What is the point of DVD regions?

Other countries use PAL?

It sucks with PC based DVD players.

When Lee came over from England he had a bunch of UK DVD's and they couldnt be played over here on his PC until he changed all the region settings, they can only be changed once on PC's btw, so when and if he goes back to England he is screwed as he cant play any DVDs on his machine over there

to help enforce regional distribution contracts.

But you can buy DVD players now that will play all the regions, as well as PAL and NTSC.

Aren't you Lee?

It's simple:

To help Movie companies make more money. As they don't havt to release movies around the world at once. So a movie comes out on DVD in the US when it haven't even been released in theaters in Europe.

If you can play the US DVD and speak English you will never go to the movies again. In theory of course as the DVD players simply play all of the codes nowadays if you change a simple setting.

Almost right Andi, and to elaborate Pixel's answer it works like this.

Some companies don't own the distribution rights to their own films for different countries. For example, here in Australia MGM use a company called United International Pictures (UIP) (who I believe are owned by Paramount) to distribute their films like, say, the James Bond franchise.

Then, what happens when someone buys a Region 4 DVD of James Bond in Australia a chunk of money goes to the store owner, the distribution company (UIP), and then to the studio or production company who made the fucker (MGM and Brocolli Productions).

Now, if I was import a region 1 release of a James Bond film then the money would go to the store owner, and then probably MGM, and then some more to MGM and Brocolli Productions....see the problem now? UIP in Australia is missing out on a sale.

Why would I want to import a region 1 disc you may ask? For many reasons, 1) It may be out before it's released in theatres here in Australia or I may just want it on DVD earlier (sometimes, it takes a while for them to do the PAL transfer and then get the fuckin' dvd actually made in every other region) 2) The Distribution Companies look after the manufacturing of the regional DVDs, so that means content can often be different between the PAL and NTSC versions....

Personally, I'm over importing. I'd much rather the extra resolution that PAL gives us.

All that made sense back when there were no multi-region DVD players available for sale, but now the big name DVD player manufacturers make players that can play DVDs from every region. So what is the point of having DVD region specific DVDs anymore?

From the beginning it was a great idea. Region 1 can only be played in region 1 DVD players, because of the reason MarkEDouglas said.

But if I remember correct, it breached the trade act. If you can't import dvd's from another country, it's unfair competition.

Let me see if I can find a doc about it.

Nobody has ever prevented anyone from importing DVDs from other regions as far as I know. It's just that other region DVDs wouldn't play on whatever region DVD player you had. But now you can buy DVD players that play all the regions, that's why I'm wondering what is the point of maintaining all these DVD regions?

http://www.epinions.com/elec-review-...39077F49-prod6
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Law Breaking
According to OpenDVD.org, DVD players with region codes are illegal in New Zealand. Additionally, DVD regions are rumored to violate certain World Trade Organization laws. I do not have access to the WTO laws, and I have not seen the actual passage which states the law, so I cannot verify this rumor. If anyone finds information on this, PLEASE email me.
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http://www.codefreedvd.com/dvd_dvdre...gexplained.htm
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Why are there 6 regions?
Movies are released on DVD at different times around the world, typically America and Canada first, Australia and Japan 6 months later, and Europe 12 months after US release. In some instances, DVD movies are available for purchase in America and Canada before they are released in European cinemas.
Due to the high quality of DVD and the movie release system used by Hollywood, 5 regions were establish to prevent people from watching Region 1 movies before they were released on Regions 2-6.
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http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/pi...ay/016288.html
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REGIONAL restrictions on DVDs could be an anti-competitive practice and a
breach of the Trade Practices Act, the Australian Competition and Consumer
Commission has warned.
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http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/archive.../msg06461.html
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Recent Slashdot posters have referred to a possible
case where DMCA differences with WIPO and the DVD
region coding might be considered by the European
Community to be in restraint of free international
trade.
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http://www.accc.gov.au/speeches/2001...3%5F4%5F01.htm

Because most players that are sold in regular big chain stores are not region free?
So they can still enforce the main purpose of having regions.

I guess they can for now, but I'm seeing more and more region free DVD players available for sale. I suppose in a few years DVD regions will be fairly useless.