DVD Region codes

Post #55,450 by tuberculosis 10/8/02 6:26:50 AM Reply	DVD Region codes Must be on their way out. I hope. I purchased a DVD player last week (TV to be delivered tomorrow). I explained (in my best pidgin French) to the sales rep at the Darty (think circuit city) that I already had a bunch of region 1 DVDs - did he have region 1 players? No, but he had a little gadget in his pocket that would beam instructions to select DVD players to make them region 6 (world region I think). He pointed out a few players including a reasonably priced Sony, told me to buy it and bring it to him and he'd beam it. So I did. Opened the box, plugged it in, fiddled with his remote for a minute, closed the box and said au reviour. I expect this is totally common - and that it signifies the death of region codes. Which is good, because, really, wtf am I buying if I shell out money for a DVD and it won't play? Which is the crux of it all, isn't it. When I buy a CD or a DVD, what do I own? I am out of the country for the duration of the Bush administration. Please leave a message and I'll get back to you when democracy returns.
Post #55,670 by static 10/9/02 1:12:26 AM Reply	They were never popular. Except in the US where they tend to get ignored. Ever since DVD was launched in Australia, there have been people who will mod a player or who will sell you a modded player. Pioneer were even selling region-switching players from the factory until the DVD Consortium said they really shouldn't do that. The hardware makers want region codes to Go Away because it is an additional complication in building their machines. The end-users outside the US want them to Go Away for exactly the reason you did: so they can buy and watch DVDs from another region. The content owners and distributors want region mods to Go Away. Only if they get rid of regions will region mods go away. Wade. BTW: region 6 is China, IIRC. I don't think that's what he meant. Most region defeating hardware will try to guess what the DVD wants and set itself accordingly. If it can't figure it out (which is very rare), it leaves it unchanged. The effect is that to watch a region-difficult DVD, you put in one of the same region first. "Ah. One of the difficult questions."
Post #55,808 by SpiceWare 10/9/02 3:52:18 PM Reply	it's not that we ignore it it's that most Americans are never exposed to region issues, thus it's really a case of ignorance. My folks currently reside in Mexico, which is region 4. They fully comprehend the issue. I'm into anime and know about it because DVDs for Japan are region 2. Darrell Spice, Jr. [link\|http://home.houston.rr.com/spiceware/\|SpiceWare] - We don't do Windows, it's too much of a chore
Post #55,812 by SpiceWare 10/9/02 4:11:28 PM Reply	Region Codes Here's a map of the [link\|http://www.dvdinfo.com/region_codes.html\|region codes]. DVD's can also be coded as region 0, which means they can be played on any DVD player. I believe some of my LEXX DVDs are region 0. The MPAA claims that the regions are so they can show a new movie in the states, then Europe, and then release the DVD in America while the movie starts in South America, and so on. Their arguement is that if the American DVDs could be imported to South America, then they'd lose money in theater tickets. However, if this were true, then they'd be releasing all the OLD movies as region 0. For instance the movie Real Genius was just released. This is a movie from 1985, and yet the one I purchased is coded as Region 1. What's really happening is the MPAA is using the different regions to sell the product at different price points. They don't want people in a high price region to import the DVDs from a low price region. Darrell Spice, Jr. [link\|http://home.houston.rr.com/spiceware/\|SpiceWare] - We don't do Windows, it's too much of a chore
Post #55,835 by ben_tilly 10/9/02 6:55:03 PM Reply	Actually the MPAA is telling the truth They do stagger releases like that for a number of reasons. (Film costs a lot. Revenues from one area pay advertising in the next. And so on.) But they feel that if the system is there anyways, why not take full advantage of it...? Cheers, Ben "Career politicians are inherently untrustworthy; if it spends its life buzzing around the outhouse, it\ufffds probably a fly." - [link\|http://www.nationalinterest.org/issues/58/Mead.html\|Walter Mead]
Post #56,130 by static 10/11/02 1:20:58 AM Reply	Also. The movie houses often have diverse distributors in different countries. etc. Region codes pander to that, too. It's just that they don't seem to see the problem in not releasing a title in one region and then trying to forbid the same title from a different region from working. Wade. "Ah. One of the difficult questions."

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