What is Region Coding for DVDs?
The DVD world is divided into six major geographical regions, with two additional regions reserved for specialized use. To keep it simple, this means that DVD players and DVDs are labeled for operation on within a specific geographical region in the world. For example, the U.S. is in region 1. This means that all DVD players sold in the U.S. are made to region 1 specifications. As a result, region 1 players can only play region 1 discs. That’s right, the DVDs themselves are encoded for a specific region. On the back of each DVD package, you will a find a region number (1 thru 6). The geographical regions are as follows: REGION 1 — USA, Canada REGION 2 — Japan, Europe, South Africa, Middle East, Greenland REGION 3 — S.Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Parts of South East Asia REGION 4 — Australia, New Zealand, Latin America (including Mexico) REGION 5 — Eastern Europe, Russia, India, Africa REGION 6 — China REGION 7 — Reserved for Unspecified Special Use REGION 8 — Resevered for Cruise
