h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I bought a new DVD player/recorder the other day. I've had my existing DVD player for about 5 years I reckon: it was a multi-region player but I have bought ONE non-UK DVD during that period, so I thought that multi-region capability was superfluous to all intents and purposes.

I'm not sure if I understand why DVDs are regionalised. I think the argument goes something like this. If they weren't regionalised, then as soon as a film got released in the US then not long afterwards DVDs could be imported to Europe. This would mean that in order for them to make any money from the box office takings in Europe, they'd have to release at the same time as in the US. But at present they release films at different times in different countries to minimise risk: if the film is a flop in the US, it's just a flop there and nowhere else and no extra oney has been spent on distributing in other countries.

So, the whole purpose behind regionalisation is to minimise the exposure that the studio suffers. We end up with a crippled digital format so they can make as much money as possible. Tut.

This region issue is really annoying me. Really, let's face it - most French, for example, wouldn't bother buying a DVD unless there is a French version of the movie on it. So having fancy regions just makes it annoying for the poor guy who actually likes their actors speaking too.

What about a guy who's learning Indian or Japanese and wants some of the more obscure production of India and Japan?

Why do they (oh, this infamous 'they', the root of all evil!) even try to come up with a justification for those bloody zones when it is so obviously a ploy oriented in the diametrically opposite direction to customers' satisfaction?

That said, many DVD players are zone-free (not mine for some reason) or zone-freeable (again, apparently, not mine). On my Mac, the default DVD Player allows for zone switching a grand total of 5 times before becoming stuck (and VLC doesn't work as nicely).

There's a similar scheme for the mobile phones operators give you when you take a, what's the name again, an abonnement, er, when you register with them anyway. Sometimes *averts gaze towards SFR* they block the device in such a way that you cannot use it with competitors' sim cards. How very convenient.

I know the film industry is about as high risk as you can get. Who'd have bet on Atonement sweeping the box office, for example? Or on the Golden Compass being such a flop? The trouble is, though, is that most films are so bloody formulaic. It's only recently, with the likes of Michael Moore and Al Gore have we seen some new thinking in harnessing the medium for purposes other than 'entertainment'. And 'Hollywood entertainment' at that too.

Perhaps if big studios took some *genuine* risks in encouraging a diversity of approaches then people would really start going to the cinema on a regular basis and then they'd be more inclined to share the risk with the studio.

T the best of my knowledge you're right in believing the main reason for DVD regions being to do with studios opening films on different dates in different parts of the world. However, there's more to it than that. There are formats to take into account too. British televisions are PAL whereas those in north America are NTSC, so you might buy a multi-region player but still not be able to play your region 1 DVDs on a British television if the player doesn't have a video converter. Standalone video converters can be expensive, but multi-region, multi-format players can be had for ridiculously low prices these days. In theory, all players are multi-region and have software which locks them to one region only. There are websites which will show you how to hack hundreds of players and make them region-free by entering a code simply by pushing buttons on your remote, but if the player doesn't have a converter you won't be able to watch NTSC on PAL or vice versa. It's well worth spending the extra few quid/bucks and getting a player that will play any DVD on any TV.

I use the PS to watch DVDs and have done for ages. When I was with BluesShark we got the DVDX thing which let us watch any region movies because he liked foreign films. Once I bought a DVD from ebay cos he liked the film, and it turned out non of the non-english versions were european languages, which is possibly why we got it before it came out for sale here.

The region thingy hardly cost any money, and once it was installed we forgot about it. I couldn't see that it was a big deal, although I've not bought one for the new ps cos we only get DVDs on rental now I'm poor!

I just had a quick look at the Wikipedia entry for DVD region codes. This is interesting, although I doubt it'll happen in the US for a long time - the studios have very powerful lobbyists in Washington.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD_region_code#Legal_concerns

Nothing to do with DVDs costing $15 in America and £15 in England of course, and it being a way of us buying DVD's cheaper.

Yeah, there is that as well, which is obviosu now you point it out. Perhaps the reason I came up with originally is nothing more than a smokescreen for the reason you point out.

And, if it comes to that, why is there a one-dollar-to-one-pound conversion rate for software as well?