australia region

[jarred]

is australia r4???

what is r1

[millsy]

R1- Usa/Canada (dvds are recorded in ntsc format, as opposed to pal for most r4's).

[dvd_rulez]

Some extra info.

R1 - North America
R2 - Europe, Japan, South Africa, Middle East
R3 - Southeast Asia, Hong Kong
R4 - Australia, New Zealand, Central America, South America
R5 - Eastern Europe, India
R6 - China

* R2 and R4 are PAL

* Some Music DVDs have 2,3,4,5,6 coded

* Also the so-called R0 which can be played everywhere

;)

[danielb]

Originally posted by dvd_rulez
* R2 and R4 are PAL

* Some Music DVDs have 2,3,4,5,6 coded

* Also the so-called R0 which can be played everywhere

;)

R2 and R4 being PAL is convention only, they can quite easily be NTSC, and many discs can be 2 or more regions (for instance region 2 and region 4).

There are many films available as R0, some Criterion discs for instance. R0 does not mean "pirated".

-Daniel

[Sauceman]

Originally posted by dvd_rulez
* R2 and R4 are PAL

not all R2 - UK R2 is PAL, Japanese R2 is NTSC. Not sure about the others. Although chances are the most wont bother with Jap R2 (unless you're an anime freak - i.e. Me)

[dvdude]

R4 also covers South America - so some US produced DVDs that are R1, are also R4 NTSC.
I believe that the R1 Gone in Sixty Seconds was also R4 for that market (and it was NTSC).

[Gaia]

I still don't get why Japan is R2, shouldn't they be R3 like HK, Korea, China etc...?

Originally posted by Sauceman
not all R2 - UK R2 is PAL, Japanese R2 is NTSC. Not sure about the others. Although chances are the most wont bother with Jap R2 (unless you're an anime freak - i.e. Me)

[Tsargrad]

I think China is R6.

They need more regions. We should not be the same as South America. They should be Region 9, and Japan make them region 10 if not part of 3.

And even sub continent, africa and russia... why 5?? no commonness. but who knows what format they use

[KeithT]

Way to drag up an old thread Gaia!

I thought I remembered that jarred guy!! ;)

DVD regions aren't so much about geographical regions, but more for the movie studios to control movie releases and film distribution rights - eg. a summer blockbuster in the US might not be released down here till Christmas or another holiday period where the studios think they'll make the biggest bucks. That blockbuster is then released on DVD in the R1 market a couple of months after its theatrical release in the US, and that release may coincide with the movie's release down here in Aust.

R4 lumps South America and Aust as I presume the theatrical releases are at a similar time.

You'll note that R5 encompasses Russia, Mongolia, India, including Sri Lanka and most of Africa. South Africa on the other hand is aligned with R2 Europe, iceland, parts of the Middle East and Japan as their theatrical releases are about the same time.

In asia, a typical Hollywood studio "blockbuster" is released generally around the same time, while in Japan it seems to follow a different release date pattern (think summer/winter/holidays).

IMDB.com (www.imdb.com) has release dates information on most movies, and you can see quite a difference in actual releases - eg. The Pianist. Premiered in France (Cannes) 24 May 2002, Poland/Belgium/France/Spain got it in September, 2002. Australia got it in March, 2003, and Russia didn't get it released until May, 2003. So for the studios, if the DVD wasn't zoned, and was released say 3 months after its September 2002 Release, its theatrical distribution would be detrimentally affected by the title being available on DVD in say R2 (europe) by people living in Russia (R5) buying it.Originally posted by Tsargrad
They need more regions. ..Surely you mean "There should be No more regions", Tsargrad!

I understand the studios maintaining the financial viability of their distribution rights for NEW movies, but what about back catalogue movies? or music DVDs? or documentaries? Buggers.

Region coding sucks. :p

[Gaia]

Yeah well, didn't want to start a new thread if there was one already on the same topic...i don't think i was around to experience the things jarred was performing on the forums while he was a member, but from doing a quick search i can see that the mods must have really "loved" it ;)

And thanks for the input regarding region coding KeithT :)

[Tsargrad]

Region coding doesn't bother me really Keith. If I was not mutli-zoned then that would be a different story