DVDs Obama Sent British PM Don't Work

Telegraph UK:

While not exactly a film buff, Gordon Brown was touched when Barack Obama gave him a set of 25 classic American movies - including Psycho, starring Anthony Perkins on his recent visit to Washington.

Alas, when the PM settled down to begin watching them the other night, he found there was a problem. The films only worked in DVD players made in North America and the words "wrong region" came up on his screen.

Read the whole story: Telegraph UK

Comments

[BongHitsForJesus]

This site has hacks to make most DVD players region free. Just enter the model number into search and follow the simple directions.

http://www.videohelp.com/

[pleasethinkcritically]

Everyone is talking about region codes and it being a lame arse gift. My first thought was "I can't believe Brown was about to sit down and watch these things." Granted they are great films, but a lame arse gift would have stayed in the plastic for a loooong time! Maybe it wasn't such a thoughtless gift after all.

[swyftdahoe]

Eh.. region codes.. Just get a dvd player that doesn't care about this.. Not very hard to do..

That said.. disappointed.. I was hoping that Obama had sent some bootleg dvd's.. Bootleg 'Bama!

[RightWingMarine]

The fact that the DVDs were of the wrong region code was probably more of an oversight rather than an intentional snub.

The intentional snub was in giving movies to a head of state that is half blind. Coupled with the return of the Churchill bust and the condescending gifts given to the children.

[jcwtts1]

yeah, unfortunately each president must forge his own relationships with countries and leaders. You think it is insulting to give a bust of churchil back, I think it is insulting to demand that Obama decorate his office the same way Bush did. The British can work out their DVD problems easily, and it isn't an insult to treat someone who is challenged the way you treat everyone else. The insult is in babying them.

J

[jsgaetano]

Region codes are such a scam.

These companies prevent you from watching stuff you legally purchased... yet whine when people pirate their films. Not punishing legitimate customers sounds like a good start.

[Flashfolds]

The smartest man in the world should have figured out the DVD's would probably not work in England.

[Yurdelite]

How should he know smart arse? Take your sil.ly arse back to Politico and spew your nonsense there.

[Myshkin57]

It's no secret that DVDs are regionally encoded.

[whiteboyblues]

Buy a region free DVD player.

[gr8by]

This article is meant to be a snipe at Gordon Brown - implying that President Obama thinks very little about him.

The background is that the Telegraph is the most conservative newspaper in the UK - and are doing their best to ensure that David Cameron wins the next election.

Most people in the UK know that DVDs from the USA are region 1 (and have got hold of a code to unlock their DVD player - it's easy). The journalist from the Telegraph is such a fuddy duddy that he has only learnt about it 2 weeks later - and has probably fabricated the whole story.

[Yurdelite]

Lord they are about as bad as the sorry arse media we have here!!

[jsgaetano]

The whiny crybaby outrage is undoubtedly coming from the same people who were Blair cheerleaders, and huge fans of GWB.

[indyleftist]

Its so sad how out of touch our leaders are
Do they really not not how to take off the region coding? DVD Shrink Obama! Get with the times

I wonder if Obama will take this opportunity to address the very clear breech of international law that the dvd region coding is. Besides the oil industry this is probably one of the most open cartels in the world

[BeFairNow]

The DVDs do work, Gordon Brown just has the wrong equipment. Has the British Prime Minister ever heard of a multi-region DVD player? You can often get them cheaper than standard ones nowadays. Of course, reason has nothing to do with it because if Obama's involved it must be his fault, right? What is he going to be accused of next? Being President while Black? The conservative British press seem to expect Obama to kiss Britain's ring but he won't and they just don't seem to know how to cope with that. Remember the ridiculous whingeing about the bust of Churchill being returned? Come on folks, I know he confuses you because he doesn't fit your stereotype or do what you tell him but you'll just have to deal with it. Stop the whining over trivial nonsense like this. It's pathetic.

[lolno]

Didn't Bush get crap for not kissing everyone's ring? For "not listening"? For telling others what to do? Now Obama doesn't have to listen to anyone and gets to tell other leaders what to do?

It's silly to blame the gift receiver for the problem. The gift-giver should have probably looked into it a little more instead of just running down to the Wal-Mart DVD bins. It's like if I gave you a shirt that was too small for you and then blamed it on you for being too big and told you to find a way to make yourself smaller so you'll fit in it instead of finding out what size shirt you wear and getting you that size shirt. Giving gifts isn't supposed to create chores for the receiver. I think most people would look into this kind of thing, especially if it's as common as is being said on here, and I would also think the President (having the highest IQ in the world, and a boatload of staffers) would be able to figure this out.

[ashbachj]

This is why we need to get rid of the DMCA and promote open standards that work in the consumer's interests rather than corporate interests.

[whiteboyblues]

yes indeed.

[gr8by]

I have just googled DMCA and I don't think that it applies in this case.

The reasoning behind encoding films is that historically films were already released on DVD in the USA before they had even hit the cinemas in the UK. Coupled with the accessibility of US DVDs online - the film industry wanted to put this protection in place.

DVD region encoding is very different from the PAL/NTSC television signal differences. From my understanding, the DVD players for the different regions are the same - but there is a software encoding that blocks DVDs from some regions. I have always been able to google for the code to unlock my DVD player.

[marxmarv]

The DMCA makes it a violation to circumvent any technological measure that "effectively controls access to a protected work", and region coding was one of the very things they had in mind when writing this section.

[Whinger]

Brits use type two region, can be made to work on a PC very easily, John McCain will sort it.

[Gladys1963]

But if he can't twitter it, he may not be able to figure it out.

[jerrypl]

Barack must have burned those dvds himself. Oops dude.

http://eye-on-washington.blogspot.com

[Gumby123]

Next time, the administration should have Obama's teleprompter pick the gift.

[Kenji]

Dude, that's hilarious. Did you think of it all by yourself?

[wndrwrthg]

Nah, he's reading a teleprompter.

[Gumby123]

Here have a chat with Obama's teleprompter. - http://baracksteleprompter.blogspot.com/

[Countdown09]

At least he can "read" a teleprompter.

[Gumby123]

Yes, he's about as good as Ron Burgundy.

[StillIRise]

There's that "teleprompter" again!!! Rush really has you tro//s worked up, doesn't he???

[nomobull]

you should have read this on a teleprompter to see how lame it is.

[Birdman]

That is because DVD have a region encoded into DVD's and DVD will only play on players that match the region of the DVD. The US and Britain have a different region number. The reason for this is to eliminate or reduce internaltional trafficing of DVD's. I'm sure it is something no one thought of at the time. I mean how many here already knew that there were designated regions for DVD's and that they only work on that countries machines?

[cinesimon]

Most DVD players are region free these days - but some have to be set to region free after purchase.
I'd say Mr Brown's people are the ones to blame here!

[lolno]

Of course! It's Mr. Brown's fault for not setting his DVD player to accept Obama's DVDs! It's not Obama's fault for not making sure his gift would work!