DVD Region Encoding on Verge of Collapse? 597
Spudley writes "It seems like the infamous Region Encoding system used by DVD manufacturers to prevent us buying disks from overseas is about to collapse - due to widespread flaunting of the system. This article on the BBC doesn't go into much technical detail, but does include an interview with a company that manufactures DVD players ("You can find codes for more or less all brands of DVD player including ours") and some speculation on the future." It always seemed like an idea destined to fail.
Dude, wrong word. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:why? (Score:4, Informative)
When someone wants to put a soundtrack or put an actor on a movie, they have to specify who they are distributing it to in the contract.
So usually they sometimes go this anime sound track can only be distributed in Japan. No where else.
Or this European actor can only be shown in theaters playing in Russia.
Re:why? (Score:5, Informative)
Strictly economics. The studio wants to control the spread of the movie to maximize profit.
Movies often open in the US 6-9 months before they show in Europe. In many cases, the US DVD is out before the move has opened in Europe. With region codes they make it hard for Europeans to buy the DVD instead of going out to the theater.
A point of grammar (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Why do they even bother? (Score:2, Informative)
The only people who pay any attention to Region Coding is the DVD-CCA. The player manufacturers couldn't give a crap; why do you think all these players have a "hiden" menu in them that can disable it? Ooops, someone accidently "leaked" the instructions on how to access it...oh dear...
More links (Score:4, Informative)
Apex (Score:4, Informative)
Be warned though. Apex's players are 60 bucks for a reason. They are made of cheap parts and cheap plastic. Basically they are pieces of crap, and the region changing/pal converting is the only feature they have. I don't even think they all have optical audio out. Yeah, so check them out, it's the cheapest solution I've found.
Not just release scheduling (Score:5, Informative)
Why?
They want to maximize profit by charging different prices in different markets. They know that if they set the price 50% or 100% higher in some region, then people will import from the cheaper region. Region coding is supposed to stop that. In practice, this is the main reason that people want to bypass region coding--cheaper discs from other regions.
Re:why? (Score:4, Informative)
Now, just because Company B is potentially taking in the pants due to out of region sales doen't mean that the Region Encoding is a good thing, but its an explanation over why the movie industry pushed for it in the first place.
Re:why? (Score:3, Informative)
Not true anymore. The delta between US and Europe has shrunk to a few weeks, thus reducing the need for DVD zoning. That's the reason.
Price Controls (Score:3, Informative)
Region encoding allows the studios to time the release of movies, sure. But it also allows them to sell the DVDs at different prices around the world. I just bought Der Herr der Ringe in Berlin for far less than I could in the US. People in Africa, Russia, and China get even better discounts.
So while the US is used to paying $20 for a new DVD, if the region system breaks down . . .
Everybody will have to pay the same equivalent amount of money. It probably won't affect the prices of Anime, though. A global economy, eh?
Re:why? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:why? (Score:5, Informative)
The easy way out is to start in few countries, collect money, recoup your advertising expenses, and reinvest into advertising in another country or group of countries. This way you only need N million dollars regardless of how many countries you sell the movie to. This, of course, takes time, and that's where the delay comes from.
Re:why? (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Um, no, it works just fine (Score:2, Informative)
> VCR. Do you seriously think they're going to find a go-around
> to Regional encoding when they're barely competent enough
> to wipe their own arse?
Well in Denmark (and I guess many places in Europe) most cheep DVD players are region free, and the more expencive ones can be modified as an option often proposed by the salesman. So Joe Sixpack doesn't really have to think that hard to get around regional encoding.
Unfortnately 'multi-region' players wont work soon (Score:4, Informative)
Some of the bigger studios (notably Fox) are starting to use something called 'Region Code Extension' (RCE) on their disk. With this the first commands the DVD player find on the disc are (in pseudo code):
let r = Region Code;
if(r == 1)
jump to movie
else
jump to naughty person page
endif
Where 'jump to naughty person page' jumps to a still-frame saying somthing like 'You can't play this disk in this region'. A multi-region player can't cope with this since it reports its region mask as 0xff so will still jump to the still-frame.
