Is region coding on its last legs?

[Joe Tully]

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

American film studios are rapidly learning what computer software makers found out long ago: people will always find a way to get around almost any systems put in place to restrict the copying or distributing of digital products

Digital Versatile Discs (DVDs) can store digital copies of films, and a great deal of time and money has been spent trying to devise a way to ensure their use can be controlled. A key part of this is the Region Coding system, which is designed to stop European film buffs buying DVDs in America.


Cheat codes came to light in video games

This is now on the point of being abandoned because so many DVD manufacturers have deliberately undermined the system.

The attraction of buying DVDs on the other side of the Atlantic is clear: not only are they usually considerably cheaper, but more importantly films are available on DVD in America up to a year before they appear on disc in Europe, and often before they have even been released in the cinema here.

The Region Coding system works by dividing the world into six regions, with the United States in Region One and the UK in Region Two. DVD players sold in any region can only play DVDs from the same region, so a film bought on DVD in the USA (Region One) won't play on a DVD player bought in the UK (Region Two).


The world in DVD regions

Region One: US, Canada

Region Two: Europe, Japan, South Africa, Middle East

Region Three: Southeast Asia, East Asia

Region Four: Australia, New Zealand, Central and South America

Region Five: Eastern Europe, Indian subcontinent, Africa

Region Six: China




That's the theory anyway. But many DVD player manufacturers have borrowed the concept of "cheat codes" from the video games industry to enable retailers or buyers to alter their machines to play DVDs from any region, rendering Region Coding completely ineffective.

DVD manufacturers' cheat codes are made up of combinations of button presses on the machine's remote control. When entered correctly, users are presented with a "secret" menu inviting them to reset the DVD player to "multi-region" - to play discs from all regions.

How are these cheat codes distributed? Although the manufacturers don't print them in their instruction manuals, they are made available directly or indirectly to retailers who often include the cheat codes on a photocopied slip of paper in the packaging, or publish them on the Internet.

Endre Lock, UK sales manager of CyberHome, a German company selling DVD players which can easily be turned into multi-region players, says the firm does not officially acknowledge its players are multi-region for legal reasons.
Homer Simpson: A controversial advocate of DVD hacking


"We don't ship them as multi-region any more because we got into trouble. When you buy one of our DVD players now it is set to the right region for the country it is sold in," he says.

"If you find codes to make it multi-regional then good luck to you - it's not our responsibility. You can find codes for more or less all brands of DVD player including ours."

When asked where codes for CyberHome products can be found he cited a website where they are available.

CyberHome is by no means unusual - the evidence is that the sale of multi-region-capable DVD players in the UK is extremely widespread, according to Graham Sharpless, a member of the UK DVD Committee, a trade association for the video publishing industry within the UK.

"In practice, most if not all DVD players sold in the UK can be made to play discs from other regions and many, perhaps most, do," he says. "This does not mean that manufacturers are shipping players that are multi-region, but that they can be modified by retailers, or can be made multi-region by the user."
Lord of the Rings has been UK's fastest selling DVD


Although Region Coding was a key plank in the film companies' strategy to maintain control of their products when released on DVD, industry sources suggest they are already admitting defeat, and a new system is emerging called Regional Code Enhancement.

This system adds another layer of security to select Region One discs - preventing them from being played on region-free DVD players.

But a more likely scenario is that Region Coding will be abandoned altogether, Mr Sharpless hinted.

"The whole issue of region coding is now somewhat irrelevant as the release windows in USA and Europe are getting closer," he says. If this happens then DVD owners will finally be able to buy films whenever and wherever they choose.


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Some of your comments so far:

Another point that has not been mentioned is that movie buffs often buy Region 1 discs because they do not suffer from the censorship so prevalent in the UK releases. A recent example is Episode II - Attack of the Clones -- The BBFC has cut a headbutt from the UK version, so many people will prefer to buy the uncut US version.
Matthew Harffy, England

I have the opposite problem. I want to play region 2 DVDs in the USA. I am sure England games will never be available as region 1, so why even put a region on these DVDs?
John, USA

Here in Australia, it is illegal to sell Region locked DVD players, as it breaks the Fair Trading practicies Act of 1984, though some manufactures are yet to comply.
Jansen brown, Australia

While many hardware DVD players have codes, this is sadly not true of PC DVD-ROMs and software DVD players. RPC-2 DVD-ROMs do the region checking in the DVD hardware and require a firmware hack to "fix". If possible at all, such changes risk damaging or destroying the drive.
Craig Ringer, Australia

