What is DVD player regional coding?
Ever wanted to get your hands on the latest movie when it’s released on DVD in the US? Unfortunately, film distribution companies are doing their best to make sure you can’t watch a film until it’s been released over here. DVDs and DVD players use a system of regional coding: the US and Canada are region 1, Europe and Japan region 2, region 3 includes Southeast Asia, region 4 covers Australia, New Zealand and Central and South America, region 5 includes Russia and Africa, and China is region 6. DVDs released in one region won’t usually play in DVD players sold in another, so you won’t be able to play cheap DVDs from the US in a UK-bought DVD player. However, you can get round this. Some players can be ‘hacked’ – usually by typing in a code using the remote control. Various internet sites such as dvdreviewer tell you the codes needed to hack your machine. More often, machines need to be internally modified or ‘chipped’ to play DVDs from other regions. You can buy ready-chipped ‘multi-re
