DVD Regional Codes

What does regional coding mean ?

Coding allows disc manufacturers to control the release pattern of movies on DVD. This means that movies from Region 1 (USA & Canada) WILL NOT play on an unmodified DVD player coded for regions 2 through to 6. Effectively, Region 1 discs play only on Region 1 unmodified DVD players, Region 4 discs play only on Region 4 unmodified DVD players and so on.

The majority of the DVDs that we carry (and on-sell to you) are coded for Region 4 and are not intended (and unsuitable) for sale outside of Australia, New Zealand, Pacific Islands, Central America, Mexico, South America, and the Caribbean.

When you purchase a Region 1 disc via this site you will be making the purchase from an affiliate of ours outside of Australia. YOU will have individual account arrangements through that affiliate and your responsibility is to them rather than dvdorchard as far as Region 1 purchases go. In order to play these discs you would need to have either a Region 1 DVD player or a player modified to read such discs. Note that modifications to DVD players differ from player to player and that there are two basic methods. The first method is that the player is modified to become a Region 0 player, or a player that effectively ignores the region coding - note that movie studio's are starting to cater for this modification in their protection methods. The second method, and perhaps more long-term, is that the player is modified so that the user can instruct it to behave like a player from the region required to play an individual disc. Often the instruction to the dvd player is via a security code entered by the remote control. With this method the coding on the disc sees the player as being of the correct region. Email us if you need some assistance with dvd modifications and we will try to point you in the right direction.

Why are there eight regions ?

Hollywood 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. (This is similar to the worldwide release pattern of major U.S.-made motion pictures.) In some instances, DVD movies are available for purchase in America and Canada before they are released in European and Australian cinemas. Due to the high quality of DVD and the movie release system used by Hollywood, 6 regions were established to prevent people from watching Region 1 movies before they were released in Regions 2 to 6.

You can determine the region number of your disc or player by looking for a small, standardized globe icon with the region number superimposed on it. If a disc plays in more than one region it will have more than one number on the globe. If a disc does not have any regional coding it will say "ALL" for all regions.