DVD is the main reason the home theater experience has become popular and serves as the basis for improving video and audio quality. However, DVD players and DVDs are labeled for use in certain geographic regions. The DVD world is divided into six main geographic regions, with two additional regions reserved for special purposes.
DVD region codes are digital rights management techniques that allow rights holders to control the international distribution of a DVD release, including content, release date and price, by region.
This is accomplished via region-locked DVD players, which only play DVDs encoded for their region (plus those without a region code). The American DVD Copy Control Association also requires that DVD player manufacturers use the Regional Playback Control System (RPC). However, DVD players without region codes are also commercially available, and many DVD players can be modified to be region-free so that all discs can be played.
DVDs can use one code, multiple codes (multi-region), any code, or no code (region free).
DVD regions are assigned as follows:
REGION 0 - Any region/region free
REGION 1 - The United States, Canada, Puerto Rico and Bermuda
REGION 2 - Europe (excluding Belarus and Ukraine), Greenland, the Middle East, Egypt, Lesotho, South Africa, Japan and French Guiana
REGION 3 - Southeast Asia, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao
REGION 4 - Latin America (excluding French Guiana and Puerto Rico), the Caribbean and Oceania
REGION 5 - Africa (excluding Egypt, Lesotho and South Africa), Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Central Asia, South Asia, Mongolia and North Korea
REGION 6 --Mainland China
REGION 7 - MPAA related DVDs and "media copies" of pre-release releases in Asia
REGION 8 - International venues such as airplanes, cruise ships and spacecraft.
REGION ALL - These region discs have all 1-8 flags set so the disc can be played anywhere and on any player.
We also have many region-free DVD players. You can find on our website.