Do Australian DVDs play on the Noordam DVD players?

[Emoliash]

Sorry pedantic question, however do Australian DVD's play in the Noordam DVD players or are the geoblocked?

 

 

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[CGYCruisingFamily]

My thoughts are no... there are 2 types, and I believe HAL uses the one not formatted for Aussie DVDs (can't emember if it's NTSC or PAL).

[boards]

We were on the Oosterdam Nov - Dec. 2016 and had a veranda cabin on deck 5 and we did not have a DVD player. The big TV was on the wall facing the bed.

[bUU]

My thoughts are no... there are 2 types, and I believe HAL uses the one not formatted for Aussie DVDs (can't emember if it's NTSC or PAL).

NTSC and PAL is one consideration: Generally, DVD players made for NTSC countries won't play DVDs intended for use in PAL countries (but DVD players made for PAL countries generally will play both). Australia is a PAL country; the United States is an NTSC nation. (Blu-ray players generally will convert HD content to the correct format, if necessary,but beware some other parts of the Blu-ray disc may be non-HD content and therefore will also be subject to this complexity.)

 

The other consideration is a matter of geoblocking: DVD players are often designed to play discs from just one of six regions of the world. (Blu-ray discs divide the world into three regions.) I'd be surprised (but not too surprised) if DVD players aboard Holland America cruise ships were only able to play DVDs from one region, given how most if not all of the ships change embarkation/de-embarkation ports from time to time.

[Emoliash]

Thanks bUU I will take some on and cross my fingers they work. I am just not sure what the Noordam children DVD selection will be like.

 

 

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[richwmn]

Thanks bUU I will take some on and cross my fingers they work. I am just not sure what the Noordam children DVD selection will be like.

 

 

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This is a link to a listing of the DVD library from about a year ago. Most of the DVDs should still be available if the ship still has the DVD players.

[cruising cockroach]

If you have access to internet data when you board, you could always check the model no. of your DVD player and see if you can find any region unlock codes, or at least how to change them.

[AtlantaCruiser72]

On my Eurodam cruise several years ago I brought some DVD's with me to watch before bed. They were all NTSC, Region 1 format. None of them would play. We did check out a few from the library onboard so assumed the players on Eurodam at that time were PAL format, but not sure which region.

[Emoliash]

Richwmn - thank you so much for the link will look to see what they have.

 

Cruising cockroach thanks for the great tip.

 

AtlantaCruiser72 - thank you for the info

 

 

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[Tom O.]

Just wanted to make some corrections to some out of date terminology used in some of the posts here.

NTSC and PAL were two analog broadcast systems. The NTSC was used in North America, PAL was used in most of the rest of the world.

Video cassettes, also came in one of these two systems, since they were also analog.

DVD's are digital, and have nothing to do with NTSC or PAL. However the first DVD players would have either a NTSC or PAL analog output in addition to a digital one. I don't think there are any DVD players made now with an analog output.

However, the entertainment industry was concerned about DVDs that could be played on any DVD player in the world, so the region system was developed. Each DVD had special encoding that would allow it to be played only in certain regions. Region 1 is North America.

Some DVDs are "region free" and will play on any DVD player in the world. Also, some DVD players are region free and will play any DVD.

NTSC and PAL analog TVs are no longer manufactured, all TVs now are digital. There is still some broadcasting done in analog, either PAL or NTSC, but that will disappear very soon.

A digital TV, connected to a DVD player with an HDMI cord will play a DVD from anywhere, unless there is a region incompatibility issue.

[cruising cockroach]

The above hold true if HAL uses reasonably-modern AV equipment but I don't think HAL does in my experience.

 

One might want to check what kind of TVs the ship's cabin has. From my very limited experience, HAL uses different TVs in different cabin categories. On the Prinsendam 4 years ago, standard balconies and presumably outside and inside cabins had old tube TVs while junior suites and above had flat screen digital ones.

 

On the Zaandam 2 years ago, outside cabins were still equipped with old 4:3 tube TVs, and connection from the DVD player was composite which is as analogue as you can get. I know , as I had bought a HDMI cable to connect my laptop to the TV......

Edited December 18, 2016 by cruising cockroach