Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/04/24

[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]

Subject: [Leica] DVD region codes (was Ansel Adams on PBS TV)
From: Joseph Yao <joseph@yao.com>
Date: Wed, 24 Apr 2002 18:47:31 +0800

Frank,

In an ideal world, there would be the case.  However, here's the reality:

Both the software and the hardware are regionalised, and there are six
regions globally.  For example, US/Canada = Region 1, Hong Kong = Region 3
and China = Region 6.  In theory only a Region 1 disc can be played by a
Region 1 player and vice versa.  The reasons for this are:

1. To protect the film industry: most Hollywood productions are released in
the US first, and it would be bad news for the overseas film markets if the
DVD of a movie is released in the US before the same film is released for
cinema viewing in say, Hong Kong.  We would just buy/copy a US-sourced DVD
and forget about going to the cinema.

2. To prevent grey market DVD players flooding certain markets.  Due to the
low price of these players in the Far East, it would be bad news for, say,
the US importers of the same models which are often sold at much higher
prices.

The whole idea is to ensure DVDs for a given market stay in the same region,
both hardware and software.  In practice, this is not the case and I will
explain later.

I have a US-made DVD disc in front of me and on the back of the packaging it
says 'Region 1, for sale in the US only' at the bottom.  In theory this disc
can only be played by a Region 1 player.

Soon after the DVD system was launched, it soon became clear that this
protection policy would not work.  In HK at least, every retailer of DVD
players has offered an 'upgrade' from day one to enable the players play all
discs from all regions.  In the beginning this involved messing around with
the circuit board and this was an expensive modification.  With the second
generation players, this involved cutting a few wires or flicking a few
micro switches inside the players.  With the next wave of players the
modification became a firmware upgrade - new software was downloaded to the
player and this took minutes without the need to open up the machine.  The
latest players are now even simpler to modify - this involves pressing a
combination of buttons on the front panel in a given order and this is of
course unofficial, but is every player is so re-programmed at the point of
sale.  This is such common practice that not many recall the DVD system is
supposed to be regionalised.

You are right that DVD discs contain data in the form of '0' and '1's, but
in addition to video information, they also contain a region code.  The
discs are therefore not universal.  The re-programmed players are programmed
to ignore the region code.

Ever since Hong Kong (Region 3), a former British Colony, went back to
Chinese rule in 1997, it is now part of China (Region 6), it would be silly
to have two region codes in one country.  And it is.  With non-pirated DVDs
costing a few dollars only across the boarder on the Chinese mainland, the
demand for re-programming players has been very strong.  It has now reached
the point almost all players sold in HK are all-region players.

As to the TV systems, you are right that there are two main systems: NTSC
and PAL.  Most players sold here are also multi system players and can be
connected to most TVs.  This is independent from the DVD region system.

My family business is the main agent for Matsushita Electrics for the
Chinese market and we sell thousands of DVD players a month so I like to
think I understand a little regarding this data format.  When time permits I
will send you a Region 3 (Hong Kong) DVD to you and please let me know if it
will play on your Region 1 (US) player.

Best regards,

Joseph


on 23/4/02 11:04 pm, Frank Filippone at red735i@earthlink.net wrote:

> DVD are only data disks.  The final TV Format is built into the player.  You
> should be able to buy a DVD in the USA and show it in France, on a French
> ( SECAM) DVD player... take that same DVD and bring it to Britain and see it
> in PAL, ditto that same disk to Japan, etc.
> 
> The players are TV Format specific, the disks are universal.  Or are
> SUPPOSED to be.....
> 
> Frank
> 
> 
> --
> To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html

- --
To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html