Get a Toshiba. Great picture quality.
Well, there’s probably plenty of information on websites out there that can explain this better than I can, but I’ll try a quick summary.
DVD’s and DVD players are marked with from 1 to 8 regions, depending on what part of the world they’re in. For various reasons, production companies want to be able to handle the release of DVD’s differently in different parts of the world. In some cases, different companies may actually be responsible for foreign releases, or there are different standards to deal with (e.g. NTSC vs. PAL), so region-coding almost makes sense.
However, the problem(from a consumer standpoint) is a DVD player set to one region will not be able to play DVD’s from a different region. The main reason this has happened is because movies made in one country often take weeks, even months or years before they make it to other parts of the world; it’s possible for the DVD to be released somewhere before the movie even hits theaters in other parts of the world. The entertainment companies see this as a bad thing.
First, there’s the “old way” of region encoding :
Each disk is marked with some information indicating its region (though it is possible for a disc to be region-free, I doubt any commercial DVD’s are.) The DVD player also contains some indication of where it was sold, so (for example) a DVD player sold in the US will be factory-set to Region 1. The player’s region code makes no difference to the device; a player sold in Japan will be identical to the same model sold in the US, the only difference being that the region code is set differently.
When you put the disk in, the player will check to make sure that it is set to the region indicated on the disk; if it isn’t, it will usually indicate on-screen that it can’t play the disk. However, the DVD player itself may be set to be region-free (“Region 0”) in which case it doesn’t care what disc you put in it.
That should have handled things, but, as you might have guessed, it’s often a fairly simple procedure to switch your player to another region or to be region-free. Obviously, if most people have the choice, they’ll choose region-free, and quite a number of people with players perform(ed) this modification, or had it serviced by a company that does this for a fee. (All indications I’ve seen are that this particular modification is legal just about anywhere in the world.)
The ability of people to easily have a DVD movie shipped from another country playing on their home player while that same movie is being released in local theaters did not sit well with the production companies. So they (I think Sony came up with it first, but I could be wrong) created RCE, or
Region Code Enhancement (“Oooh! Enhanced! That sounds good!”)
The purpose of RCE was to kill the region-free DVD player. A RCE disc will not play if the region of the DVD player does not exactly match the region of the disc. Thus a region-free DVD player, since it doesn’t match any commercial disc, won’t be able to play a RCE disc.
Now, there are still ways to get the RCE disc to work and still see DVD’s from other regions. Some consumer models allow you to easily change the region through the remote – so you can manually set the region before putting the RCE disc in. Others will sometimes even continue to play the RCE disc (though you can’t get the menus) if you just hit ‘play’. And there are some players that, apparently, have a code or hardware solution to make them effectively region-free. A DVD drive in a computer is usually even easier to work with, as everything’s in firmware (or software).
Occasionally the company itself will even give you the change code, but it might only work a set number of times (usually pretty low, like <25). After that, you’re stuck in whatever region you last set it in.
Why is this even a concern?
Well, there are the people who do want to do exactly what the production companies don’t want them to do – get movies from another region before they hit theaters. If you’re inside the US, this is very rarely a concern.
However, if you’re the sort who’s really into those foreign films, or are desperate to see Nicole Kidman as God made her and Stanley Kubrick filmed her, it’s just one more difficulty. It seems even more of a problem since it seems such a silly hurdle – the exact same player is prevented from doing something it should easily do.
Is this an option for most consumers?
It’s both fairly simple and maddeningly difficult. Yes, you can get one of the players that’s remote-settable, but there aren’t that many brands, and almost none in the <$200 range. Practically no Sony, Toshiba, or Panasonic players that can be set without opening the case (voiding the manufacturer’s warranty). Sending it to a service (who might provide their own warranty) may cost up to $100, and even then you might not be able to play RCE discs.
It’s quite a mess, so don’t bother getting into it unless you really have a good reason to. If you do buy your player (or your movies) online, be sure to check that they clearly identify the region. (One more note : if you are getting movies from another country, you have to make sure that the video format matches. For example, NTSC is used in the US, PAL is used in most of Europe. Again, some DVD players will easily play both, some will only play one, some can be switched, etc. But it’s a separate issue from region-coding; it’s simply due to different TV standards that have been around a long time – the same thing occured with VHS tape.)
