For DVDs there are 6 areas of Regional Codes (see photo below). One of them is for America, 2 is mostly for Europe, 3 is South East Asia, 4 is Africa and the rest of Asia (except China), 6 is for China solely. Now, I cannot understand why there need to be these codings. They don't seem to benefit anyone. The problem doesn't stop with DVDs, Blu-Ray succumbs to the same problems. It has 3 Regions: A, B + C. So, why? I mean, can't they just get rid of them?
To reiterate my point on this being useless, I shall tell you a short story. For Christmas, my American cousins were round at our house in the UK to spend time with us. It was great, but when it poured with rain one day, we wanted to watch a movie. So, we had exchanged Christmas gifts the previous day and some of my American cousins had given DVDs. So, we thought we'd watch a nice new film together. However, we stuck it in and it didn't work. We thought then that my cousin who had visited Hong Kong would have some decent DVDs, but they were from a different Region as well! So, we had to watch iPlayer, which wasn't the end of the world, but we would have still liked a nice new movie.
My point is, who benefits from regional coding on DVDs? It is definitely not the consumer, who the companies should be trying to please because they are the ones who use the products and then buy again after a good experience. I don't know if anyone else shares my hatred for these regional codings, but if you do, please share them.
Photo credits: http://www.t9y.com/, Wikipedia
Photo credits: http://www.t9y.com/, Wikipedia
2 comments:
I think it stems from film companies wanting to control the flow of films to reduce the risk of piracy. Particularly, when a film is released to DVD in the US whilst it's still in the cinema in the UK. However, worldwide releases are becoming more common. Like most forms of DRM, it doesn't affect the people it's intended to target and only encourages honest consumers to circumvent the limitations.
Fair enough, it's just as a consumer I'd rather the companies tried to benefit us rather than control us. It may be stopping, which can only be a good thing.
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