If I buy a DVD or CD from you, will it play on my machine or one in a different country?

All of our audio CDs should be compatible with CD players worldwide.

For DVDs, you will need to check the PAL or NTSC broadcast format and the Region encoding on the title, to see if this is compatible with your specific DVD player. Player support can depend on the country of intended use.

Not all of our video and DVD titles are supplied in both PAL (Europe) and NTSC (North America) broadcast formats. Some are in one or the other format, and some are worldwide (dual format). See each title's catalogue page for specific format information.

We are unable to provide any guarantee that our PAL format DVD titles will play on specific machines outside of Europe. Check your DVD player or computer software to see if it supports PAL or NTSC format for the title you wish to order.

For DVDs that turn out not to be compatible with the player attached to your TV, we recommend trying VLC media player (free and open-source software) for playing DVDs on your computer. VLC should play either PAL or NTSC DVDs on any Mac, Windows or Linux machine.

Please note that we cannot accept returns of opened, non-faulty DVDs which are not compatible with your player.

PAL & NTSC Video Broadcast Standards

Many DVD players available worldwide are dual format and will support both PAL and NTSC formats. For other players:

  • NTSC format is mainly supported in USA, Canada, South America & the Caribbean.
  • PAL format is supported in most other countries, including UK, Europe, South Africa, Australia & New Zealand.

Region Encoding

DVDs may contain Region codes which can limit the playback of discs, depending upon the geographical area where your player is produced. DVDs without Region codes should play on any player. If a Region other than 'zero' is specified on the DVD, viewing may depend on the Region restriction of your particular machine's player.

Region code Territories covered
0 Region-free, playable worldwide
1 USA, Canada
2 Europe, Japan, Middle East, Egypt, South Africa
3 Taiwan, Korea, Philippines, Indonesia, Hong Kong
4 Mexico, South America, Central America, Australia, New Zealand, Pacific Islands, Caribbean
5 Russia, Eastern Europe, India, Africa, North Korea, Mongolia
6 China

More information

Read about the PAL standard on Wikipedia.

Read about the NTSC standard on Wikipedia.

Read about DVD region codes on Wikipedia.

See Google links to PAL/NTSC and Region encoding.