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DVD World Regions
- Region 1 - The U.S., U.S. territories and Canada
- Region 2 - Europe*, Japan, Middle East, Egypt, South Africa,
Greenland
- Region 3 - Taiwan, Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia, Hong Kong
- Region 4 - Mexico, South America, Central America, Australia,
New Zealand, Pacific Islands, Caribbean
- Region 5 - Russia (former USSR), Eastern Europe, India, most
of Africa, North Korea, Mongolia
- Region 6 - China
- Region 0 - multi region, code free, region free, all regions, zone
free, all zones.
*
European Region 2 DVDs may be sub-coded D1 through D4. "D1"
identifies a UK-only release. "D2" and "D3" identify
European DVDs that are not sold in the UK and Ireland.
"D4" identifies DVDs that are distributed throughout Europe.
USA RESIDENTS:
To play regions 1-6 you must have a region "0" DVD player also known as region free DVD player, all regions DVD player, code free DVD player or region free DVD player.
What Are Region Codes?
DVD discs contain Region Codes which can be used to prevent
the playback of certain discs depending upon the geographical area it is
played in. The various studios and home video companies lobbied to make
sure this coding system was a required part of the current DVD standards,
because they wish to control how their DVD titles are exported to other
countries. (For example, while a recent film may already have played theatrically
in the United States and been released to the home video market, that same
film may not yet have opened in some European or Asian countries.) In most
instances, discs manufactured in one region will usually only play on DVD players
that were manufactured in that same region - this means that discs bought
or imported from Japan will not play on U.S. players, and vice versa. However,
the region coding system is entirely optional, and discs without Region
Codes will play on any DVD player in any country.
The Region Code is usually specified on the back of the
individual DVD packages, either with a Region Coding logo of a globe with
the region number superimposed over it, or specifically spelled out. For
example, while currently-released New Line and Warner DVD titles use the
globe logo & number scheme, MGM/UA titles state: "This disc has
been encoded for Region 1: The United States, U.S. Territories and Canada."
In the cast of Lumivision's discs, they are labelled "Available worldwide,"
which means that the discs are region free and code free, in other words: it contain no region coding.
These discs will play on any DVD player in any country.
Is It Legal to Bypass the Codes?
Since DVD region coding – also known as "zone locking" –
exists merely for marketing purposes, and has nothing to do
with copyright or copy protection, most people compare
"breaking the codes" to reading a German book in Australia,
Britain, the US or another English-speaking country. If you
legally obtained either the book or the DVD, it shouldn't
matter where you read it or view it. We're not talking about
making commercial copies, defeating copy guards or anything else for distribution purposes that
would violate copyright laws. We just want to watch a video
that we legally obtained in the first place. But it is important
to point out that no court decision has established either
that region coding might be an illegal "restraint of trade" or
that it may be legal to defeat the region DVD player codes.
Note: Changing the code setting on a DVD-ROM drive is not
only possible, but also perfectly legal.
Some DVD vendors (online or otherwise) may not be willing
to ship a DVD title to a country with a region code that is
different than the disk. Since this is a decision made by
each vendor, you will need to check on a particular vendor's
shipping policy. To watch such DVDs you need a region free DVd player.
A DVD player or DVD recorder with unlocked region coding
defined as multi region, multi-region, multiregion, codefree,
code-free, nultizone or multi-zone, all-regions and all-zones
DVD players or DVD recorders.
Ultimately, the region code issue is a moral and legal
matter that you must decide for yourself.
DISCLAIMER: None of the information on this page should be construed as legal
advice. We are merely pointing out the region code situation, as it applies to
those who would like to view foreign films on DVD. Region codes have
nothing to do with the obviously illegal practice of breaking the DVD protection
codes designed to prevent illegal digital copying for distribution.
NOTE:
Country region encoding is not related to the "TV VIDEO FORMAT STANDARDS" issues that deal
with screen refresh frequencies, screen resolution (number of lines) etc. Known formats are NTSC, PAL and others.
See it BELOW.
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