Playstation / TV incompatible - NB

It is now illegal for people to offer chipping services in this country and Sony have won injunctions.

Buy a chip and support the pirates and put another indie shop out of business.

Don't think IPC should allow such advice on this forum.

My opinion, but basically you are trying to play an NTSC game on a PAL system.
 
It wouldn't happen if DVD and software manufacturers didn't impose territorial limits on their products. Why can't you buy a DVD or Playstation game wherever you happen to be, and expect to be able to use it?
 
I agree, It is a restraint on trade. Personally I buy a lot of my DVDs from Canada and my DVD, my TV, and my VHS are all NTSC and PAL capable. (My DVD is also multi-region.


BTW if your equipment is all multi-format, dont set them all to auto format as they seem to get confused. I had to make one equipment PAL only and thus force them to work at that standard.
 
Brendan,

I am sure people are aware of this but just in case...

The original Idea (for DVD films) of Regional coding was not meant as a cost control but was set up to limit the availability of films until they had been internationally released on DVD everywhere. Films were generally released to cinemas around the world over several months and this meant that the USA might have it on DVD before countries like Poland, Turkey Korea etc had launched the film at the Cinema which affects international BO. Today the release windows have been dramaticaly reduced with all major Blockbusters going day and date. The regional coding is therefore less important and you can now buy many Legal DVD's without coding.

One upshot of this was that DVD distribution did make a mint in some Markets like the UK where consumers were prepared to pay double for a DVD. I am glad to say (from a consumer perspective) that this 'profiteering' has now been reduced and for Film DVD's Regional coding is becoming less imporatant.

I do not know if the same was true for Games DVD's.

Cheers

Paul
 
Because you're buying a licence to use something. You aren't buying an actual "thing". It's not a restraint on trade, but it is a restraint or condition of use. Another condition or restraint is that you can't copy it. I suppose a similar thing to buy would be the right to sell t-shirts with the Mickey Mouse logo on it. It might easily be more expensive to buy this license in Florida for example, than in the UK. Another condition might be that you couldn't also print coffee mugs as well, without buying another licence.

"Chipping" is a way around the licence. Of course, it's illegal and personal choice. But plenty of smaller games etc manufacturers have gione bust which er is probably why there's such little choice and prices will go up some more etc etc
 
[ QUOTE ]
It is now illegal for people to offer chipping services in this country and Sony have won injunctions.

Buy a chip and support the pirates and put another indie shop out of business.

Don't think IPC should allow such advice on this forum.


[/ QUOTE ]

I was not aware it was illegal. I don't have a playstation and was only passing on what I had been told. It's not like in this case someone is trying to play a pirated game, rather they want to play a game they brought legally.

Is it also illegal to have the regional coding removed from a DVD player? And what about if you brought a Playstation in the US and brought it back to the UK?
 
No, not Illegal to have the Regional Coding on DVD players removed but will nullify your Warranty in many cases! You own the product so you can modify it (for personnel use) as you like. It may however be illegal for someone to offer that service?

Paul
 
Simon, it is perfectly acceptable to personally import a US PlayStation console into the UK, although it is now contrary to Sony's copyright for a retailer to sell one in the UK. As I speak, Sony has just issued Cease and Desist orders on several retailers.

Chipping is the root of piracy and has resulted in the limited number of publishers we have now as small publishers - and retailers - have been forced out of business.

My main concern was that by recommending chipping on this forum it would legitimise the activity.

Think of it this way, would IPC allowed posts form someone showing them how they can copy and sell their magazines or if the answer to an enquiry for a cheap plotter, someone offered a stolen one or told the poster to try Bent Bob in his local pub?

Regionlisation of console games is a lot to do with licensing. A publisher may have a licence to publish a property in the US, but not in Europe. It is also about age ratings. We have the PEGI(voluntary) and BBFC (Compulsory) age ratings in the UK. I am actually working on THQ's release schedule today and they have two Sku's for some titles. One with a BBFC 18 rating for the UK market and the other with a PEGI 18 rating for Ireland. It would be illegal for a UK retailer to sell the Irish game here, as will not be BBFC marked.

Some retail importers get into trouble because they import a game from the US, but think it is okay to sell it because the UK version is not subject to a BBFC rating. But the publisher may have cut the original game so that they can sell it without a BBFC rating, but the import version may have content on it that is subject to a BBFC rating.

