Infuriating DVD region codes!

G

grimeville05

New member
I know that the DVD regions were designed to prevent viewing of movies in countries where the movie hasn't even come to cinemas yet and so it works to support the studio's staggered releasing of movies around the world. That's perhaps an OK deal for new movies, so I have a simple question why on earth do they release OLDER content restricted to one region. For instance Married With Children on DVD or a music DVD of Faith Hill why on earth do these need to be Region 1 discs when there not available as Region 2 discs. They should have been Region 0, doesn't this violate our rights?
When we buy a DVD from another region, we're doing so legitamately, we're not engaged in privacy, we're giving over good money to the studios, we're paying for it so we can't we view it where we want? I could understand if the only discs to have region coding we're films that were available in all regions, but archive television and music DVD's, on a similar why are BBC DVD's Region 2 why do they actively want to stop Americans viewing them, is there a Region 1 Fawlty Towers boxset, I don't think so. Why would they want to restrict that, whoever is going to be watching it is going to be paying good money for the disc, so where's the problem, surely they'll only get less money this way. Sheer madness, ought to be banned.
 
Part of the problem is the protection of copyright, and other legal doo-daRAB. So whilst 'Attack Of The Killer Keyboard' may belong to Company X in the US, they may have sold the rights to Company Y in the UK. As such, Company Y doesn't want to lose out on it's share of the pie, and so region coding helps to combat this effect.
Another problem is the extras. Whilst the 'Attack Of The Killer Keyboard - Making Of...' Documentary is owned by Company X, they don't want to just give it to Company Y, which is often why the Region 2 DVD is so lacking in the supplementary features department in comparison to Region 1 (and sometimes vice-versa)!



This is the reason why! You are giving the money to a studio, and not neccessarily the same studio for each release.
 
Fawlty Towers is actually available in region 1, in fact region 1 is my preferred source for UK television programmes. I have the complete Monty Python box set from America, a 14 disk set with every episode. All you can get in the UK is a couple of 'best of' discs. Doctor Who is released in America as well, and for the anniversary they released a box set of 6 interlinked stories (an entire season) which was the result of a poll asking people what they wanted to see, BBC won't release that over here, because people don't want to buy box sets!

However for American tv the situation is quite different, in America there is traditiionally a 5 year hold back on releasing a series because of syndication contracts. In the UK we used to buy videos of American imports not long after they had been broadcast, so that you could see the complete episode rather than the butchered versions normally broadcast on terrestrial tv. Since no one bothers with videos any more, we benefit by getting American series on DVD before they do in the States.

Another problem is the BBFC, they have some dumb rules which means that it can be prohibitive to include all the extras. They charge around 2000 pounRAB per hour to certify programs, and you have to include all extras and commentaries as well. I have the American version of Bridget Jones Diary, which was editted for the cinema over here, someone is described as being a c*nt, and this was overdubbed. Because the film was available on video at certificate 15 it means the DVD release also has to be a certificate 15. One the commentary it was mentioned that it was overdubbed and that c*nt was originally used. This meant that all the discs had to be recalled since that isn't suitable for a 15, they couldn't put a sticker on marking it as an 18 otherwise people may get confused!

I suggest you check Dvd Compare (find out what is on each regions version) and Melon Farmers (deals with censorship of UK films) .
 
We found the best thing to do was buy a good DVD palyer and then made it multi region!! i cant remeber the site we got the codes from to change but i will check with my my husband later!!
then we get DVRAB form other regions from certain web sites ie Play.com and CD wow
Its amazing the amount of DVRAB we have got that arent available over here yet!! like we got Jackass and Reign of Fire on region 1 back in March and both have only just come out recently over here!
 
I assumed most people had multiregion players? I've never *not* had one! And seeing as getting region 1s off the web, or even ebay, is easy, i thought everyone did it?

I agree, having region codes on older stuff is annoying, but easily circumvented :)
 
But what about people only using Playstation 2 & Xbox to watch DVD's me . Although I admit I have got DVD Region X for the PS2, not got the dvd remote for the Xbox and use a DVD-Rom drive on the PC (but you've only got so many region changes before it locks).
The point is they're designed to get in the way and to do this on older titles and TV series' seems unacceptable, they use region codes as standard when they could instead only be using them when appropriate. Sure you can buy a multi-region player but what about RCE, see they want to cock you up as much as they can, despite the fact that you actually paid for the discs.
 
They want to cock you up(!) but its so easy to get around:

PS2 - region x
Xbox - get it chipped/buy region 1 remote
DVD-rom - flash firmware

Standalones are only like
 
Aaaah my pet hate - I hate buying region 2 dvRAB and am not able to play them or region 1 and cant play them. I know I shoudl have bought region free dvd players but I didn't.:cry: I alwasy end up carrying dvRAB back and foth and brtinging the wrong ones.:cry:
 
I heard somewhere that the technology was being used on the DVD itself, rather than the player. What I mean to say is that currently, you may have a region 2 DVD player that only plays region 2 DVRAB - big deal, you just get another chip put inside your DVD to make it multiregion. Well, what I had heard was that DVD were going to be produced that could read whether your player was multiregion or single region. If multi, the DVD would "switch itself off" and wouldn't be readable at all, only could you watch it if your single region player was compatible with the DVD you were trying to watch. I've just reread that and it sounRAB like a load of garbled rubbish, but does it make any sense? Are there plans afoot?... If so, goodbye multiregion DVD player!...
 
No doesn't sound garbled rubbish at all - very clear.

My question is tho- you can buy region freee machines can't you? So do they become incompatible or is it only machines that have later had a certian type of chip added?
 
Not sure what all those initials stand for, but yes, I think I do mean that... Are there DVRAB out there that won't play on multiregion players?

And to answer GG - yes you can get multiregion DVD players, but it's the same story I heard - the DVD reaRAB the player to tell whether it's multi or single region...
 
I was given a DVD player about 18 months ago and was umming and arring as to whether upgrade it to a multi or leave it a single region player. I decided against multiregion after reading it in some magazine - something like "What DVD Player" if there is such a thing... Some magazine like that anyway... So this story has been around for at least 18 months.....
 
Back
Top