Ask John: Can You Explain DVD Region Coding?

Question:
I would like to know what the difference is between DVD regions and how this effects a DVD player. Does one need different DVD players? Does a DVD player adjust to each DVD? Can a Playstation 2 play all DVD regions?

Answer:
Before discussing DVDs specifically, it’s important to establish the three different video signal formats: NTSC, PAL and SECAM. NTSC stands for National Television System Committee and is the 60hz, 525 horizontal lines of resolution signal used by countries including the United States and Japan. PAL stands for Phase Alternation by Line and is a 50hz, 625 horizontal lines of resolution signal used by countries including Australia, the UK and much of Europe. SECAM stands for Systeme Electronique Couleur Avec Memoireand is a variant version of PAL used in countries including Egypt, Poland, and the Russian countries. While many European countries utilize dual standard PAL & NTSC video equipment, North America and Japan are virtually exclusively NTSC. A PAL signal will display on an NTSC television as a very dark, rapidly rolling image. An NTSC signal on a PAL TV will only appear as static.

DVDs typically come in NTSC and PAL formats, although American and Japanese anime DVDs will only be NTSC. Furthermore, as an anti-piracy measure, the worldwide DVD manufacturing community has agreed to utilize standardized copy protection and region encoding. This means that many DVDs utilize Macrovision, which is designed to prevent copying DVD footage onto VHS as the Macrovision will imprint video flaws onto any VHS copies. What’s more important to anime fans, though, is region encoding. To prevent DVDs from being universally copied or exported outside of their country of origin, there are 6 DVD “regions.” Region 1 includes the USA and Canada. Region 2 includes Europe & Japan. Region 3 covers South East Asia. Region 4 covers Latin America & Australia. Region 5 covers Russia, Africa and the remainder of Asia. And Region 6 covers China. DVDs from one region will not play on DVD players manufactured in a different region. To circumvent this, region free and modified DVD players have cropped up all over the internet, and many DVD manufacturers, especially ones based in Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan, intentionally do not place region encoding on their DVDs.

No standard American DVD player will play region 2 DVDs, just as no standard European or Japanese DVD player will play American DVDs. This does include the Playstation 2, although first generation Japanese Playstation 2 units could be tricked into playing non-region 2 DVDs, and the upcoming Asian PS2 console will be region free. Essentially, if you’re a North American anime fan that wants to play import Japanese DVDs, you’ll need to own either an American and a Japanese DVD player or a region free DVD player; and if you’re a European fan you’ll need an NTSC compatible DVD player and TV to watch Japanese DVDs and a region free NTSC compatible DVD player to watch American DVDs. There are existing DVD players that are capable of disabling the Macrovision copy protection, disabling the region encoding and converting a PAL signal to NTSC or vice-versa.