Overview; What Is Region Coding - Pioneer DV-505 Instruction And Installation Manual

Pioneer DV-505 Code Switchable Modification
Chapter 1

Overview

1.1 What Is Region Coding

For many years the movie industry has, for it's own convience, divided up the world into
a number of territories. In each of these territories, a local distributor handles the
distribution and promotion of each movie. These days most movies follow a fairly basic
pattern of releases - first at movie theaters, then for video rental, then for subscription
cable channels, then for video sell-thru and finally for TV broadcast. Each of these
releases usually takes place a certain number of months after the previous one. However
over time for a number of reasons, the pattern has become staggered so that for any
given movie that is still in movie theaters in Europe or Africa, it may already be available
on video in the US and Canada.
With the reduction in global trade barriers and the growth of the Internet, it has become
very easy for people to import video cassettes and discs from other parts of the world.
Rather than accept this reality, the movie industry has sort to re-enforce the status quo
by forcing new technologies to include restrictions and devices to hinder the free flow of
international trade. The DVD Video format is a victim of exactly this kind of restriction in
the form of the "Region Coding" mechanism.
The region coding is designed to ensure that a consumer in a given territory is only able
to buy the DVD discs issued by the local distributor, and is thus forced to pay inflated
prices, wait longer for the release to be available, and accept a smaller range of titles and
often inferior versions without the enhancements available in the US version of the same
DVD disc.
The world is divided into six regions for the purposes of DVD Video, although it is clear
that some region codes have deliberately paired countries using different TV system to
further purturb the cross-importation of products within those regions. The main ones
are Region #1 - North America, Region #2 - Japan and Europe, Region #3 - South East
Asia, and Region #4 - Australia and South America.
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