The other reason for regionlisation is that the UK staff of Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, Sega, Activision EA and the others have the right to run their business and protect their jobs without having to compete with other territories. But, having said that, with the growth of the internet I doubt the walls can be plugged forever and a change in the regionalisation practice will have to happen, perhaps with an international age rating service.

It is ironic that todays papers carry a story of an eleven year old who had an epilectic fit playing Resident Evil 4. His parents said, "The dangers of such games should be made more clear."

What part of the BBFC 15 Certificate printed on the box, disk and on the instructions did she not understand?

A Capcom spokeman pointed out that the instructions carry a full page of epilepsy warnings and also details the violence of the game.

Chris
 
Ignore all this droning on about you single-handedly destroying the software industry as we know it and get your PS chipped. You have paid for your console and paid for your game - you are not a pirate and are not stealing anything. Sony have your money for the hardware and for the game so relax and play it. . . . . /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
If we were talking about pirate copies etc, I'd agree. However, buying a perfectly legitimate version of something, you'd expect it to work.

Lots of novice buyers eg grandparents, buy these things as presents for grandkids, and expect them to work. There is no real reason they shouldn't
 
Same reason why PAL VHS does not work on NTSC VHS and vice versa unless equipment is dual format. THE US has a different display than the UK - US Playstations & games are made to NTSC display standard and UK / EU Playstations & games are made to a PAL standard. Games publishers need to convert a NTSC game prior to UK release. I guess that Sony chose not to make the PS2 multi format compatable.

Would you expect a 120V US electrical product to work on the 240V supply.... afterall it's all electricity?
 
ah yes, the old "But - i'm stupid!" argument. They do work in the country where purchased. Mains electrical items from the US don't work in the USA.

Trouble is, of course, that the cost of development is always ignored. The argument is that it'd "cost them nothing" to make it work everywhere. Taken to its logical extreme of course, the same argument favours free cd's all round.
 
[ QUOTE ]
you are not a pirate and are not stealing anything.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes you are.

Lets take small British publishers like Oxygen Interactive, or Ignition.

They employ about thirty people each and either develop in house or buy intellectual property from even smaller developers.

If you buy a pirate copy you deprive these people the money they need to continue their business, you are stealing from them.

I suppose you would buy the DVD player stolen from your neighbour the night before?

As to consoles, all console manufacturers sell their machines below cost and rely on software licences to make their money, which Sony and Microsoft have failed to do recently. Microsoft lost billions on Xbox - mind you, they can afford it.

You are in recruitment. How would you like it if everytime you placed someone in a new job the employer paid your fee to someone else?

You wouldn't like it.

I am amazed that everybody treats digital media as if it should be free. If you want to use it, pay the copyright owner, not the scum who live off their talents.
 
No, no you're not. The original question is about a game purchased in the US. Not a pirate copy at all. If you buy a legal game in the US, and chip your player so you can play it in the UK, you've not pirated a thing. Sheesh.

Rick
 
Sorry Britemp and Rickp.

Saw red mist.

Anyway, why buy a game in US, transport it here and then pay some low life - who IS breaking the law as it is contrary to the Patents and designs Act - £30 to chip a PS2, which will void its warranty and can cause it to 'cook', when you can probably buy the game in Tesco for £29.99 in the first place and have a game that has a second-hand value as well to trade in for another game at a later date?

Not only that, but many NTSC to PAL convertions can only be played in 'letterbox' mode.
 
can sort of see both sides to this and the use of the word pirating is probably not helpful (not that you introduced it Rick!)

Someone has paid money to have the exclusive rights to market and sell the software in the UK. Hardware manufacturers have, to support the software vendors, either introduced or retained regional differences to prevent the casual purchaser from upsetting the applecart and buying 'across market'. ON the other hand if you were running a US spec machine in the UK you could only buy and use US sourced discs; dammed inconvinient for you but you couldn't be considered as breaking the law!

Interestingly if you actually built a console that could play all and any software, and purchased origionals as you saw fit, would you actually be breaking any laws? I think the software probably has 'only to be played on a genuine XYZ but does that have any value? Actually you would probably have to 'pirate' some software codec to enable the machine to function and be breakign the law that way so forget the question.............
 
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