is psp region free?

caldean · Post by **caldean** » Sat Jun 18, 2005 6:46 am

hey guys, my first post so that means im a n00b ready for molding by psp gurus lol.
i am asking if the psp is region free because if it is then i might get one imported and if it isnt i am gonna have to wait till september for the uk release.
i cant wait to get my hands on a psp! lol

Èl Nächó · Post by **Èl Nächó** » Sat Jun 18, 2005 7:05 am

wow did you pick the wrong forum to stumble into.

Post by **mrbrown** » Sat Jun 18, 2005 7:11 am

Games are region free, movies are not.

caldean · Post by **caldean** » Sat Jun 18, 2005 7:13 am

mrbrown wrote:Games are region free, movies are not.

cool, thanks man

Cogboy · Post by **Cogboy** » Sat Jun 18, 2005 10:04 pm

another thing to take into account is that the japanese and uk dvd regions are the same, so if you get a psp from japan, most likely it will be able to play uk umd movies as well.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat Jun 18, 2005 10:25 pm

Cogboy wrote:another thing to take into account is that the japanese and uk dvd regions are the same, so if you get a psp from japan, most likely it will be able to play uk umd movies as well.

This assumes the PSP defines regions the same way that DVDs do. There is no reason they need to do that, since the technology used for encoding is different, and there is no concept of NTSC or PAL when you are outputting digital direct to a LCD panel.

Xsez · Post by **Xsez** » Sat Jun 18, 2005 10:55 pm

japan and europe do have region code 2
us has region code 1

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat Jun 18, 2005 11:21 pm

Xsez wrote:japan and europe do have region code 2
us has region code 1

For the PSP ? What is your source ? Just curious if its been printed someplace since the PSP is not yet released in Europe.

Lain_OTN · Post by **Lain_OTN** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 12:28 am

In the JP package you can see a 2 like the DVD region icon. It's seems like JP/EU will be the same zone
a photo of the JP box, you can see the zone 2 symbol
http://image1.play-asia.com/gallery/lar ... 8.0009.jpg

And here a US PSP BOX you can see de zone 1 symbol
http://www.gamingillustrated.com/images ... sp_box.jpg
dificulty but is there (I can't find a better shoot) :p

0xdeadface · Post by **0xdeadface** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 12:43 am

Yeah, but as long as there's no Euro box, who's to say there won't be a 3 on it?

Speculation really won't help OP.

0xdf

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 1:38 am

Even though Japan and EU region have the same region number on DVD's, they were still able to enforce a "difference" by also keying off NTSC and PAL. This way, Japan titles still couldn't play in EU on properly licensed DVD players, since the player was supposed to check BOTH the code AND the encoding. (even if the player otherwise could play both NTSC/PAL).

Given that the purpose of the region+encoding was meant to restrict distribution, even between Japan and Europe, it will be interesting to see how it is implemented on the PSP. I find it hard to believe they will key off PAL/NTSC.

Or will they ???

We will find out in a few months...

Post by **ooPo** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 2:41 am

When the display device is provided with the system, do terms like NTSC and PAL have any meaning?

Lain_OTN · Post by **Lain_OTN** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 10:14 am

When you use digital output do you think that NTSC, PAL (Phase Alternation Line) have any meaning? :p

Post by **ooPo** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 11:52 am

If that digital output is designed to function as a TV, sure. :)

Danj · Post by **Danj** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 7:14 pm

ooPo wrote:When the display device is provided with the system, do terms like NTSC and PAL have any meaning?

Yes, because they can be used to refer to the original resolution and frame rate of the video. All current UMDs could be referred to as "NTSC", since they have the NTSC DVD resolution of 720x480 and the NTSC frame rate of 30fps. It will be interesting to see if Euro UMDs follow the same path or if they have "PAL"-like properties. It will also be interesting to see if Sony updates the PSP firmware for the Euro PSP to allow playback of 25fps "PAL" material from the memory stick.

inomine · Post by **inomine** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 8:19 pm

Danj wrote:
All current UMDs could be referred to as "NTSC", since they have the NTSC DVD resolution of 720x480 and the NTSC frame rate of 30fps.

