It is my understanding that dvd region 9 will play on all 8 defined regions. Is this true?
The last I heard there were 6 defined regions, with Region 0 disks playing on all 6. Has this changed?
There are six world regions in use, but a seventh and eighth are set aside for other purposes, and presumably rather seldom-used. Here are the regions:
Notice the absence of a region 0. That’s because it’s not officially defined. However, in common usage, region 0 does refer to a disc that has no region at all. Region codes are optional in the DVD spec.
I’ve never heard of a disc called “region 9,” but I know that in the menus for some region-unlockable DVD players, “region 9” means “region free.” I guess that’s where it came from.
Region 9 is reserved for future use, and hence not listed on most lists
Region 9 behavior is undefined, but the ‘region free’ hacks on many DVD players involve setting he player’s region to region 9. Whether this is just a software bug, or an intentional underground marketing feature is left as an issue for speculation.
I just programmed a DVD player to be “region 9”. It seems some players use this region code as a universal player so that it will still play those DVDs which will not play in region 0 players. I bet we will soon see DVD disks which will not play in region 0 OR 9 players.