What are Region Codes on a DVD?
You may have noticed that when you want to check when a movie is being released on DVD in your country, the release dates are broken down by region. For example, Region one is the United States and Canada, and Region four includes Central America, South America and Australia. This allows the distributers of the films to better control different aspects of the film’s release depending on the region.
Why Region Codes?
So what’s the point of region codes if it only seems to make things a bit more complicated and stops certain countries from being able to watch certain DVDs? Well, that’s exactly the point. The region codes accomplish several different things:
1. The region codes allow DVD manufacturers to differentiate the pricing of the DVDs, as some markets can be charged much higher prices for DVDs than others. This way their prices can be flexible in different markets.
2. Studios make a lot of money from releasing a movie in the theatre and then much later on DVD. Coding DVDs for different regions allows for movies to be released on DVD on different dates around the world.
3. By coding DVDs by region, it’s easier to prevent releasing a movie that might offend various cultures or religions in certain countries.
DVDs are also formatted with certain regional encoding to make them suitable for specific analog television signals that are in use by different DVD players around the world: NTSC and PAL.
NTSC is used in North America as week as South Korea, Japan, the Philippines and Taiwan.
PAL is used in North Korea, Israel, Australia, New Zealand, Africa, China and India.
Depending on the DVD player, the DVD player may be only able to play one kind of region code, while other types of DVD players can play all different types. In most cases, the DVD players that are available in the PAL countries can often play NTSC discs, but it is more difficult for users in NTSC countries to view PAL discs.
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