DVD's are encoded for six different regions around the world. Hollywood's film studios have been alarmed when DVD started to take off. An encoding principle was introduced, to prevent discs of the latest movies being played in countries where the particular movies have not been brought out at this time.
A digital flag on the disc tells the DVD player where the DVD comes from. The DVD player should play only the permitted DVDs for the region where the DVD player was bought.
This priciple is not acceptable for professional and AV installations and a lot of interregional players are available already.
| Region 0: |
Plays on any DVD player |
| Region 1: |
USA |
| Region 2: |
Europe and Japan |
| Region 3: |
Asian Pacific |
| Region 4: |
Australia, New Zealand and Latin America |
| Region 5: |
Africa, Russia and Eastern Europe |
| Region 6: |
China and Hong Kong |
| Region 7: |
Reserved for broadcasting |
| Region 8: |
Special international venues (airplanes, cruise ships, etc.) |
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