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EspañolDVD REGION CODE
(Redirected from Region 1)
Each DVD-Video disc contains one or more 'region codes', denoting the area(s) of the world in which distribution and playback are intended. The commercial DVD player specification dictates that a player must only play discs that contain its region code. In theory, this allows the motion picture studios to control the various aspects of a release (including content, date and price) region-by-region. In practice, many DVD players allow playback of any disc, or can be modified to do so. Entirely independent of CSS encryption, region coding pertains to regional lockout, which originated in the video game industry.
DVDs sold in the Baltic States use both region 2 and 5 codes. DVDs sold in Japan use the region 2 code and Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan use region 3 code, but region 0 (playable in all regions) is widely used by Mainland China, The Philppines, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. DVDs in Latin American Spanish use both region 1 and 4 codes.
European Region 2 DVDs may be sub-coded "D1" through "D4." "D1" identifies a UK-only release. "D2" and "D3" identify European DVDs that are not sold in the UK and the Republic of Ireland. "D4" identifies DVDs that are distributed throughout Europe.
Any combination of regions can be applied to a single disc. For example, a DVD designated Region 2/4 is suitable for playback in Western Europe, Oceania and any other Region 2 or Region 4 area. A so-called "Region 0" disc (actually coded Region 1/2/3/4/5/6) is meant to be playable worldwide.
The term "Region 0" also describes the DVD players that were designed or modified to incorporate Regions 1–6 simultaneously, thereby providing compatibility with virtually any disc, irrespective of region[s]. This apparent solution was popular in the early days of the DVD format, but studios quickly responded by adjusting discs to refuse to play in such machines. This system is known as "Regional Coding Enhancement".[1]
Also known as just 'RCE' or 'REA'. This was a retroactive attempt to prevent the playing of one region's discs in another region, even if the disc was played in a region free player. In practice, the scheme was only ever deployed on a handful of discs. The disc contained the main programme material region coded as region 1. But it also contained a short video loop of a map of the world showing the regions, which was coded as region 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. The idea was that when the disc was played in a non-region 1 player, the player would default to playing the material for its native region. This played the map which it was impossible to escape from, as the user controls were disabled.
However, the designers of the scheme failed to fully understand the mechanism by which region free players worked, and thus a workaround was quickly found. A region-free player tries to play a disc using the last region that worked with the previously inserted disc. If it can't play the disc, then it tries another region until one is found that works. RCE could thus be defeated by briefly playing a 'normal' region 1 disc, and then inserting the RCE protected region 1 disc, which would now play. RCE did cause a few problems with genuine region 1 players.
As of 2007 many "multi-region" DVD players defeat regional lockout and RCE by automatically identifying and matching a disc's region code and/or allowing the user to manually select a particular region.[2][3] Some manufacturers of DVD players now freely supply information on how to disable regional lockout, and on some recent models, it appears to be disabled by default.[4][5]
Region codes were officially implemented to restrict the sale of titles to designated regions, so that, for example, a DVD could be released in the United States before the movie was released to the cinemas in Europe.
However, region code enforcement has been discussed as a possible violation of WTO free trade agreements or competition law.[6] The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has warned that DVD players that enforce region coding may violate the Trade Practices Act.[7][8][9] The government of New Zealand is also considering a similar ruling.[10] This, supposedly, means that all DVD players sold in their territories have to be Region 0.
Region coding was misused when older material was released with full region coding – there being no requirement, per the stated cinema-blockout justification provided, to restrict sales to certain countries. Even DVDs of UK produced television programmes are released in the US coded as Region 1 and in the rest of the world coded as regions 2–5 (Region 6 was always omitted due to fears of mass piracy in China). There are concerns, echoed by organization such as the EU, that region coding was solely an attempt to enforce price differentials.[11]
Usually a configuration flag is set in each player's firmware at the factory. This flag holds the region number that the machine is allowed to play. ''Region-free'' players are DVD players shipped without the ability to enforce regional lockout (usually by means of a chip that ignores any region coding), or without this flag set. For example, in Australia every DVD-playing unit, excluding PC devices, is shipped modified with a region-free chip installed. This was partly a result of a landmark ACCC case in which the High Court of Australia ruled that region lockouts breached fair trade and market competition practices.[12] Such players often have a region-free label.
However, if the player is not region-free, it can often be unlocked with an unlock code entered via the remote control. This code simply allows the user to change the factory-set configuration flag to another region, or to the special region "0". Once unlocked this way, the DVD player allows the owner to watch DVDs from any region. Many websites exist on the Internet offering these codes, often known informally as ''hacks''; see the 'External Links' section for a selection.
