Wtf is the point of "Region Coding"

Tommy B

Tommy B

Tommy B

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God Sony **** me off. I've just had the film Click (on Blu-Ray) rented from Lovefilm in the post. I pop it in the drive of my Vaio and up pops a message "mismatch between disc and player region codes."

The laptop BR drive is set to Region 2. The disc Lovefilm sent is supposedly Region 2 (I've emailed them in case it isn't) and now I can't watch the film.

I don't understand the point in it. Is it meant to stop piracy? It should be completely illegal. If I want to go to the US and buy a load of Blu-Ray discs there then I should damn well be allowed to bring them back here and play them without any restrictions.

Sony are right ***** sometimes.

I'd rather go and buy a dodgy copy down the market without protection to be quite honest.
 
Initially the idea of region coding was because of the way films were released around the world.
A film would be released in the US first, then a few months later it would make it to Europe, then out to Asis etc.

Because there was a few months between the various regions releases it meant that in theory you could buy a DVD in the US before a film was released in another territory.
This could seriously harm box office takings - remember the money a film takes from DVD is an awful lot less than in the box office.

However as films quite often get worldwide release dates these days or the time difference is minimal there is a good argument that the region coding is really no longer valid nor should it be a requirement.
The film is released at the same time into the cinema and it makes it onto DVD at the same time around the world too.

Ultimately it is still down to money, however no longer box office Vs DVD takings, rather the fact that all company's know they make a lot more on a Region 2 disk than they do on a Region 1 - especially right now with the current exchange rates etc.

Region coding could be understood in the past - these days it really should be removed.
 
What really baffles me is why DVDs only meant for release in one region are still region locked (instead of set to region 0).

I've got some friends in the US who are big fans of the sitcom Spaced. They'd love to own it on DVD but the series never got a North American release. Since the UK DVDs are locked to region 2, their only option is to download episodes illegally.
 
stoofa said:
This could seriously harm box office takings - remember the money a film takes from DVD is an awful lot less than in the box office.
Click to expand...
That used to be the case, but for the vast majority of films nowadays, that is the complete opposite of the truth. Unless you score a major box office hit, you make far more on DVD sales - part of the reasoning (along with piracy) for shorterning cinema to DVD timescales.
 
Is there an organisation to complain to?

I think a nice e-petition would do good if it picked up a head of steam :)
 
Tunney said:
What really baffles me is why DVDs only meant for release in one region are still region locked (instead of set to region 0).

I've got some friends in the US who are big fans of the sitcom Spaced. They'd love to own it on DVD but the series never got a North American release. Since the UK DVDs are locked to region 2, their only option is to download episodes illegally.
Click to expand...


Very simple, distribution rights, that is what the region code is meant to protect.
As a condition of acquiring the "rights" to a title it's usually stated that the company cannot sell it outside of the region the rights are for, and must take all practical measures to ensure that that condition is upheld.
It's for this reason that even when a distribution company can/does sell direct to the consumer, they will usually only do it for their region (but other retailers will sell it to you).

A company might have the "rights" to release it in say the U.S. but not Japan (i use these examples because the U.S, is much cheaper than Japan and they share the same TV system.
The region code prevents (in theory) the DVD being imported and sold in Japan, at a much lower price than the local release, as by combining the Region code, and TV system you can lock out/include specific regions with relative ease.

It's worth noting that not all DVD's are locked to one region, even if they show the region code as X on the packaging (a large number of Aus disks are 2/4 because it saves a fair amount of money for the likes of Warner to do it that way when they have the rights for both countries).

I've got a number of disks in my collection that are actually R1//2/4, R2/4 or even R0 despite claiming to be R1 or R2.

I personally really dislike region codes as they make my viewing a bit more complicated, but I can understand the reasons behind it (often the people that publish/distribute the content don't have a choice about using the code).
 
Tunney said:
... which are pretty much illegal and unheard of in North America.
Click to expand...

Tell me about it :( The Toshiba DVD player I had in the UK was easy - you just went to PAL/NTSC and selected AUTO....it would then play anything you cared to throw at it. Over here? Unless I'm watching a movie on my PC (where regions are easy to bypass...) it's a major problem. It's a big hassle and pretty expensive to get a multi-region player and none of the regular, off-the-shelf units can be unlocked....from what I can tell.
 
Tunney said:
... which are pretty much illegal and unheard of in North America.
Click to expand...

What sort of stupid law is that :rolleyes:

Never knew that before.

Are you sure it's true?

I can find loads on american shop websites, not just ebay.
 
xolotl said:
Power DVD Ultra + AnyDVDHD = No more region encoding or HDCP.
Click to expand...

Cheers mate that works great. I downloaded the trial of AnyDVDHD and it should work for another 21 days or so. Many thanks.
 
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