Why do DVDs bought in another country NOT work in the USA?

Question

There is a movie DVD box set on eBay that I would really like to buy, and it is on sale from eBay very regularly, but it says that the DVD region code won't work on DVD players in the USA.

Why in the world would people limit DVDs so that they can only be viewed in certain countries? That is so strange

My computer has a DVD player and my tv has a DVD player, so that means that the Europeon box set probably won't show on either of my players??????

Also, the Australia Zoo is now selling a special DVD about Steve Irwin's life. I guess that probably means I can't buy that either since it's from Australia?

Can someone please explain this? I would really appreciate.

Robin

Answer 1

DVD discs contain Regional Codes which can be used to prevent the playback of certain discs depending upon the geographical area it is played in. The various studios and home video companies lobbied to make sure this coding system was a required part of the current DVD standards, because they wish to control how their DVD titles are exported to other countries. (For example, while a recent film may already have played theatrically in the United States and been released to the home video market, that same film may not yet have opened in some European or Asian countries.) In most instances, discs manufactured in one region will usually only play on players that were manufactured in that same region - this means that discs bought or imported from Japan will not play on U.S. players, and vice versa. However, the regional coding system is entirely optional, and discs without Regional Codes will play on any player in any country.

Answer 2

You can probably get a region free dvd player that allows you to play dvd's from other places.Since Steve Irwin was an international celebrity the Australian Zoo may have the DVD available for your region.
There are hack codes available if you look for them. These are codes that let you play any dvd on your player.
What brand do you have? Each brand has it's own code.

Answer 3

Regional coding systems serve as one way to limit DVD piracy. In this way, a region 3 DVD (Southeast Asia) cannot be copied and sold to the US market (Region 1) since most DVD players in the US will not play the disk.

Similarly, US markets cannot sell DVDs back to Asia prior to the film's theatrical release there.

Answer 4

Just buy a cheap dvd player, change the switch to whichever region you want and it will work. You can only change regions like 5 times before it becomes permanently set.

or

Buy a Jwin or Coby DVD player, they are region free.

Answer 5

the dvd player and computer was formatted to the region(country) you buy it in. if you buy a dvd or even a game in a diff country, it's formatted to that region you buy it in. the dvd's region format isn't compatible with the dvd player's region format.
they do this to prevent copying of disks

Answer 6

The difference is because of the PAL and NTSC format...
that's how it is with all CD's like games too...

If you have a DVD player that can switch between the two, you're in luck, if not you can go buy one.

I doubt your comp or TV have it though...well it depends on how new it is, what brand and technology, who knows they can be the top of the line....

Answer 7

Different region code. The industry got together and split the world up into 7 (I believe) regions to make it harder on pirates and make it easier to track sales in the different markets. It's the same way with VHS.

Answer 8

You can buy a Regine free DVD player and play any DVD in it. But you have to have a newer TV as well

Answer 9

becase u americans have different standards in everything. no offense but even electricity is different in voltage. u should be more compatible with the rest of the world

Answer 10

that's because in other countries they record in in a different format than here in the U.S.A.