Only a plyer set to play region 1, and only region 1 can play the disk. Hence to play it you need a DVD player which allows you to reset the region an arbitary number of times (rarer) rather than a 'multi-region' one (more common).
Of course some Linux DVD players [sf.net] simply have a 'region' field in their config file which defeats this :)
Good article (Score:5, Informative)
DVD Region Coding [necg.com.au]
Region coding is a perfect example of how the content production trusts abuse their special status. You see, our government, in its infinite corruptibility, has granted legal sanctity to the IP producer's content control systems. But the MPAA isn't just trying to use this new favor to prevent theft. They really see themselves as the natural owners of the whole transport layer and presentation medium, and they exploit it in any way possible - including with region coding, which (I suspect) allows them to sidestep the perils of free trade to further control prices.
What gets me is that I don't even see region codes as a big loss for the MPAA; I'm curious about the substance of the price differences across region boundaries that this allows them to create. I understand that the movie industry is in the habit of doing theatrical releases months apart on different continents, and that this allows them to make sure that the American DVD does reach Australia before the movie hits theaters, but really, how often is that in danger of happening? I suppose there are cases where they decide some time after a release in one country to go for a release in another (probably based on sales figures)... But how much hardship are we really talking about, I wonder?
Re:why? (Score:3, Informative)
For example, New Line and Fox (I believe, but could be wrong) own varying rights to Lord of the Rings. New Line initally owned it all, but to cover their asses in case it flopped (remember, when they first started making it - it was far from a surefire hit), they sold foreign distribution rights to FOX for something like 100-150 Million.
This means fox gets all the money from non-north america stuff, both in terms of tickets sold at theatre's, and DVD release. If the disks were region free, New Line could "steal" profits from Fox. Its not just stuido's trying to get different amounts from different markets, and stagger releases. Its them protecting profits from each other on split productions.
summer vs. winter (Score:2, Informative)
Maybe at the beginning there was some translation issues, but now that movies movies are released in english (at least in north europe) I think that's because now people are are accustomed to see major releases in winter (in particular in the pre Christmas period).
Re:Um, no, it works just fine (Score:4, Informative)
I think that's a U.S.-centric view of the situation. Region-free and region-selectable DVD players aren't that widespread in the U.S. simply because there's little incentive to do the mods here. We already get the widest selection of titles at the lowest prices. There are exceptions, of course, like Japanese anime lovers and film buffs looking for a certain, often uncut version of a film, but they're a small portion of the overall U.S. market.
The rest of the world is in a different boat. When you read about region-coding hacks, you are almost invariably reading about someone who wants to play Region 1 discs. This article is a case in point.
If you do a Google search for "region-free", most of the sites you find will be overseas. The retailers who sell region-free players and mods are everywhere but the U.S. When I ordered a mod board for my Pioneer, I ordered it from a European site and paid in Euros, even though the company shipped the product from an office in the U.S. Their major focus is Europe; they don't do much business here in the USA.
Having said that, I will be astonished if Hollywood really gives up on region-coding. They are the ultimate control freaks; it's hard to imagine they'll suddenly start selling what the customer wants instead of what Hollywood wants.
Get the Daewoo... (Score:2, Informative)
I got my region-free, 110/220volt, NTSC/PAL/SECAM/everything DVD player from :
www.110220volts.com [110220volts.com]Plays my UK PAL DVD's on my NTSC TV with zero hassle.
The build quality isn't excellent but its not crap and for the money (about $120 as I recall) if it breaks I'll just buy another one.
For me at least, region coding is already over.
Re:Region Encoding == Censureship (Score:4, Informative)
Nope. Europe has a very different censorship than the US.
We in Europe don't mind nudity or sexuality on screen - as long as it serves the story. (Porn is usually defined as nudity/sexuality without a plot. The French take this very literally - there are movies that show explicit sexual intercourse but that are not rated "porn" in France.)
