DVD region code
This apparent solution was popular in the early days of the DVD format, but studios quickly responded by adjusting discs to refuse to play in such machines by implementing a system known as "Regional Coding Enhancement" (RCE).
Most DVDs sold in Mexico and the rest of Latin America carry both region 1 and 4 codes.
This played the aforementioned video loop of a map, which was impossible to escape from, as the user controls were disabled.
[7][8] Computer programs such as DVD Shrink can make copies of region-coded DVDs without RCE restriction.
This practice was historically common because before the advent of digital cinema, releasing a movie at the same time worldwide used to be prohibitively expensive.
Region coding allows movie studios to better control the global release dates of DVDs.
However, the DVD system was originally designed to encode the information necessary to reproduce signals in these formats, and the terms continue to be used (incorrectly) as a method of identifying refresh rates and vertical resolution.
However, an "NTSC", "PAL" or "SECAM" DVD player that has one or more analog composite video output (baseband or modulated) will only produce NTSC, PAL or SECAM signals, respectively, from those outputs, and may only play DVDs identified with the corresponding format.
NTSC is the analog TV format historically associated with the United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Philippines, Taiwan, and other countries.
PAL is the analog color TV format historically associated with most of Europe, most of Africa, China, India, Australia, New Zealand, Israel, North Korea, and other countries (Brazil adopted the variant PAL-M, which uses the refresh rate and resolution commonly associated with NTSC).
Almost all DVD players sold in PAL/SECAM countries are capable of playing both kinds of discs, and most modern PAL TVs can handle the converted signal.
Most computer-based DVD software and hardware can play both NTSC and PAL video and both audio standards.
Once unlocked this way, the DVD player allows the owner to watch DVDs from any region.
Many websites provide instructions for different models of standalone DVD players, to hack, and their factory codes.
Newer drives use RPC-2 firmware, which enforces the DVD region coding at the hardware level.
DVD backup software can do this, and some can also remove Macrovision, CSS, and disabled user operations (UOps).
In common region-locked DVDs (but not in RCE-DVDs), the region code is stored in the file "VIDEO_TS.IFO" (table "VMGM_MAT"), byte offsets 34 and 35.
Ultra HD (4K) Blu-Ray discs are region-free as they're generally encoded as worldwide region.
Region coding was criticized for facilitating unlawful market control strategies, such as price fixing.
[18][19][20] A December 2000 report from the ACCC advised consumers to "exercise caution when purchasing a DVD video player because of the restrictions that limit their ability to play imported DVDs."
The report stated, "These restrictions are artificially imposed by a group of multinational film entertainment companies and are not caused by the existing differences in television display formats such as PAL, NTSC and SECAM [...] The ACCC is currently investigating whether Australian consumers are paying higher prices for DVDs because of the ability of copyright owners, such as film companies, to prevent competition by restricting imports from countries where the same (authorised) video titles are sold more cheaply.
"[19] In 2012, a report from The Sydney Morning Herald revealed that region-free DVD players were legal in Australia, as they were exempt from the Technological Protection Measures (TPMs) included in the US Free Trade Agreement.
[24] The Washington Post highlighted how DVD region-coding was a major inconvenience for travelers who have the desire to legally purchase DVDs worldwide and return with them to their countries of origin, students of foreign languages, immigrants who want to watch films from their country of origin, and foreign film fans.
[2] Another criticism is that region-coding allows for local censorship, such as the Region 1 DVD of the 1999 drama film Eyes Wide Shut which contains the digital manipulations needed for the film to secure an MPAA R-rating, while these manipulations are not evident in discs that are not in region 1.