Your article does not mention that many DVD players are sold as multi-region, labelled as "universal". There are £99 players out there such as Alba that play discs from any region without any codes at all.
Nathan, UK

RCE stops any DVD player that is set to play all regions from playing a DVD from a specific region. There is an easy way round this, instead of turning you DVD into multi region (Region Zero) you simply set it to be specifically Region One.
William Adams, UK


When the European Union Copyright Directive (EUCD) is incorportated into UK law in the next few months, many of the DVD hacking activities described in the article will become criminal offences. You might be OK keying the codes into your own DVD player, but tell other folks how to do it and you could be in big trouble.
Richard Simpson, UK

The really annoying thing for me is that region 2 discs sold here in Germany are cheaper than in UK but often have permanent German language subtitles on the English soundtrack. Hollywood will have its revenge!
Al, Germany (ex-UK)

I see nothing wrong with DVD hacking. Indeed, my cheap DVD player has a secret menu that even disables the "Macrovision" copy protection - allowing me to pipe my DVD source around the house and/or onto tape without the copy protection scrambling the signal!
Steve England, UK

Unlike the mp3 issue, where people are effectively stealing copyrighted material, a person buying a region 1 DVD in the UK is still paying the company that produced it. Therefore, region coding is simply a transparently obvious attempt to ensure that consumers outside the USA are forced to pay higher prices.
Steve, UK

Your portrayal of multi-region DVD players is a little innacurrate. The facility to change the region is simply put into the players at the factory stage in order for the manufacturer to have a single manufacturing process for players sold in all six DVD regions. The remote 'hacking' is simply a way for the engineers to regionalise the players prior to selling.
Keith Farmer, England

[Algernon]

I could care less about region coding. I pretty easy to defeat. I just wish there wasn't a difference in PAL and NTSC formats. Thats something a little harder to defeat. And even when you do get pass the PAL/NTSC conversion hurdle, you still have to accept the various pitch differences in the different sources.

[Calhoun07]

Well, as some of you may know already, I bought my multi region player and am very happy with it.

Region coding makes sense to me if it's only used for movies before they come out in other countries. Not much sense, but it does make sense. What dumbfounds me is when they region code DVDs of material already seen in other countries. Like why region code a DVD of a movie or a TV show from 1984, that's been seen by it's fans in all countries anyway? What's the point? I am all for doing away with region coding, and I had no idea there was a Fair Trading Act that actually made region locked DVD players illegal. Is that Australia only or is it world wide?

[HellCat]

Originally posted by Joe Tully
Although Region Coding was a key plank in the film companies' strategy to maintain control of their products when released on DVD, industry sources suggest they are already admitting defeat, and a new system is emerging called Regional Code Enhancement.

This system adds another layer of security to select Region One discs - preventing them from being played on region-free DVD players.

I do not like the sound of that. As I mentioned in another post, I just made my player Region-free so I can order the US Gundam releases since they won't be released here in the UK. If they start using this system, I'll never get to see all the series

[Joe Wagner]

Originally posted by Calhoun07
I am all for doing away with region coding, and I had no idea there was a Fair Trading Act that actually made region locked DVD players illegal. Is that Australia only or is it world wide?

If I remember correctly I think the law they are talking about was solely for Australia. There has been talk of bringing this type of law to the states but as of right now Hollywood has a lot of money tied up in not allowing the consumer a choice in the product they pick up.

I recently converted my player to a region free one and have to admit that I like the freedom that comes with it - not only does the potential for watching movies and tv shows increases but it also gives me the chance to see stuff that could take years to make it to the US. Shows like Dark Angel and Futurama have already been released overseas and who knows when Fox will decide to release Dark Angel in America. Either way - I think it would be a good movie on the part of movie execs to get rid of the region coding and open up their mass libraries to everyone - however, seeing as how it may benefit the consumer I think more execs will opt for the advanced region coding feature.

-Joe!

[Y3k-Bug]

Originally posted by Calhoun07
What dumbfounds me is when they region code DVDs of material already seen in other countries. Like why region code a DVD of a movie or a TV show from 1984, that's been seen by it's fans in all countries anyway? What's the point? I am all for doing away with region coding, and I had no idea there was a Fair Trading Act that actually made region locked DVD players illegal. Is that Australia only or is it world wide?

Because when that movie from 1984 that was released in China is released in the U.S. in 2002, more often then not it's being published by a different company. So if you could easily get the movie's '84 edition, why bother waiting on the release of its 2002 counterpart? Hence, the U.S. studio loses money.