why do they build 'region' dvd players?

[Guest ariceffron]

??- why isnt there just a standard dvd. why are there 6 different 'regions' -- whats the advantage of this, (from a big bussiness standpoint, etc..)

[Claude]

Here's an article on this:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/sci_te...ife/2197548.stm

At the beginning, region coding was introduced to prevent non-US residents (Europe, Asia, Australia) to buy US DVDs with Hollywood movies that are still being shown in their local cinemas. The US are always a couple of weeks or months ahead of the rest of the world, as far as DVD releases of new movies is concerned.The studios wanted to be able to implement the chronological film marketing chain (cinema, then DVD, then Pay TV/DVD rental, finally free TV) independently on every continent, without interference due to parallel imports of DVD.

But quickly the region code system was being abused to divide the world market for all sorts of DVDs, including music DVDs and old films, where the above reasoning does not apply.

DVD player makers are obliged by the DVD license to implement region codes. But no law prohibits customers or stores to remove that limitation (which is not related to copyprotection). This is very easy to do most of the time (http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks).

Most DVD players that are sold here have the region coding removed, either by the store or by the owner. Many of my jazz DVDs are Region 1 (US) discs (and no european version available), that I couldn't play if my DVD player worked like the movie industry intended.

Edited October 21, 2004 by Claude

[brownie]

There was the same problem with videocorders. US having its own NSTC standard while most of the rest of the world used the PAL standard. Which meant that videotapes from one system could not be played on videocorders using the other system with the exception of some compatible models.

[mikeweil]

As Claude said, most newer DVD players can handle any regional code, or you can have them upgraded - requires exchange of some chip or so. When I bought mine last year they could do this for EURO 25,00 - I had to wait for less than ten minutes!

[mikeweil]

That comment from the site Claude linked (thanks!) hits the point:

There is yet another point to be made: money. You can't sell DVDs at the same price point in Europe and, say, India. The Indian market simply can't afford it in meaningful quantities. So DVDs in poor country are sold cheaper, with a lesser profit margin. But the system crashes if people from rich country decide the Indian version is good enough for them.

F Hugot, France

Again, money. It is true - e.g. on German ebay Korean DVDs are sold that are virtually identical to their expensive US counterparts.

[Claude]

When I bought mine last year they could do this for EURO 25,00 - I had to wait for less than ten minutes!

The technician (or the sales guy himself) probably only had to push a couple of buttons on a programmable remote control to do this. Many current players do not need to be opened to remove the region limitation.

The makers of DVD players are obliged to implement the region code, but in fact they have no interest in making the removal too difficult, because a player with non-removable region limitation doesn't sell well here.

Edited October 21, 2004 by Claude

[Claude]

That comment from the site Claude linked (thanks!) hits the point:

There is yet another point to be made: money. You can't sell DVDs at the same price point in Europe and, say, India. The Indian market simply can't afford it in meaningful quantities. So DVDs in poor country are sold cheaper, with a lesser profit margin. But the system crashes if people from rich country decide the Indian version is good enough for them.

F Hugot, France

Again, money. It is true - e.g. on German ebay Korean DVDs are sold that are virtually identical to their expensive US counterparts.

In order to implement price discrimination (selling cheaper in poor countries), the DVD industry does not need region codes, because most countries have laws that only allow for national exhaustion of intellectual property laws.

This means that only the rightholder of the copyright or trademark (DVDs are protected by both) has the right to put the goods on the different national or regional (in case of the EU) markets, at the price he chooses. Levis jeans for example are much cheaper in the US than in Europe. If a european retail store would like to import his jeans himself directly from the US instead of paying more to the official european importer, he can be stopped by Levis, because this is against trademark law. These parallel imports are as illegal as counterfeated goods (hard to understand and justify, but that's the law). This does not concern private imports by the consumer himself, for his personal use.

In Germany, there have been regular crackdowns on DVD stores that sell US imports. The media usually present it as being about Region 1 DVDs, but in fact the region code is legally irrelevant. These are imports not authorized by the rightsholder, and they could be stopped even without having a Region Code.

In my country, US import DVDs with brand new Hollywood productions are available even in some supermarkets, but the rightholders (the film studios) aren't doing much to prevent it. The local cinemas complain about the situation, but they can't do anything against it.

As far as I know, in France, there has been an agreement between the film studios and big retail stores which allows the stores to sell US DVDs, but only of movies which are not shown in french cinemas anymore. That's a pragmatic solution.

Edited October 21, 2004 by Claude