What are regional codes, country codes, or zone locks?
Motion picture studios want to control the home release of movies in different countries because theater releases aren’t simultaneous (a movie may come out on video in the U.S. when it’s just hitting screens in Europe). Therefore they have required that the DVD standard include codes which can be used to prevent playback of certain discs in certain geographical regions. Players sold in each region will include a built-in code. The player will refuse to play discs which are not allowed in the region. This means that discs bought in one country may not play on players bought in another country. Regional codes are entirely optional. Discs without codes will play on any player in any country. It’s not an encryption system, it’s just one byte of information on the disc that the player checks. Some studios have already announced that only their new releases will have regional codes. Presumably, once a DVD movie has achieved worldwide release it could be re-released without coding. There are
Motion picture studios want to control the home release of movies in different countries because theater releases aren’t simultaneous (a movie may come out on DVD in the U.S. when it’s just hitting screens in Europe). Therefore they have required that the DVD standard include codes which can be used to prevent playback of certain discs in certain geographical regions. Players sold in each region will have that region’s code built into the player. The player will refuse to play discs which are not allowed in the region. This means that discs bought in one country may not play on players bought in another country. Regional codes are entirely optional. Discs without codes will play on any player in any country. It’s not an encryption system, it’s just one byte of information on the disc that the player checks. Some studios have already announced that only their new releases will have regional codes. Presumably, once a DVD movie has achieved worldwide release it could be re-released withou
