DVD region code

DVD region codes are a digital rights management technique designed to allow film distributors to control aspects of a release, including content, release date, and price, according to the region.

This is achieved by way of region-locked DVD players, which will play back only DVDs encoded to their region (plus those without any region code). The American DVD Copy Control Association also requires that DVD player manufacturers incorporate the regional-playback control (RPC) system. However, region-free DVD players, which ignore region coding, are also commercially available, and many DVD players can be modified to be region-free, allowing playback of all discs.

DVDs may use one code, a combination of codes (multi-region), every code (all region) or no codes (region free).

Region codes and countries

DVDs in Hispanophone Latin America and Mexico use both the region 1 and region 4 codes.

DVDs sold in the Baltic states use both region 2 and 5 codes.

Region 0 (playable in all regions except 7 and 8) is widely used by China and the Philippines.

Former Region 8 (Johannesburg)

Region 8 was an administrative district from 2000 to 2006 in the city of Johannesburg, South Africa, located in the historic heart of Johannesburg centrally situated on the north-west axis, and towards the eastern border. Surrounding regions, from the north and proceeding clockwise, were Region 3 (Sandton), Region 7 (Alexandra), Region 9 (Johannesburg South), and Region 4 (Northcliff). The southern boundary is the M2 east-west freeway. This region included the Central Business District of the city. The region was abolished with a reorganisation of regions in 2006.

This region has now been merged with the former region 9 to create the new region F.

References