I can certainly believe that the framerate is 30FPS, but I find it hard to believe that they would use a full NTSC frame resolution when it is much larger than the PSP's screen. Also to be truely NTSC like they would have to make it interlaced, which would just by icky. So the only thing which is remotely NTSC like about it is the framerate, but even that is not spot on.

As you say there is the possibility of them releasing the Euro UMDs at 25FPS and patching the firmware to allow this, but I would much rather see them keep it at 30FPS. Essentially all they would have to do is swap region codes on the DVD's and maybe modify the available languages on them, this is a much easier task than remastering the whole film and is certainly the road that I would expect them to take.

After all, changing a region code is probably a couple of clicks, re-encoding the film from the original to yet another different framerate is a bit more involving.

Danj · Post by **Danj** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 9:47 pm

inomine wrote:After all, changing a region code is probably a couple of clicks, re-encoding the film from the original to yet another different framerate is a bit more involving.

But what about things like UK movies and TV shows that are already in PAL format? Are you suggesting they should re-encode them to 30fps?

Lain_OTN · Post by **Lain_OTN** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 10:53 pm

Stop Mixing Analog with Digital
PSP Actually MP4/AAC (Memory Stick 750kb/sec (1500 with some tricks) ) & H264/AAC UMD (Why not H264 from MS???!? someone tested it?)
PAL & NTSC are Analog systems
DVD UMD & DVB are Digital systems
I live in Europe my region is 2 like JAP i have a region 2 DVD and I can watch DVD films from JAP the DVD decodes the signal (DIGITAL) and then send it anolg PAL to my TV!!!

0xdeadface · Post by **0xdeadface** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 11:26 pm

There is however still no way to know whether UMD movie region coding will follow DVD region coding.
After all it's just a territory identifier to control the market, and they can decide on whatever regio coding they want for the PSP.

0xdf

Lain_OTN · Post by **Lain_OTN** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 11:45 pm

You are right until release in Europe we cann't say anything.

But the PSP first lunch was in Japan with region 2... why no region 1? then US with region 1... and then if korean has region 3 then seems like they are using DVD regions. Anyway the 1st of september be will know :p

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 11:55 pm

Lain_OTN wrote:Stop Mixing Analog with Digital
PAL & NTSC are Analog systems
DVD UMD & DVB are Digital systems

The digital systems are used to encode the analog systems. Thus, the analog system still matters with respect to output. In other words, the data may be stored as digital, but the framerate and resolution matches either PAL or NTSC depending on the region.

And even though Japan and Europe are the same numbered region, they are still differentiated by encoding: Japan is Region 2/NTSC and Europe is Region 2/PAL.

I live in Europe my region is 2 like JAP i have a region 2 DVD and I can watch DVD films from JAP the DVD decodes the signal (DIGITAL) and then send it anolg PAL to my TV!!!

Thats a neat trick. JPN DVD's are NTSC encoded. Clearly your DVD player is doing a NTSC to PAL conversion step after the digital decode of the DVD.

Perhaps I should say to you: Stop ignoring the relevance of NTSC/PAL to digital media encodings.

inomine · Post by **inomine** » Mon Jun 20, 2005 12:11 am

Danj wrote: But what about things like UK movies and TV shows that are already in PAL format? Are you suggesting they should re-encode them to 30fps?

A very valid point, I had forgotten that some people might like to watch films or TV shows produced here :P. For those you would certainly need full support to display them properly.

For original US films I would dearly love for them to play at 30 FPS as the 3:2 pulldown to that has a much smaller timing error than speeding up from 24FPS film to 25FPS PAL that they have an annying tendency to do with DVDs, not that they can reasonably do anything better.