Playing a foreign DVD, region coding

Region coding and PAL / NTSC picture standards can be confusing. I hope this guide will help you understand their relevence to you.Region codes are designed to limit the areas of the world in which DVDs can be played:REGION 1 -- USA, CanadaREGION 2 -- Japan, Europe, South Africa, Middle East, GreenlandREGION 3 -- S.Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Parts of South East AsiaREGION 4 -- Australia, New Zealand, Latin America (including Mexico)REGION 5 -- Eastern Europe, Russia, India, AfricaREGION 6 -- ChinaREGION 7 -- Reserved for Unspecified Special UseREGION 8 -- Cruise Ships, Airlines, etc.REGION 0 or REGION ALL -- Discs are uncoded and can be played Worldwide, however, PAL discs must be played in a PAL-compatible unit and NTSC discs must be played in an NTSC-compatible unit.Why region coding?Why, when we could have had an international format such as CD audio, do DVDs have region coding to limit the regions of the world in which they can be played? Film companies claim it is to fit in with their worldwide staged release schedule for films. It costs a lot of money to produce the films for cinemas, so the films are usually produced and released in America first, then the same copies are distributed around the world. This means an American DVD release can sometimes occur when the film is just being released in the cinemas here, or not long after it has been released. They claimed region coding was necessary to preserve these markets. However, the more cynical among us think that if this was the only reason all 'old' releases would be in region 0 or All Region format - very few are! The real reason is probably more to do with preserving a varying price structure across the world, with those of us in the UK suffering higher retail prices - as usual.What can be done to get round this coding system?Purchase a multiregion player. Players sold inHigh Street stores in the UK are usually set to region 2 but, in most cases,can bemade 'region free' or 'multiregion' by typing in codes from your remote control.Use Google to search for 'multiregion hack' together with the make and model number of your player. You're most likely to be able to do this with 'unknown' or cheaper brands. Premium brandssuch as Sony, Panasonic, Pioneer

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