Film, TV & DVD Information
Help for playing back Wallander DVDs with alternate subtitles.

This is a short guide to help people understand what is necessary to view Wallander DVDs purchased from Sweden while using English subtitle files. DVDs purchased in Europe come with Region 2 encoding and in PAL format.

For Windows users, the following setup is recommended:

• Either Windows XP or 2000 operating system, with updated DirectX
• 1.5 GHz or faster CPU
• DirectX 7+ compatible graphics card
• DVD-ROM drive
• Region 2 DVD capability (use shareware software AnyDVD or DVDIdle if outside of Europe)
• Media Player Classic (freeware DVD playback software; download the latest version for your OS)

People using Macs and Linux systems should look to VLC software for their playback needs.

You need to have a DVD-ROM drive capable of playing DVD films from Region 2 (Europe). Computers purchased in North America will be Region 1. If you do not have Region 2 equipment, you can install software to trick your computer into playing Region 2 discs anyway. The share programs AnyDVD and DVDIdle are two such programs. Install one of those applications and reboot your computer.

To allow you to load alternate subtitles while watching a DVD, use the Media Player Classic software package. Once you've downloaded and run it, you will need to make one adjustment to the settings. You must go to the View menu and select the Options item. Here, in the Output section, you must change the DirectShow Video setting to VMR7 (renderless) or VMR9 (renderless).

After that is complete, insert the DVD into the DVD-ROM drive and wait a few seconds for it to spin up. Then go the File menu and select Open DVD... to start playing the film.

Then navigate through the DVDs menus and start the actual film. Once the film has started playing, return to the File menu and choose the Load Subtitle... item. When the open file dialog opens, find the SRT file containing the English subtitles and open it. Now you should see the English dialog appear with the film.

If you have any problems, talk to someone you know who is knowledgeable about computers for assistance.