DVD Region Codes
By Binary Head at 5 January, 2009, 6:35 am
DVD’s are normally region-code specific, which means, a normal DVD player can only play region-coded discs designated for the player’s own particular region. The DVD player does not play discs encoded for a different region. If a DVD player is Code-free or region-free then you can play any DVD discs from any of the six regions around the world. Discs without region coding are called all region or region 0 discs.
The idea behind this is to allows motion picture studios to control DVD release, including content, release date, and, especially, price, according to the region.
DVD Player manufacturers cannot manufacture DVD players that play DVD for multiple or all regions. They need to set DVD player to a single region by default. CSS license prohibits them to do so. Above is the Map using which you can easily identify which region codes are supported in which country.
| Region codes and countries | |||
| Region code | Area | ||
| 0 | Informal term meaning “worldwide”. Region 0 is not an official setting; discs that bear the region 0 symbol either have no flag set or have region 1–6 flags set. | ||
| 1 | Canada, United States; U.S. territories; Bermuda | ||
| 2 | Western and Central Europe; Western Asia; Egypt, Japan, South Africa, Swaziland; United Kingdom, Turkey, French overseas territories | ||
| 3 | Southeast Asia; South Korea; Taiwan; Hong Kong | ||
| 4 | Australia; Oceania; Central and South America; Caribbean; Mexico | ||
| 5 | Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, Africa, Central and South Asia, Mongolia, North Korea. | ||
| 6 | China, Hong Kong | ||
| 7 | Reserved for future use (found in use on protected screener copies of MPAA-related DVDs and “media copies” of pre-releases in Asia) | ||
| 8 | International venues such as aircraft, cruise ships, etc. | ||
| ALL | Region ALL discs have all 8 flags set, allowing the disc to be played in any locale on any player. | ||
via-[wikipedia]
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