What are the region codes for DVD?
Many commercially produced DVD movies have regional encoding to prevent disc playback in a different geographical area from which it was released. DVD movies released in a region can be played only on DVD players produced in the same region. This is done because many studios and home video companies want to control how and when DVD titles are exported to other countries. However, some movies available on DVD are not region encoded and will play on any player in any region.
The error message "ERROR: Playback of this disc prohibited by boundary area is displayed in the DVD player. “appears when you try to play a regionally-encoded disc on an encoded DVD player to play discs from a different region. For example, if you try to play a disc manufactured to be viewed in China (Region 6) on a Sony® DVD player configured to play discs in the United States (Region 1), you receive this error message.
IMPORTANT: Some devices, such as some DVD drives on your computer, can be modified (within limits) to play discs from different regions for which they were originally designed. For information about how the DVD device can be modified and, if so, how to make that modification, see the device specifications and user guides.
NOTE: If your player starts to display a region code error when you try to play disks in the appropriate region, the service may be required.
Selling a disc with free area is not a common practice. However, some DVD movies are not region encoded and will play on any player, regardless of the region in which it was sold. These disks can be labeled Region 0 or All. Many discs created with the home video capture software are encoded as Region 0 and can be played back on your DVD player.
Sony DVD players sold in the United States are encoded to play Region 1 DVDs. They will also play discs labeled Region 0 or All. There is no way to override the region code.
These are the DVD region codes:
Region 1 DVD - Canada, the territories of the United States and the USA.
Region 2 DVD - Japan, Europe, South Africa, Middle East (including Egypt) and Greenland.
Region 3 DVD - Southeast Asia and East Asia (including Hong Kong).
Region 4 DVD - Australia, New Zealand, Pacific Islands, Central America, Mexico, South America and the Caribbean.
Region 5 DVD - Russia, Eastern Europe, Africa, North Korea and Mongolia.
Region 6 DVD - China.
Region 7 DVD - Reserved for special use not elsewhere specified.
The region number of your disc or player can be determined by identifying the icon of a small, standard globe with the region number superimposed on it. If a disc plays in more than one region, it will have more than one number on top of the globe. If a disc has no regional coding, it will tell you 0 the u ALL p ara all regions.
