Why is there dvd regions

Studios went with a simpler three-region approach for Blu-ray, but even that may be largely symbolic. By some estimates, nearly 70 percent of Blu-ray discs carry no code at all. Then why bother? As downloads replace discs, a consortium of studios, manufacturers, and retailers is backing UltraViolet, a digital-rights system that would let people play a purchased file on up to 12 devices. Region codes may be dying, but they won't vanish completely until there's something to take their place.

Almost all commercial DVDs that are sold have what is called a "region code" also called "regional code" , which only allows the DVD to be played on DVD players that have this region code, and the only DVD players that typically do have this region code are those sold in that same region.

The region code refers to a geographic region of the world rather than the language of the DVD. The region code, which in some languages is referred to as a "country code" cf. Here are the region codes in widespread use today:.

There are also region codes "7" and "8", which have special purposes. For a more detailed breakdown of where these region codes are used, see the Wikipedia article DVD region code.

The reason why is that the North American market is large enough to justify a separate North American release of very popular films. However, you might be able to unlock your DVD player, so before going any farther you might want to look into this.

The official reason why the system of region codes was established was to make it possible to release a film in one region, for example North America, before it was released in another region, for example Europe, and prevent people in the region where the film has not yet been released in this case Europe from buying DVDs from the region where the film was first released in this case North America ; that is, to prevent Europeans from buying the North American version.

The rationale was that if too many Europeans bought the North American version, this would cut into sales of the European versions.

For example, as of this writing the film Syriana Warner Bros. Whatever the real reason for the introduction of region codes, there is no technical reason why they are necessary: From the perspective of people who want to watch DVDs from other parts of the world, region codes are merely an artificial obstacle that needs to be overcome. However, this presents certain challenges. Fortunately, some manufacturers produce equipment that will run on either type of current.

It is also necessary to have a plug adapter, since the electrical outlets and plugs used in many foreign countries are different from those in North American. Such plug adapters are easy to find and inexpensive. However, there is another obstacle that is not so obvious and that is more difficult to overcome, namely video encoding standards see below.

These are hard to find in retail stores, but can be found on eBay. Notice that it has a North American power plug, so it is not even necessary to get a plug adapter:. I do not know how the features and price of this DVD player compare with those of comparable players, nor am I certain that every DVD player bearing this model number is region-free, so I am not recommending this one over other brands. If you choose to purchase such a piece of equipment, you yourself should check the different models that are available, what features they offer, how much they cost, etc.

However, apart from the question of brand, price, etc. It is also more straightforward to use, since it can definitely use North American electrical current and does not even require a plug adapter. These 6 region codes function in the same way as Blu-ray region codes. A DVD disc from region 1 would be encoded as region code 1 and is therefore only operable in a DVD player that originated from region 1. The same is true for region 2, region 3, and so on and so forth, all the way to region 6.

The map below shows how DVD region codes are separated and administered by geographic location. As of right now, 4k movies titles are not region coded. With a 4k Blu-ray Player, you shold be able to play a 4k Blu-ray disc from anywhere in the world. As a side note, there are technically 3 other region codes aside from regions These are region 0, region 7 and region 8.

Region 0 means that no type of region code has been embedded, or that the disc has been embedded for regions 1 through 6. Region 7 is reserved mainly for future use. Region 8 is employed only for international use and therefore only utilized for discs used by airline or cruise ship industries.