DVD Player Region Codes

About DVD Region codes: Because DVD is subject to the same issues of piracy and market sharing that govern the entire video industry, DVD region encoding was introduced to set geopolitical boundaries for compatibility of DVDs and players. For instance, a DVD encoded for Region 1 can only be played on a Region 1 (U.S. and Canada) DVD player.

Currently there are six global DVD regions, and DVD manufacturers can encode their product to play in any combination of regions. The vast majority of DVDs are Region 1 or 2 compatible, and many DVDs are "all-region"--suitable for playback on any player, anywhere.

Region 2 covers all of Europe, Japan, the Middle East and South Africa. These are the DVDs available from Amazon.co.uk. Region 1 discs (Canada and the U.S.A.) are available from Amazon.com's DVD store.

DVDs are protected with a system called Macrovision, however devices are available that disable this protection of any DVD player and enable the copying of DVDs to video in high quality.

The Sony Playstation 2 console is able to play DVDs, but complies to the regional coding like any other DVD player. In addition, the RGB output is disabled in DVD mode (everything is shown in green), presumably to prevent high quality copying of DVDs to video. In the UK, a popular product called Region-X is available that enables UK Playstation 2 consoles that normally play only Region-2 DVDs to play any DVD of any region, plus it gets rid of the dreaded "green screen" and delivers DVD output in full RGB colour. A similar product is available for the Microsoft Xbox, called Xbox DVD Region X.

Another solution is the Messiah Mod Chip for Playstation 2 and the Xtender Xbox mod chip that not only convert the console into a "region-free" DVD player, but also enables the console to play games destined for any market, including original games, backup copies of games and DVDs and illegal copies.

While numerous methods have emerged to illegally bypass DVD region encoding with "hacked" DVD players capable of playing DVDs from any region, movie studios have also increased their efforts to protect their regional copyrights with advanced DVD security coding. Regional Coding Enhancement (RCE) is added to some Warner Bros, New Line, Columbia DVDs to stop region 1 (R1) DVDs from playing on Region-free DVD players.

Any player and any country compatible

Puerto Rico, American Samoa, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, Palau, Micronesia, Mariana Islands, Marshall Islands, Canada

Albania, Andorra, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Greenland, Hungary, Iceland, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Oman, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Vatican City, Yemen, Yugoslavia.

Cambodia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam

Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Aruba, Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Falkland Islands, French Guiana, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, New Guinea, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay, Venezuela

Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Bangladesh, Belarus, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, India, Ivory Coast, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Latvia, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Lithuania, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sri Lanka, St. Helena, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Zambia, Zimbabwe

China