Bought a DVD from "Across the Pond" online but..?

You can also view them on your computer BUT only a limited number of times. When you stick the dvd in, it will ask you to change the viewing setting to the appropriate format - European or North American. You can do this up to 4 or 5 times. Then it locks into the last one used, and you can't change it again. Read your computer specifics to find out exactly how many times you can switch your computer. If its a legitimate retail copy of a DVD then its region encoded. The US Canada and Mexico are Region 1. All other countries are different, and thus you will not be able to buy a DVD from England or Italy and expect it to work in a US DVD player. It should say on the back of the box what region the disc is for.

Also, European DVD's and TV's are in PAL format whereas the N.American TV's are in NTSC format. Even if it were a region free or universal DVD player the formats would still be different.

But if you bought a bootleg cheap asian ripoff, then sometimes those discs work. You'll have to ask the seller if the disc is for NTSC or PAL players. Most of the sites selling fake DVD's to US buyers pirate the DVD's so that they are in NTSC format, but you never know if the disc will work until you pop it in.

That's the thing about buying a pirated disc, there is no guarantee they will work. So don't be fooled by cheap prices or the outrageous lie ''These are authentic asian retail discs in different packaging'' No they aren't. DVD manufacturers don't use wildly different packaging in different countries. I.E. they won't sell a retail copy in a case in the US and then sell that same disc in a flimsy paper sleeve in Spain.