If you're planning to buy Australian movies on digital video disc, more properly known as digital versatile disc (DVD), be sure that whatever you buy will be able to be played on your machine. This is also true of VHS movies (although fewer and fewer people buy video movies on tape and videocassette players are on the road to total extinction).
Movies on DVD
When DVDs were first introduced, they were manufactured so that particular discs sold in, say, North America could only be played in North America and could not be played in Australia. Similarly, DVDs bought in Australia may not be playable in North America. A zoning code was included in the DVDs to restrict their use to particular countries.
Movies on VHS Cassette Tape
VHS movies in Australia are recorded and played back in the PAL format. Movies planned for sale and use in North America and certain other countries are recorded and played back in the NTSC format.
These two formats are not compatible and a PAL movie will not be playable on an NTSC machine, and vice versa.