Older DVD drives use RPC-1 firmware, which means the drive allows DVDs from any region to play. Newer drives use RPC-2 firmware, which enforces the DVD region coding at the hardware level. These drives can often be reflashed with hacked RPC-1 firmware, effectively making the drive region-free. However, this usually voids the warranty and can render the drive inoperable if something goes wrong.[13]
Some software can circumvent this protection by using special techniques.[14] See next section.
Most freeware and open source DVD players, such as VLC media player, ignore region coding. On the other hand, most commercial players, such as PowerDVD and WinDVD, are locked to a region code, but can be easily changed with software such as DVD Genie.
Other software, known as DVD region killers, transparently remove (or hide) the DVD region code from the software player. Some, such as AnyDVD, can also work around locked RPC-2 firmware.
DVD discs do not enforce their region codes — they rely on the player to do that. Region codes can thus be removed from the DVD by burning a copy that adds flags for all region codes, effectively creating an all-region DVD. DVD backup software such as DVD Decrypter is used for this, and can usually remove Macrovision, Content Scrambling System (CSS) and disabled user operations (UOPs) as well.
1. Regional Coding Enhancement DVDtalk, 'October 3, 2000 ... Regional Code Enhancement affirms Columbia’s commitment to support regional coding'
2. RCE/REA Info
3. Regional Code Enhancement
4. Cheap DVD players come at a cost
5. The DVD doctors
6. Openlaw DVD FAQ
7. Restricting DVD's illegal: ACCC ''The Australian IT''. March 27, 2001. Retrieved May 11, 2006
8. Consumers in dark about DVD imports: ACCC
9. Difficulties between the pro-competitive community and Intellectual Property (note: open one of the attachments and search for "RPC" to find the relevant section)
10. http://www.med.govt.nz/templates/ContentTopicSummary____1103.aspx
11. Keeping Downward Pressure on Consumer Prices - EU Press Release
12. http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/sinodisp/au/cases/cth/HCA/2005/58.html
13. Doom9 on RPC1
14. http://forum.rpc1.org/portal.php
★ DVD player
★ DVD Copy Control Association
★ Regional lockout
★ Blu-ray Region codes
★ Broadcast television systems (NTSC, PAL, etc.)
DVD Regions
Each DVD-Video disc contains one or more 'region codes', denoting the area(s) of the world in which distribution and playback are intended. The commercial DVD player specification dictates that a player must only play discs that contain its region code. In theory, this allows the motion picture studios to control the various aspects of a release (including content, date and price) region-by-region. In practice, many DVD players allow playback of any disc, or can be modified to do so. Entirely independent of CSS encryption, region coding pertains to regional lockout, which originated in the video game industry.
| Contents |
| Region codes and countries |
| Region Code Enhanced |
| Legal concerns |
| Implementations of region codes |
| Standalone DVD players |
| Computer DVD drives |
| Software DVD players |
| DVD Discs |
| References |
| See also |
Region codes and countries
Typically, a DVD's outer packaging bears a symbol indicating its region code
DVDs sold in the Baltic States use both region 2 and 5 codes. DVDs sold in Japan use the region 2 code and Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan use region 3 code, but region 0 (playable in all regions) is widely used by Mainland China, The Philppines, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. DVDs in Latin American Spanish use both region 1 and 4 codes.
European Region 2 DVDs may be sub-coded "D1" through "D4." "D1" identifies a UK-only release. "D2" and "D3" identify European DVDs that are not sold in the UK and the Republic of Ireland. "D4" identifies DVDs that are distributed throughout Europe.
Any combination of regions can be applied to a single disc. For example, a DVD designated Region 2/4 is suitable for playback in Western Europe, Oceania and any other Region 2 or Region 4 area. A so-called "Region 0" disc (actually coded Region 1/2/3/4/5/6) is meant to be playable worldwide.
The term "Region 0" also describes the DVD players that were designed or modified to incorporate Regions 1–6 simultaneously, thereby providing compatibility with virtually any disc, irrespective of region[s]. This apparent solution was popular in the early days of the DVD format, but studios quickly responded by adjusting discs to refuse to play in such machines. This system is known as "Regional Coding Enhancement".[1]
Region Code Enhanced
Also known as just 'RCE' or 'REA'. This was a retroactive attempt to prevent the playing of one region's discs in another region, even if the disc was played in a region free player. In practice, the scheme was only ever deployed on a handful of discs. The disc contained the main programme material region coded as region 1. But it also contained a short video loop of a map of the world showing the regions, which was coded as region 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. The idea was that when the disc was played in a non-region 1 player, the player would default to playing the material for its native region. This played the map which it was impossible to escape from, as the user controls were disabled.
