In order for you to view a DVD's content, the region code on the DVD and the region code for DVD Player must be the same. Your DVD drive is automatically set to a region code the first time you play a coded DVD. If the region code for a DVD does not match the current region code for DVD Player, a dialog appears for you to change the code for DVD Player.
IMPORTANT: You can set the region code for DVD Player only five times (including the original setting). The fifth time you change the code, it will be permanently set.
The following map and table indicate the code for the various regions. Some DVD discs can be played in any region, and are sometimes referred to as having region code 0. These discs can be played regardless of the region to which DVD Player is set.
| Region code | Area |
|---|---|
| 0 | Informal term meaning "worldwide". Region 0 is not an official setting; discs that bear the region 0 symbol either have no flag set or have region 1-6 flags set. |
| 1 | Canada, the United States, and U.S. territories including Puerto Rico, American Samoa, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, Palau, Micronesia, Mariana Islands, Marshall Islands |
| 2 | Europe, Western Asia, Northern Africa, South Africa, and Japan including Albania, Andorra, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Greenland, Hungary, Iceland, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Oman, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Vatican City, Yemen, Yugoslavia |
| 3 | Southeast Asia including Cambodia, Hong Kong, Macao, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam |
| 4 | Mexico, Central and South America, and the South Pacific including Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Aruba, Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Falkland Islands, French Guiana, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, New Guinea, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay, Venezuela |
| 5 | Africa, North and South Asia Africa, North and South Asia including Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Bangladesh, Belarus, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, India, Ivory Coast, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Latvia, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Lithuania, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sri Lanka, St. Helena, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Zambia, Zimbabwe |
| 6 | China |
| 7 | Reserved for future use (found in use on protected screener copies of MPAA-related DVDs and "media copies" of pre-releases in Asia) |
| 8 | International venues such as aircraft, cruise ships, etc. |
| ALL | Region ALL discs have all 8 flags set, allowing the disc to be played in any locale on any player. |
Most DVDs are assigned a region code that corresponds to a geographic area, to help motion picture studios control the worldwide release of movies. The first time you play a DVD with a region code, you may be asked to set the DVD drive to match that code; DVD Player is restricted to playing only discs with that same region code or with no region code. If you insert a DVD that uses a different region code, a dialog appears asking you if you want to change the DVD drive’s region code.
IMPORTANT: You can change the region code of a DVD drive only five times (including the original setting); the fifth setting is permanent. Don’t change the region code of a DVD drive unless you expect to play only DVDs that match the new region code in the future.
DVD Region Codes is a DRM (Digital rights management) technique designed to allow motion picture studios to control aspects of a release, including content, release date, and, especially, price, according to the region. DVD video discs may be encoded with a region code restricting the area of the world in which they can be played. The commercial DVD player specification requires that a player to be sold in a given place not play discs encoded for a different region.
Why does DVD region coding exist, you ask? According to what the public is being told, such coding is a tool to protect copyright and film distribution rights (in other words, movie studio profits).
Movies are released in theaters in different parts of the world at different times throughout the year. That Summer blockbuster in the U.S. may end up being the Christmas blockbuster overseas. If that occurs, the DVD version of the movie may be out in the U.S. while it is still showing in theaters overseas.
In order to preserve the financial integrity of the theatrical distribution of a particular film, it is not possible (under normal conditions) to have a friend in the U.S. send a DVD copy of the film to the country where it is in theatrical release and be able to play the DVD on a player there.
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