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1. What Are 'Regions'?
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DVD manufactureres have divided the world into regions to help control distribution and marketing. These are:
- Region 1 (R1): North America + US Territories
- Region 2 (R2): UK, Europe, Japan, South Africa, and the Middle East
- Region 3 (R3): Southeast Asia and East Asia (including Hong Kong)
- Region 4 (R4): Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific Rim, Central and South America, Mexico and the Caribbean
- Region 5 (R5): Eastern Europe, India, Africa, North Korea
- Region 6 (R6): China
- Region 7 (R7): Reserved
- Region 8 (R8): Special Venues (cruise ships, airplanes)
- Region 0 (R0): 'All-region' disks
Most players bought in a region will only play disks from that region, unless the player is modified (though some are 'multiregion'). Most can be modified to be multiregion, either by a handset 'hack', or by adding extra hardware/computer chips (called 'chipping' or 'modding'). This is not illegal in most countries, but does invalidate the warranty.
Most R0, R1 and R3 disks use the broadcast standard NTSC, whilst R2 and R4 are mostly PAL. DVD players in PAL countries can play NTSC (with modification), but the state of the picture depends on your TV. If it's a newer model, if is likely to be able to accept NTSC without problems. PAL-only TVs will show the NTSC disks in black and white.
However, most NTSC players will not play PAL disks. The bottom line is that NTSC disks play in over 95% of DVD installations worldwide, whereas PAL disks play on very few systems outside of PAL countries.
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2. What is Region Code Enhancement (RCE)?
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Some disks, particularly from Region 1, have RCE. This is designed to stop the disk working on a multiregion machine. Typically such machines can be further modified to get around this, but some players aren't affected at all. Even when they are, they are often defeated by putting a true R1 disk in, running it a few seconds, then ejecting and putting in the RCE disk.
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© HappyHunter 2002
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