However, the designers of the scheme failed to fully understand the mechanism by which region free players worked, and thus a workaround was quickly found. A region-free player tries to play a disc using the last region that worked with the previously inserted disc. If it can't play the disc, then it tries another region until one is found that works. RCE could thus be defeated by briefly playing a 'normal' region 1 disc, and then inserting the RCE protected region 1 disc, which would now play. RCE did cause a few problems with genuine region 1 players.
As of 2007 many "multi-region" DVD players defeat regional lockout and RCE by automatically identifying and matching a disc's region code and/or allowing the user to manually select a particular region.[2][3] Some manufacturers of DVD players now freely supply information on how to disable regional lockout, and on some recent models, it appears to be disabled by default.[4][5]
Legal concerns
Region codes were officially implemented to restrict the sale of titles to designated regions, so that, for example, a DVD could be released in the United States before the movie was released to the cinemas in Europe.
However, region code enforcement has been discussed as a possible violation of WTO free trade agreements or competition law.[6] The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has warned that DVD players that enforce region coding may violate the Trade Practices Act.[7][8][9] The government of New Zealand is also considering a similar ruling.[10] This, supposedly, means that all DVD players sold in their territories have to be Region 0.
Region coding was misused when older material was released with full region coding – there being no requirement, per the stated cinema-blockout justification provided, to restrict sales to certain countries. Even DVDs of UK produced television programmes are released in the US coded as Region 1 and in the rest of the world coded as regions 2–5 (Region 6 was always omitted due to fears of mass piracy in China). There are concerns, echoed by organization such as the EU, that region coding was solely an attempt to enforce price differentials.[11]
Implementations of region codes
Standalone DVD players
Usually a configuration flag is set in each player's firmware at the factory. This flag holds the region number that the machine is allowed to play. ''Region-free'' players are DVD players shipped without the ability to enforce regional lockout (usually by means of a chip that ignores any region coding), or without this flag set. For example, in Australia every DVD-playing unit, excluding PC devices, is shipped modified with a region-free chip installed. This was partly a result of a landmark ACCC case in which the High Court of Australia ruled that region lockouts breached fair trade and market competition practices.[12] Such players often have a region-free label.
However, if the player is not region-free, it can often be unlocked with an unlock code entered via the remote control. This code simply allows the user to change the factory-set configuration flag to another region, or to the special region "0". Once unlocked this way, the DVD player allows the owner to watch DVDs from any region. Many websites exist on the Internet offering these codes, often known informally as ''hacks''; see the 'External Links' section for a selection.
Computer DVD drives
Older DVD drives use RPC-1 firmware, which means the drive allows DVDs from any region to play. Newer drives use RPC-2 firmware, which enforces the DVD region coding at the hardware level. These drives can often be reflashed with hacked RPC-1 firmware, effectively making the drive region-free. However, this usually voids the warranty and can render the drive inoperable if something goes wrong.[13]
Some software can circumvent this protection by using special techniques.[14] See next section.
Software DVD players
Most freeware and open source DVD players, such as VLC media player, ignore region coding. On the other hand, most commercial players, such as PowerDVD and WinDVD, are locked to a region code, but can be easily changed with software such as DVD Genie.
Other software, known as DVD region killers, transparently remove (or hide) the DVD region code from the software player. Some, such as AnyDVD, can also work around locked RPC-2 firmware.
DVD Discs
DVD discs do not enforce their region codes — they rely on the player to do that. Region codes can thus be removed from the DVD by burning a copy that adds flags for all region codes, effectively creating an all-region DVD. DVD backup software such as DVD Decrypter is used for this, and can usually remove Macrovision, Content Scrambling System (CSS) and disabled user operations (UOPs) as well.
References
1. Regional Coding Enhancement DVDtalk, 'October 3, 2000 ... Regional Code Enhancement affirms Columbia’s commitment to support regional coding'
2. RCE/REA Info
3. Regional Code Enhancement
4. Cheap DVD players come at a cost
5. The DVD doctors
6. Openlaw DVD FAQ
7. Restricting DVD's illegal: ACCC ''The Australian IT''. March 27, 2001. Retrieved May 11, 2006
8. Consumers in dark about DVD imports: ACCC
9. Difficulties between the pro-competitive community and Intellectual Property (note: open one of the attachments and search for "RPC" to find the relevant section)
10. http://www.med.govt.nz/templates/ContentTopicSummary____1103.aspx
11. Keeping Downward Pressure on Consumer Prices - EU Press Release
12. http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/sinodisp/au/cases/cth/HCA/2005/58.html
13. Doom9 on RPC1
14. http://forum.rpc1.org/portal.php
See also
★ DVD player
★ DVD Copy Control Association
★ Regional lockout
★ Blu-ray Region codes
★ Broadcast television systems (NTSC, PAL, etc.)
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