1.10 What are "regional codes," "country codes," or "zone locks"?
Description
This article is from the DVD Formats FAQ, by jtfrog@usa.net (Jim Taylor) with numerous contributions by others.
1.10 What are "regional codes," "country codes," or "zone locks"?
Motion picture studios want to control the home release of movies in
different countries because theater releases aren't simultaneous (a movie
may come out on video in the U.S. when it's just hitting screens in
Europe). Also, studios sell distribution rights to different foreign
distributors and would like to guarantee an exclusive market. Therefore
they have required that the DVD standard include codes that can be used to
prevent playback of certain discs in certain geographical regions. Each
player is given a code for the region in which it's sold. The player will
refuse to play discs that are not allowed in that region. This means that
discs bought in one country may not play on players bought in another
country. Some people believe that region codes could be considered an
illegal restraint of trade, but there have been no legal cases to establish
this.
Regional codes are entirely optional for the maker of a disc. Discs without
codes will play on any player in any country. It's not an encryption
system, it's just one byte of information on the disc that the player
checks. Some studios originally announced that only their new releases will
have regional codes, but so far almost all releases play in only one
region. Region codes are a permanent part of the disc, they won't "unlock"
after a period of time.
There are 8 regions (also called "locales"). Players and discs are
identified by the region number superimposed on a world globe. If a disc
plays in more than one region it will have more than one number on the
globe.
1: U.S., Canada, U.S. Territories
2: Japan, Europe, South Africa, Middle East (including Egypt)
3: Southeast Asia, East Asia (including Hong Kong)
4: Australia, New Zealand, Pacific Islands, Central America, Mexico, South
America, Caribbean
5: Eastern Europe (Former Soviet Union), Indian Subcontinent, Africa (also
North Korea, Mongolia)
6: China
7: Reserved
8: Special international venues (airplanes, cruise ships, etc.)
(See the map at <http://www.unik.no/~robert/hifi/dvd/world.html>.)
Some players can be modified to play discs regardless of their regional
codes. This usually voids the warranty, but is probably not illegal. Some
discs, such as those from Buena Vista/Touchstone/Miramax, MGM/Universal,
and Polygram contain program code that checks for the proper region. These
"smart discs" won't play on code-free players that have their region set to
0, but they can be played on code-switchable players that allow you to
change the region using the remote control. They may also not work on
auto-switching players that recognize and match the disc region.
Information about modifying players can be found on the Internet (at sites
such as Code Free DVD, PlanetDVD, Techtronics, Upgrade Heaven, and
<http://www.brouhaha.com/~eric/video/dvd/>) and in the rec.video.dvd
newsgroups (searchable at Deja.com).
Regional codes also apply to DVD-ROM systems, but are allowed for use only
with DVD-Video discs, not DVD-ROM discs containing computer software. (See
1.11 below for more details). Computer playback systems check for regional
codes before playing movies from a DVD-Video. Newer "RPC2" DVD-ROM drives
let you change the region code several times. Once a drive has reached the
limit (usually 5 changes) it can't be changed again unless the vendor or
manufacturer resets it. The Drive Info utility can tell you if you have an
RPC2 drive (it will say "This drive has region protection"). Drive Info and
information about circumventing DVD-ROM region restrictions is available
from Internet sites such as Visual Domain and DVD Infomatrix. After
December 31, 1999, only RPC Phase II drives will be manufactured.
Regional codes do not apply to DVD-Audio.
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