Region Free DVD Players: The Answer to DVD Zones?
I am currently in Italy combining work commitments and holidays with my family. As part of my (modest because of what is called here “the American Crisis”) holiday shopping, I have decided to opt for useful gifts for my children: so books and DVDs in Italian — fundamental items for little children growing in a bilingual environment (and for anyone who wants to learn a foreign language well). Books: no problem (apart, of course, from making sure to avoid too much weight for the plane). The problems start, however, with DVDs. And here is why.
The world of DVDs and DVD players is divided into six different zones or regions, i.e. DVDs from one zone only play on certain DVDs players, also sold in the same zone, and not in the other zones (so, DVDs bought in the U.S. do not work on common DVD players in Europe). The reason for these differences (that do not apply, on the other side, to music CDs) has traditionally been control. Motion picture studios (primarily in the U.S.) wanted to control the release of movies around the world since movies were released on DVD at different times (later in Europe or Japan, for example). In order to prevent the (uncontrolled) flow (i.e., parallel imports) of DVDs from one region to another (where a certain movie, for example, was still playing in theaters), these different regions with different technical standards were created. Thus, because of different technical standards on DVD disks, users could not use DVD products freely around the world.
Much has changed, however, since the advent of DVD regions in the DVD world.