> From: GUEST,loki
>
> Many instructional dvds for old time banjo etc are Region 1. Will they play on my newish UK dvd player?

It depends on the make and model. When I bought mine, I asked the shop to mod it so that it could play any region.

My way of getting around this is to keep a spare PC's CD/DVD drive set to R1. I then use DVD-Shrink to rip the region code out of the original and make a region-free copy of it.
DVD Shrink

Bloody rip-off farce the whole regionalisation caper, it's little different from Ludditism, deliberate breaking of machinery for gain. When I buy a book, I can read it anywhere in the world, I should be able to play a legally bought DVD anywhere in the world.

I suggest a better long-term policy is that you write to the producers of said DVDs and suggest in the strongest possible terms that they would increase their profits by producing their material region-free, and that you have no intention of buying until they do so.