DVDs are coded into one of five regions (1 - 5)depending on where they are sold around the world. Blu-ray discs on the other hand are divided into three regions (a, b, c). The regions are purely commercial and are used to prevent content intended for one market being sold or used in another. Licensing agreements between publishers and rights holders mean there are different restrictions for HD content.
There is no technical reason for the difference in region coding nor for the use of the coding at all.
A region 1 DVD is intended to be used in North America. Any BluRay player purchased in North America should play the disc. Bluray players from other regions such as Europe will be expecting to play discs marked with a different region code so are unlikely to pay a region 1 DVD.
Region 2 DVD players are specified for a particular region, Germany. Home Theater and DVD Demystified provide information on the functions and limitations of Region 2 DVD players.
you have to set them to on the dvd menu but they can
North America is classed as region 1 for DVD, Bluray and games coding. The codes are there specifically to prevent discs from one region being used in another. Region 2 covers Europe. There have been a handful of DVD players that did not check the region code and would play discs from any region. Bluray players appear to be far more tightly controlled and it is very unlikely that any commercially available player will allow the coding to be bypassed. It is possible that players can be modified to remove the coding restrictions but these are unofficial modifications, void warranties and cannot be guaranteed to work continuously. As frustrating as the region coding is, the easiest and lowest cost route to take is to buy discs intended for use on your own player. Note that as the region coding is a commercial protection, non commercial DVD and Bluray discs do not have the code and can be handled by any player. That is subject to the player and the television handling European 50Hz content. The US normally uses 60Hz video so there is still no guarantee that your specific setup will work. It's a case of studying the manuals to make sure.
July 15, 2014
Information for the UK is as follows:* TV Encoding: PAL* DVD Region: Region 2* Wii Region Group: Europe (Also sometimes called PAL)----
February 13, 2013
Since you have posted this in the DVD Players section, I assume you are talking about DVD Region Codes.The UK and the rest of Europe share region B for Blu-Ray disks, region 2 for DVDs.
No. They have different TV formats. The US use NTSC and our TV's are PAL. The only way to get around this is to either copy the DVD to your computer and re-burn it in NTSC format; or make sure that the DVD player is Multi-region.
Europe is region 2 for DVD and Bluray disc encoding. Most region 2 discs will play without a problem in a UK player. Note that there is a facility to add a sub region to the code, so dividing Europe into smaller regions. It is rarely, if ever used, but technically, it is possible to further restrict the use of discs from the remainder of Europe in the UK.
DVDs are usually encoded with a region number. North America is number 1 and Europe is region 2. In order to play a DVD, the disc and the player need to be coded as the same region. Most US DVDs therefore won't play on most English players. There are a handful of players that ignore the region code but most are third party modifications and often will not be covered by any manufacturer's warranty. Yes, you need a multi-region DVD player to solve the region code imcompatible issue.
Not unless the DVD player has been hacked to become a multi-region player. Europe uses Region 2 DVD players and disks and Australia uses Region 4.