Moving from EU to NA - Impact on Compatibility

[Scorp]

I'm due to move over the states later this year, and I'm a clueless about what will happen to my various consoles/pc/dvd etc. They are all EU bought, PAL encoded and for the dvd's region 2 formatted.

Can anyone shed some light on the best thing to do to convert the following to NA compatibility and/or let me know whether its less hassle to just sell and re buy.

Xbox 360
PS2
PC
DVD player + 60ish dvd's

My main concern is the xbox and the dvd's.

[Cephius]

As far as I know, the Xbox and PS2 cannot be changed. To play NA games you'll need to buy a NA version of those consoles.

For the PC however, most DVD players allow you a limited number of region changes. Go into the properties of the DVD drive, click the region tab and select region 1 for the US. It should also tell you how many changes you have available left.

[Scorp]

Thanks for the reply,

what about, using a region 2 player to play region 2 dvds onto an NA TV etc.

[Cephius]

Should be no issue there since TVs aren't region locked, they just accept the signal. You won't be able to play NA dvds though.

[Isiolia]

PC shouldn't be a problem. Most laptop power adapters can do 110-240, and most desktop PC power supplies have a little switch to toggle between 110-120 and 220-240. You'll likely need a plug adapter or a different generic power cord.
50/60Hz differences are largely irrelevant unless the device relies on a particular cycle to function correctly. For example, U.S. electric clocks ran slow when I lived in Japan, since they function based on a 60Hz signal. I think EU is 60Hz anyway, but it's been a while since I lived there.

With your consoles, main thing would be the PAL restrictions. Honestly, it's been a while, so I'm not sure what's out there. Growing up, my family had a TV that was both PAL and NTSC compatible, and my parent's still have a VCR that'll play both.
It's rare to find devices like that in regular retail stores, however, multi-system TVs do exist, your selection will simply be more limited, and more expensive. (ex. http://www.220-electronics.com/tv/lcd.h ... stem%20TVs)

Maybe if the 360 could use a VGA adapter if you'll have an HDTV, or a larger PC monitor (HDMI maybe, as it's just DVI). Not sure if that gets around NTSC/PAL or not, since at that point it's basically a computer signal.

Far as software, AFAIK, 360 games are region locked by the choice of the publisher, but PAL systems may not be able to play region-free NTSC software anyway.

If you're going to be the states for a while, it'd probably be easier to just sell or gift your systems and buy the American versions. However, if you have a lot of games or rarer/EU exclusive type titles, it's not like there's no way you could use them here.

Devices with hard set 220-240 power requirements can be adapted with transformers. (ex. http://www.world-import.com/all-transformers.htm).

For DVDs, you can buy DVD players modified to play all regions, which can play your PAL discs on an NTSC TV. (ex. http://www.dvdcity.com/search.php?codefree=1). I'm sure you have the reverse available where you are too. I'd probably go with something like that for simplicity. Play your current library plus whatever you buy here on it. If/when you move back, buy a region-free PAL player.

[Scorp]

Great help thanks, and yes i'm going there for a long time lol.