Most countries use one of three main television broadcast standards: NTSC, PAL and SECAM. Each standard is incompatible with the others. For example, a video recording made in the UK (PAL format) could not be played on US standard VCRs (NTSC format). DVDs have similar incompatibilities across regions.
We're dealing with this by providing multi-standard players in certain rooms. They're pretty expensive, so we don't have them everywhere. If you have questions about this, please contact Tom Sykes in Media Services.
Tri-standard VCRs (play NTSC, PAL, SECAM)
Multi-region DVD player