One of the biggest inconveniences from people who move, retire or live for extended periods overseas is that they can't watch their movies on a Blu-ray or DVD Player. The reason for this is simple - discs and disc players are designed, manufactured and sold to only play movies from their respective region. For example, a Blu-ray player from Europe will not play discs sold in australia, nor would it play discs from the USA. Likewise, a North American Blu-ray player won't play discs from Europe, Japan, or South America. The reasons for this are many, but the reasons aren't really important. What's important is to understand that a simple, effective, reliable and affordable alternative is right at your fingertips. The Region-Free Blu-ray Player. What is a Region-Free Blu-ray Player? Region-Free Players (both Blu-ray and DVD) are specially modified players that will play discs from any region in the world. Typically a 3rd party business will buy the most popular brands & models of which are available in stores and then modify the hardware professionally. Once the modifications are complete, the players are sold as region-free models. Consumers can purchase these models and play discs from any region without worry. Another great aspect of region-free players is their compatibility with the electrical voltage and color systems of foreign countries. Let's take a look below at this works. Voltage In North America, all players are designed for 120 volts use because that's the standard electrical voltage. In other regions of the world, it's usually 220 to 240 volts. To make things simple, region-free players feature worldwide voltage, allowing you to flip a switch on the back to choose your operating voltage depending on your location. This lets you use a region-free player anywhere in the world without the need for a bulky voltage transformer or converter. Color Systems As far as color systems are concerned, the resolution and color format varies from continent to continent. PAL, NTSC, and Secam are the 3 major color systems, and if you try to use a PAL Blu-ray player with a NTSC TV, they'll be incompatible. The hardware inside the TV won't be able to process the formatting of the disc, or, process the information the Blu-ray player sends the TV. To resolve this incompatibility issue, you'd normally have to purchase an audio/video converter. Luckily, 95% of region-free players have been modified with internal PAL/NTSC/Secam conversion. There's no need to buy converters and deal with messy wires and additional costs. It's plug and play! Region-Free Blu-ray Players Are A Perfect Solution As you can probably see now, the benefits of owning a region-free player are several. It can play discs from anywhere in the world and it will work at any voltage. It can also work with any TV, regardless of the color system. You can literally take these players anywhere in the world, play any disc, and use it with any TV. That's a flexibility that you can't afford to miss out on. Surely, the age of the internet gives us things like streaming media and Netflix for watching movies, but there's not always a solid internet connection available for these services. A lot of us prefer to own the actual discs, or, we may already have a large collection of discs that we'd like to be able to use - even if we relocate to a foreign country. A Region-Free Blu-ray Player is the ultimate, affordable, and highly reliable solution.
