Post by Alan on Mar 9, 2007 8:58:33 GMT
Regional Coding is used by companies to restrict the playback of titles in a different region. For example a Region 1 DVD, is not able to be played in a standard Region 2 DVD player.
There are methods to unlock players to make them "multi-region". Which basically means you can play Titles from ALL regions in one player, no matter what the default region was. This normally would void the warranty of the player though.
(note: we don't provide these unlock methods here.)
Standard DVD's:
Region 1: USA, Canada, US Territories.
Region 2: Europe, Japan, The Middle East, Egypt, South Africa, Greenland.
Region 3: Taiwan, Korea, The Philippines, Indonesia, Hong Kong.
Region 4: Australia, New Zealand, Pacific Islands, Mexico, South America, Carribbean, Central America.
Region 5: Russia, Eastern Europe, India, Africa, North Korea.
Region 6: China.
Region 0: Can be played in all players.
There are 10 Region codes in total, but the ones listed above are the main ones used with the general public.
How to tell the region code:
The region code is normally displayed on the back of the case.
HD-DVD:
Currently there is no Region Coding on existing HD DVD's, and since some current HD DVD studios are opposed to this it is unlikely for it to ever be added. We will Update this, if this situation changes.
Blu-Ray:
Blu-ray region codes are different from that of DVD region codes. The following are the region codes for Blu-ray discs.
A(1): North America, Central America, South America, Koreas, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia.
B(2): Europe, Greenland, French territories, Middle East, Africa, Australia and New Zealand.
C(3): India, Nepal, Mainland China, Russia, Central and South Asia.
Video Games
In the video game industry, Nintendo was the originator of regional lockout for video games. Regional lockout in video games is when a piece of hardware is designed such that only software for that region is compatible. Most video games have region encoding.
The main regions are:
NTSC-J - Japan and Asia.
NTSC - North America and other NTSC territories.
PAL/SECAM - Europe, Australia and PAL/SECAM territories.
The Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS do not have regional lockout. Because of this, import games can be played on those systems. In other words, a Japanese game would work on an UK system, although the game would likely not be in the user's native language and might be different from the product as released in other countries.
The PSP does have partial regional lockout, and uses the same regions as DVD. The lockout is only used for UMD movies and not for games, although Sony has hinted it is up to the developers if they want to include region protection in their games.
PlayStation 3 games have no region lockout at present, but developers have the option to include this in the future. However the PlayStation 3 does have regional coding for Blu-Ray and DVD movies, this will depend on the region the console if from.
example:
UK PS3 - Region B Blu-Ray, Region 2 PAL DVD.
US PS3 - Region A Blu-Ray, Region 2 NTSC DVD.
Jap PS3 - Region A Blu-Ray, Region 1 DVD
We would advise you check the system to see if there is a regional lockout on it.
Systems including Sony Playstation 2, xbox/xbox 360, and Nintendo's Wii/Gamecube have the lockout by default, although there are ways of "modding" them to take away this lockout.
(note: some xbox 360 titles are "region free")
There are methods to unlock players to make them "multi-region". Which basically means you can play Titles from ALL regions in one player, no matter what the default region was. This normally would void the warranty of the player though.
(note: we don't provide these unlock methods here.)
Standard DVD's:
Region 1: USA, Canada, US Territories.
Region 2: Europe, Japan, The Middle East, Egypt, South Africa, Greenland.
Region 3: Taiwan, Korea, The Philippines, Indonesia, Hong Kong.
Region 4: Australia, New Zealand, Pacific Islands, Mexico, South America, Carribbean, Central America.
Region 5: Russia, Eastern Europe, India, Africa, North Korea.
Region 6: China.
Region 0: Can be played in all players.
There are 10 Region codes in total, but the ones listed above are the main ones used with the general public.
How to tell the region code:
The region code is normally displayed on the back of the case.
HD-DVD:
Currently there is no Region Coding on existing HD DVD's, and since some current HD DVD studios are opposed to this it is unlikely for it to ever be added. We will Update this, if this situation changes.
Blu-Ray:
Blu-ray region codes are different from that of DVD region codes. The following are the region codes for Blu-ray discs.
A(1): North America, Central America, South America, Koreas, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia.
B(2): Europe, Greenland, French territories, Middle East, Africa, Australia and New Zealand.
C(3): India, Nepal, Mainland China, Russia, Central and South Asia.
Video Games
In the video game industry, Nintendo was the originator of regional lockout for video games. Regional lockout in video games is when a piece of hardware is designed such that only software for that region is compatible. Most video games have region encoding.
The main regions are:
NTSC-J - Japan and Asia.
NTSC - North America and other NTSC territories.
PAL/SECAM - Europe, Australia and PAL/SECAM territories.
The Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS do not have regional lockout. Because of this, import games can be played on those systems. In other words, a Japanese game would work on an UK system, although the game would likely not be in the user's native language and might be different from the product as released in other countries.
The PSP does have partial regional lockout, and uses the same regions as DVD. The lockout is only used for UMD movies and not for games, although Sony has hinted it is up to the developers if they want to include region protection in their games.
PlayStation 3 games have no region lockout at present, but developers have the option to include this in the future. However the PlayStation 3 does have regional coding for Blu-Ray and DVD movies, this will depend on the region the console if from.
example:
UK PS3 - Region B Blu-Ray, Region 2 PAL DVD.
US PS3 - Region A Blu-Ray, Region 2 NTSC DVD.
Jap PS3 - Region A Blu-Ray, Region 1 DVD
We would advise you check the system to see if there is a regional lockout on it.
Systems including Sony Playstation 2, xbox/xbox 360, and Nintendo's Wii/Gamecube have the lockout by default, although there are ways of "modding" them to take away this lockout.
(note: some xbox 360 titles are "region free")