How to Play a PAL DVD on a PC

Watch European movies directly on your Windows computer.

Stand-alone DVD players are only able to play either NTSC or PAL, and the region code of the DVD player stays the same. In the United States and Japan, the DVD format is NTSC, while in Europe and a majority of the rest of the world, the video format is PAL (there is a slight difference in the video frame rate). It is possible to play a PAL DVD with a computer, but you are able to switch between NTSC and PAL only a few times.

Instructions

1. Click the "Start" button on the desktop, then choose "(My) Computer" and the "Properties" option.

2. Select "Hardware," then choose "Device Manager."

3. Double-click the "DVD/CD" drive option, then right-click the DVD drive installed on the computer that you want to play the PAL movies on (if there is not more than one drive installed on the computer).

4. Select the DVD region option, then choose the region you want to play from. The exact region number is printed on the back of the PAL DVD packaging. Do take into consideration that you are only able to switch this region setting up to five times. After the fifth change, the DVD region is locked into place on your computer.

References

• Microsoft: Playing DVDs and Changing DVD Region