditional 5.1 surround sound system.

What is DTS?

An abbreviation of Digital Theatre Systems, DTS is a rival audio format to Dolby Digital 5.1 and also involves five channels of digital audio incorporating a LFE channel. It differs slightly from DD5.1 by utilising a slightly narrower dynamic range and higher bit-rate audio encoding.

What is DTS ES?

Five channels of DTS digital audio incorporating a LFE channel, including support for a rear centre speaker by mixing across sound from the rear left and rear right speakers.

Can I view a DVD with a DD5.1 audio track if I don’t have a surround sound system?

Absolutely. Dolby Digital will automatically downmix the audio streams depending on how many speaker channels are available.

Can I view a DVD with a DTS audio track without a DTS decoder?

Unfortunately not. To benefit from DTS audio you’ll require a dedicated decoder in your DVD player, your home cinema amp/receiver, or your TV.

Subtitles

Where can I find which subtitles are available on a DVD?

In the ‘Technical Details’ section of the page for each listing is a field highlighted as ‘Subtitles’; here you should find listed all the available subtitles for the DVD in question.

Please note that for many pre-release products few details regarding subtitles are confirmed by the studio responsible until the release date is very close. We strive to display these on the site as soon as this information becomes available for the benefit of our valued customers.

Subtitles in the language I want are not listed. Why not?

The number and nature of subtitles vary from disc to disc and are entirely at the behest of the studio producing that particular DVD. If you can’t find the subtitles you’re looking for in the ‘Subtitle’ field of the ‘Technical Details’ section, chances are they’ve not been included on the disc!

What are subtitles for the hard of hearing/hearing impaired?

These are subtitles specifically designed for viewers who may have trouble clearly defining particular dialogue or sound when viewing a DVD.

Such subtitles streams not only reproduce dialogue in text on the screen but also give visual clues to sonic events taking place on the screen. For example, if the sound of a telephone can be heard, [phone rings] or similar text will be displayed.

Superbit DVDs

What are Superbit DVDs?

These particular discs, fully compatible with existing players, are produced by the Columbia Tri-Star studio and have been specifically designed to cater for home cinema enthusiasts with high-end equipment. The product listing for each of these titles carries the following information:

The Superbit titles utilize a special high bit rate digital transfer process which optimizes video quality while offering a choice of both DTS and 5.1 Dolby Digital audio. All Superbit DVDs start with High Definition masters. The Superbit Collection will set a new benchmark in high-resolution DVD image and sound, creating the ultimate in home entertainment. By reallocating data normally used for value-added content, Superbit DVDs can be encoded at double their normal bit rate while maintaining full compatibility with the DVD-Video format. The result is picture quality that provides outstanding detail. Superbit DVDs play on all DVD players. Currently DVDs are encoded to optimize space for the feature plus added value and audio streams. The Suberbit collection reallocates and converts the physical space ordinarily devoted to added value to higher bit rate video transfer and both Dolby Digital 5.1 & DTS audio

How do I search for Superbit DVDs?

All such discs available from our site contain ‘Superbit’ in the title string. Simply select DVD Title as the search criteria in the search box, enter Superbit in the text box just below and click the Go button. You should now be presented with a list of all Superbit DVDs available from the site.