dvd_region_map.gifRegional DVDs aren’t much of an issue for a majority of Americans who never really travel, buy international films from around the globe, or speak Spanish. Sad thing is, for those who are impacted, it’s kinda crazy. US DVDs, pretty much by default, have English and French. No Spanish.

Considering that Spanish Americans are the largest minority in the US, wouldn’t Spanish be a nice option? No, instead, they have separate DVDs with Spanish on them. Two items, same region, diff. audience target. I think that my friends from Hialeah wouldn’t mind American movies with an SAP track. It may also be that a majority of individuals are unaware of SAP or that it can be done on their DVD player due to lack of extended knowledge about the device and simply prefer to purchase items which are packaged and marketed towards the genre.

Many films are never seen in the Spanish market of the US which are widely available in Spanish speaking countries, but you can’t play it on a Region 1 DVD player. But French, yep, it’s on there (only due to the laws in place in Quebec regarding it’s requirement for sale in their Province. What am I talking about? Read on….

DVD Regional (Country) Codes - A Quick Reference

DVD movies are usually coded with what is called a country or regional code or a zone lock. The three names, however, mean the same thing. DVD movies are given a regional code and the code on the DVD movie must match that of the DVD player to be viewed. The region code on a DVD is a single byte of information that the player verifies. Each DVD player is given a code for the region in which it is intended to be sold. The code on the player is stored on its internal memory register. For most DVD players, the code is set to the region code when the player is manufactured.
Who Needs Them?

DVD Region codes are used because motion pictures are often released on DVD at different times in different countries, and versions of the movie may be slightly different among countries. Sometimes a movie may have finished playing in theaters in the U.S. but not even started showing in other countries. This means the U.S. version of the DVD may be released while the picture is still shown in theaters in other countries and the industry would not want sales of the DVD to start before the movie hits the theater. Additionally this DVD coding system standard allows the motion picture industry to have more control of the trade and geographical location of the DVD movie. Often different studios will be granted the right to distribute a movie in a specific country, and the codes will limit the ability for others to impose on those licensing and distribution agreements.

The region code for a given disc can usually be found as a small logo on the back of the package, a Mollweide DVD Region 1 logo projection world map with the region code digit superimposed. The logo at right is from a DVD purchased in and coded for the United States (Region 1) which contains soundtracks in English and French, with English, French, and Spanish subtitles.

The logo at right is from a DVD purchased in the French-speaking region of Switzerland, coded for Region 2, containing soundtracks in English, French, and Italian, with English, French, Italian, DVD Region 2 logo and Dutch subtitles. The actual DVD disc may also bear the region code logo, but not all do. Note that region coding in many circumstances prevents DVDs with multiple soundtracks from being used as language learning aids. Many DVDs sold in North America contain only English and French soundtracks (the latter a requirement to sell in Canada). An individual in the U.S. who wishes to improve, for example, their Spanish language skills, cannot order a Spanish soundtrack DVD made for sale in Latin America (Region 4), because it won’t play on a Region 1 player. Nor could the same person practice German comprehension with a German language disc made for Europe, yet a person living in the United Kingdom can play Region 2 discs in all of the European languages, but not English-language discs purchased from a merchant in the U.S.

DVD Region (Country) Codes:

  • Region 1 (R1): USA, Canada
  • Region 2 (R2): Japan, Europe, South Africa, Middle East, Greenland
  • Region 3 (R3): S.Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Parts of South East Asia
  • Region 4 (R4): Australia, New Zealand, Latin America (including Mexico)
  • Region 5 (R5): Eastern Europe, Russia, India, Africa
  • Region 6 (R6): China
  • Region 7 (R7): Reserved for unspecified special use
  • Region 8 (R8): Reserved for cruise ships, airlines and so on

All-region Discs (also called Region 0) are un-coded and can be played Worldwide.

DVD Region Codes (Courtesy Forimulab.ch)
(Image http://www.fourmilab.ch/)

Studios fight back Multi-Region Players with Regional Coding Enhancement
Due to the popularity of modded players and all-region DVD players, some production studios (including MGM, Warner Bros, Columbia Tri-Star, and others) have added a second layer of coding, called Regional Coding Enhancement (RCE). RCE prevents Region 1 DVDs from being played on all-region DVD players.

It’s important to note that Regional coding is not used on recordable DVD media or DVD-ROMs, so copies of movies made one home PCs - they should still play just fine.
[ SOURCE: Webopedia: DVD Region Codes ]
Vangie ‘Aurora’ Beal - Writer, www.Webopedia.com
Last updated: March 24, 2006

Additional Information:

How Stuff Works explains DVDs (http://www.howstuffworks.com/dvd.htm)
Windows 98 Users: Watch DVDs from Any Region with these helpful hints of how to “tweak” Windows98