Despite the fact we live in a world where you can download a film in a matter of minutes depending on your internet connection, the movie studios still insist on having region codes as part of the specification for DVD and Blu-ray discs. But why?
Wired asked this very question of all the movie studios and got a resounding “No comment” response. But Screen Digest analyst Tom Adams told Wired that the idea of having the region locking would help the studio executives sleep well at night:
“Whether or not the codes are there,” he says, “the idea that they are is probably a good thing from the studios’ point of view.”
Given that Wired says that up to 70 per cent of Blu-ray discs don’t actually have any region locking on them, it sounds like a pretty ridiculous safety blanket in this day and age. But then again, up until recently it was illegal to create a backup of your own DVDs for security purposes…
[Wired]
Peter
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 9:50 AMI always gathered it was for price fixing so the studious could tear their legitimate purchasors a new one…
Sam
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 9:59 AMI always thought the same. If anything I find it’s hurting their sales though. Eg. I want to give them money to buy Dollhouse (series) – a show which finished over 12 months ago (two seasons) and I can’t even buy season 1 locally yet.
Chris
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 9:53 AMGiven the fact that we can now burn DVD’s and Blu-Ray discs even with region locking on them, they seem to be sticking to their guns on the matter.
If I want to watch a movie that has a region lock on it, I simply rip it to my PC and either stream it to my TV via my home network, or burn it to another medium.
Simple really, and done easily thanks to programd that are either free or have a trial period on them.
Troy
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 9:54 AMThis is why I preferred HD-DVD. No region locking. Still have about 10 movies and my Xbox HD-DVD player here, I’ll upgrade them one day…
Roger Osborne
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 12:16 PMLove the Xbox HD DVD drive, got mine for AUD$50 which included xbox remote and King Kong. Then bought up 30 odd HD DVD titles which I liked for between AUD$10-15 each – happy days !
red t-rex
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 5:28 PMMe too. It seems Blu-ray is still trying to catch up to HD-DVD. I started getting the HD-DVD’s before I even had the player as a lot of them came with the DVD version on the other side of the disk.
Cameron
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 10:02 AMSome studios are worse at this then others. I think Warner Brothers from memory seem to lock most of their blu-rays, whilst the likes of Sony doesn’t (maybe..?).
In any case I look up what blu-ray I’m purchasing in the region locking DB first to check, if it is region locked I wont import (obviously), but more importantly, I most likely wont buy it locally either.
Sicarius123
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 10:08 AMHow else could they charge double in some regions just because they know it will be paid, not for any real addition in distribution costs?
Or stop people from buying a movie on bluray when they want to release it at the cinema a year after other regions?
Oh well, they might be able to stop people from legally purchasing their product, but they can’t stop pirates.
Nathan
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 10:21 AM@Troy yep HD-DVD was a better format for consumers but un-surprisingly it still lost.
Sony know how to market to both consumers and movie execs.
red t-rex
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 5:32 PMIt wasn’t the marketing to consumers as they are still having trouble convincing people. What won it for them was the fact that Sony also own a movie studio and Sony movies would never have been available on HD-DVD. Also Microsoft’s fence sitting rather than taking the plunge and integrating the player into the XBOX didn’t help. The add-on was half arsed.
The Saint
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 10:44 AMMaybe one day the record companys will realise that they will never win this absurd business of telling the consumer how they will be get there content.
I’m pretty sure your supposed to give the consumer what they want, NOT tell them!!.
Sainty
SeanC
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 11:06 AMThis situation is infuriating. For instance; I’d love to see Dexter, Season’s 1 to 4 are available on Blu-ray in the US but Seasons 1 to 3 are region coded so if I want to see those I have to buy the DVD. Strangely, Season 4 IS available locally on Blu-ray. What the?!?!
I don’t want it on DVD, I want it on the new format but some blinkered asshat dosn’t think that’s necessary so I won’t buy any of it. Frankly, it’s their loss. If the Blu-ray wasn’t region locked but hadn’t been brought to Australia I’d import it but as it is it’s pointless so their ‘solution’ is now going to cost them money.
Believe me, I’d rather pay for it, The studios, actors and crew deserve to be paid for their work just as I expect to be for mine. But, if they don’t fix the situation I’ll torrent it, I won’t pay for a format I don’t want when the one I do is available.
Greg
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 2:25 PMOr, you could just do what people have been doing for years – use a multi-region player.
To the best of my knowledge there are almost zero unhackable/unlockable DVD/blu-ray players on the market so the whole region locking thing is irrelevant.
SeanC
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 10:25 PMAwesome, what a great idea, I should spend more money to get another version of a device that I already own just so I can play the media of a company that has quite clearly decided they’d rather I STOLE IT FROM THEM!
Sony, WB, et al, you have a customer who wants to give you money… do you want it or not?
Ben Evans
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 11:35 AMthis is the contempt they deserve.
http://isohunt.com/torrents/dexter?iht=-1&ihp=1&ihs1=1&iho1=d
Dave
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 11:40 AMAn even more magnificently infuriating example of this:
I worked on a movie a couple of years back called Accidents Happen, shot here in Australia. The blu-ray is region locked for region A and there is no local or UK hi-def release… So I can’t even get a good quality copy of a movie I FARKING WORKED ON because of region coding.
Awesome.
RufusLives
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 12:13 PMThanks to a magical invention called the internet I have no problem waiting for the movies I want to eventually turn up in a “buy two get one free” bargain bin. I’m all for paying for stuff I like, but I also know I won’t be missing out while I wait for it to be available at a price I am happy to pay.
Maybe someone should show the movie executives who still want region coding and regional price fixing this new fangled internet thing.
CK
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 12:34 PMI thought the origins of region codes was for instances when clasification being denied in one country meant it couldn’t be imported. OK, so we all know the censors ban a lot of trivial stuff, but that’s mostly because of laws. The entire world would seemingly have to see eye to eye before region codes disappear, for the sake of law.
But, it sure doesn’t help us when they can’t give us the right thing legally. I think those big movie companies just don’t give a damn what happens outside of their own country.
Painkiller
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 2:26 PMNope region coding has nothing to do with Classification. Just a way for movie studios to charge more money in different countries. its all about profit.
Wok
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 1:22 PMWhat’s a Blue Ray?
Dr_Stef
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 2:09 PMI think with Blu-Ray you have the choice to lock things on uop or authoring level. Authoring meaning you don’t actually use any of the uops to lock to a region, but chuck regioncode in one of the actual playlists. Doesn’t matter though. It’s still rippable, so pretty useless.
BenDTU
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 2:44 PMI torrented some stuff I already legally owned the other day. Is that weird?
But seriously, I say get rid of discs altogether and just go DRM-free online distribution for anything. Or at least give you the option to get some DRM-free files of whatever you’ve just bought.
chris
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 10:00 PMi have a samsung 3d blu-ray player (BD-6900) and you punch in a (service?) code and you then select which region to change it to, or select all regions. Only found this out the other day which is cool, so yeah, i dont have to worry bout this anymore. Not that it ever did but it is good knowing that i dont have to fart around on the comp to view it.
so might be worth checking if yours can do the same somehow.
Don Axon
Saturday, August 20, 2011 at 3:36 AMDoes anyone know of a petition to get the movie companies to ban region coding. I want several films but can’t get them in my region coding. So getting the region code banned would be very helpful