****Regional Coding Restrictions Presenting No Problems For DVD Users <Picture>
07/07/97 TOKYO, JAPAN, 1997 JUL 7 (NB) -- By Martyn Williams.
When presented
with a new, digital format for their work, the big Hollywood Studios
decided they wanted the ability to make it impossible for disks bought
in one region to be used in another. The machine makers didn't like
the idea but, faced with the possibility of a DVD-boycott, implemented
it. In use however, the regional coding system is proving easy to get
around.
The hardware makers were not just imaging the frustration it would
cause users. Some DVD owners are buying disks from overseas, only to find they won't play on their machines, and are thus viewing DVD as a step forward in picture quality and functionality but a step back in
convenience.
While changing the regional coding in a player is complicated for the
average consumer, who doesn't have the computer knowledge and test equipment needed, it has proved no problem to some enterprising small electronics companies who are already advertising "code-free"
machines.
In the majority of cases, the companies have re-programmed a memory chip to make the player accept any disks. Companies are offering a variety of services including new, modified machines, the chance to send an already purchased player for modification or just the upgrade kit itself, for users to perform. A new, modified player costs around US$1,000 while the upgrade kits are much cheaper, at around $60, but require the purchase of a player separately.
But modifying the regional coding isn't just for professionals either. Owners of early model Sony DVD players found the regional coding was nothing more sophisticated than a switch on the circuit board of the player. By opening the player, something that Sony are keen to warn voids the warranty, users can simply flick a switch and watch any disk. "In some early models, the hardware design made it easy to make a change to disable regional coding," a Sony spokesman admitted to Newsbytes.
He also acknowledged the company was aware that some are now being sold as "code-free" players, but added that overcoming regional coding was, "not just a Sony problem but common across the industry." The Sony player design has now been modified to make such a simple process more difficult.
So why did regional coding become so important? The movie makers
wanted the ability to restrict playback of certain disks to the regions they were purchased in to maximize the amount of money they can make. United States users enjoy the first releases of new movies
and, often, lower prices than the rest of the world. This has prompted many movie fans outside of the nation to import tapes of movies, sometimes before the local cinema release, meaning lower box office revenues and tape sales.
With overseas shopping getting easier, thanks in part to the Internet and online services, the chance to put a stop to the practice was jumped at. After negotiations, in which the studios had a hard time
deciding the exact make up of the system, six regions were formed.
They are: region one, North America; region two, Europe, the middle east, Greenland, South Africa and Japan; region three, Asia; region four, Central and South America, Australia and New Zealand; region
five, Africa, former Soviet Union, North Korea, India, Pakistan, Mongolia; region six, China.
The system not only restricts users from buying US disks but vice-versa. Americans have found disks purchased in Japan, which has a larger initial catalog because of an earlier launch, don't work on
their own machines.
Officials at DVD makers hint privately that they didn't put all their
efforts into making regional coding unbreakable, "it wasn't something
we wanted," said one. And they are quick to point out that all the
dedicated movie fan would do, in the case of unbreakable regional
coding, is buy a machine from the country of the disks they want to
view. |