However, our censors get all giddy-up with violent / numb action movies.
The US seems to be the other way round. Violence is ok, even in kid's movies, while a nipple can already be enough to qualify for an R rating. Eddie Murphy's "Boomerang" made a nice parody on this where an advertisement featured all sorts of atrocities, but a woman's breast was too much for the target audience...
Re:why? (Score:2, Informative)
There are other examples of this in the same movie/book. Words like cardigan swapped to sweater, etc. I'm sure that even the American education system can handle synonyms, but the film-makers seem to disagree there.
Most of the rest of the world would understand the situation when you mention George III, but again the film-makers want to ensure you can only think one way. Their way.
In short: those that control the way you percieve the world, are ensuring that you percieve only what is approved by them. Sorry.
Ravenn
Homer says hack your dvd player (Score:3, Informative)
Basically, the UK fox site had a DVD faq section where Homer answers the question "what is regional coding?" with "I have no idea whatsoever what regional coding means, but it is essential that you buy a multi-region player. Do it now."
Nowadays, Fox's UK Simpsons site, here [fox.co.uk], has Homer saying [fox.co.uk] "I have no idea what regional coding means. But if you find out, let me know. Don't worry, I'll still be waiting here when you get back."
Re:Apex (Score:3, Informative)
The first-gen sony's actually were more compatible w/ burned media than the second-gen. In a strugle to reduce the price and gain market penetration, they used cheaper laser assemblies.
My second-gen sony will *not* play *any* burned media.
Re:Head Butt? (Score:4, Informative)
The head-butt was removed from Episode 2 because, according to the UK ratings board, was violence that was easily replicable by children.
They don't mind light sabers because kids can't replicate that and hurt each other. But a head butt could easily be imitated.
Region Hacking in Space... (Score:2, Informative)
The station has an international crew, NASA just wanted them to be able to see movies in their native languages if they wanted. Doing it Holywood's way would have meant shipping up 5 identical machines.
Re:It was a bad idea to begin with... (Score:3, Informative)
Well, if you're totally ignorant about the entire industry I suppose you could see it as that alone.
The reality, however, is that one company often doesn't own the distribution rights worldwide... or in all formats. This is less common now (for movies, for TV syndication it's still very common), but it still impacts modern day reality because of old distribution agreements.
Paramount may have produced the movie. Domestic (US) home viewing rights may have been sold to Warner Bros (now AOL/Time-Warner). European distribution rights may be owned by Universal. Distribution in Asia or Africa may be owned by more regional companies.
And while this mostly affects older movies and (new or old) TV shows, it does have impact on new movies. A movie produced in the US may not hit foreign markets for 2-4 months, during which dubbing and other region-specific changes are made. By the time the movie premieres in Asia it may be coming out on DVD in the US. Having it available worldwide would cause some obvious problems.
Is region encoding used for artificial scarcity? Sure. Especially in Australia, and in some cases the US (mostly for TV shows, where syndication rights have royally screwed up ownership legalities). But you can bet that similar technology will be included in every digital medium for the forseeable future -- the industry is built around the concepts, and there's legacy titles that have rather nasty ownership issues that dictate this be a necessity. Will there be some people who hack the technology away? Sure. But it's going to be a small minority of people, particularly in the cash cow countries like the US.
Re:Head Butt? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:why? (Score:3, Informative)
The revenue stream is another, since staggered releases provide the peak of a new release when business tails off in another market.
Local market variations may be a factor, too - school holidays are at different times in different countries, which is when studios like to have kids' films in the theatres.
It's fucking annoying, though, when you live outside the States, because it's all but impossible to avoid picking up more information than you wanted about things before they arrive here.
Re:why? (Score:3, Informative)
The irony is that the American publisher of the Harry Potter series, Scholastic Books, mainly publishes educational books. Yet they miss out on this genuine bit of medieval history in the most popular children's series of all time.