Can I watch DVD zone-2 but PAL encoding on Japanese system ?

[lightman]

I would like to order some zone 2 DVDs from Amazon France,
I know that Japan is also in the zone 2 but on the DVD it is stated
that the video format is PAL (while they use NTSC in Japan).
Will I be able to watch those DVDs on a standard Japanese DVD player and TV ?

Thanks,
lightman

[trip_hop]

No. Computer with DVD is probably OK, but not DVD player. You'll need a multisystem player.

[Andy3004]

As far as I know it strongly depends on the player you use. Personally I own an Panasonic RV20, which is able to play both Japanese and European DVDs. The Playstation 2 however, also checks the video-format of the DVD in addition to the country code and refuses to play PAL DVDs on a Japanese PS2 and NTSC DVDs on a European one.
However, even if your the DVD player won't prohibit to play PAL DVDs like the PS-2 does, you could still face the problem that the output-signal is PAL coded and the Television set you use is unable to handle a PAL signal. In such a case you would definitely need a multisystem-player, as trip hop already stated.
Since the information whether your TV can handle PAL data is probably not included in the manual (same goes for the question whether your DVD player checks for PAL/NTSC in addition to the country code), you probably have no other chance as to try it out. Perhaps you can find someone amongst your friends/workmates/etc. who owns a PAL coded DVD - just borrow it from him, and try it out.

ja ne,

-andy

[mc]

If you have a DVD drive on your computer, I can guide you through the steps needed to rip the vob files, convert from PAL to NTSC, encode, and burn to VCD in order to be able to watch the final product on your DVD player/TV. It takes some time, but if you really want to watch those particular DVDs, it might be worth it for you.