Ah yes… DVD “Regions”. <technologist’s rant> What happens when lawyers from money-grubbing movie companies interfere with a perfectly-good playback technology: “Incorporate our playback restrictions into the standard or we won’t release any movies on your new discs.” </technologist’s rant> But then I’m biased.
The good people who run the DVD licensing organization have divided the world into regions. Each region gets a number, and the DVD players sold in that region are supposed to incorporate the number.
DVD discs containing movies also get numbers. The DVD player is supposed to play only discs with a matching number.
The movie companies like these region-codes because they allow them to make greater profit when releasing movies to theatres and to DVD discs at different times.
Let’s say that a movie is first released to the theatre in Region 1. Later, the movie is released to theatres in Region 2. At the same time, the movie is released to DVD in Region 1.
Without the region codes, people in Region 2 could go to Region 1 and buy the DVDs of the movie there; the movie companies fear that this would reduce the movie’s theatre-ticket sales in Region 2.
With the region codes, the people of Region 2 can still buy the DVD of the movie in Region 1, but when they get back home to Region 2, their Region-2 DVD players will simply refuse to play their shiny new Region-1 DVD disc. The movie company’s profit is not lessened.
There is nothing to prevent a DVD disc from having more than one region-code number, or indeed a code of “ALL”, indicating that it can be played in any DVD player. (I’m ignoring issues of video standards here).
There are also “multi-region” DVD players.
As far as I know, selling of DVD players with changeable region codes is not illegal (although I am sure that there are people who would like to make it illegal). In Toronto, in the shops that sell “international” electronics, you can get a multi-region DVD player no problem: just lay down your debit card.
Much more than you ever wanted to know about DVDs: The DVD FAQ.
See especially the part about region codes.
My Panasonic ‘remembers’ where I left off on a disk if I shut it off (as long as I don’t remove the DVD from the player.
Thanks Sunspace and panamajack for the detailed info on Region Encoding. The only thing to add is that there are some titles that aren’t released in R1 that are released elsewhere, also that there are sometimes some releases that have better quality or more features in a R2 or R0.
The DVD player will connect to your TV the same way your VCR is connected now – through a composite video cable. And therein lies a potential problem.
Your first instinct will be to “daisy chain” the DVD player to the VCR to the TV, but this will probably fail. The VCR will detect whether the DVD you’re playing is encoded with Macrovision, and if so, deliberately distort the picture in order to stop you from recording it. (The vast majority of DVDs are Macrovision-encoded, so this is an important consideration.)
Fortunately, there are several possible solutions:
(a) buy a DVD player that allows you to disable macrovision. Few respectable name brands offer this feature, but some player models are hackable.
(b) buy a DVD-VCR combo. Copying will still be restricted of course, but DVD playback won’t be distorted.
© buy a composite A|B switch to select between DVD or VCR.
The region business:
In order to control the release pattern of DVDs, Hollywood insisted that the world be divided into “regions” in which a DVD coded for one locale cannot be played in another. What this means is that you can’t play a Japanese DVD (Region 6, I believe) in a North American player (Region 1) even though the underlying television standard (NTSC) is the same.
This is really only an annoyance if you travel abroad and want to take your DVDs with you, or perhaps buy foreign DVDs to watch at home. Again, few respectable brands will let you override this restriction without some kind of warranty-voiding hack.
But even if you were to obtain a “region-free” player, there are three incompatible television standards in use throughout the world: NTSC (North America and Japan), SECAM (France and Russia) and PAL (Britain, Australia and the rest of the world).
SECAM and PAL recordings can’t be viewed on a North American television set unless the player you buy contains circuitry to convert those signals to NTSC. But none of this is relevant unless you intend to collect foreign titles, so don’t let it confuse you.
Actually, IMO, the most important consideration is one that hasn’t been discussed yet: the quality of the MPEG-2 decoder chip inside the player itself. This is ultimately what determines the quality of the picture, and they are definitely not created equal. Cheap players use cheap decoders, and the difference in performance can be astonishing.
If you plan to buy your DVD player at a retail store, rent or buy a few DVDs in three specific genres – animation, action, and drama – and watch a few key scenes from each on the players you’re interested in. Pay attention to the details, particularly in fast-action scenes. Inferior decoders, common to the inexpensive Chinese imports, will speak for themselves.
I recently bought a JVC XV-S502SL DVD player, mostly because of its compatability with a fairly wide variety of discs:
- DVD-Video (of course), but also
- DVD-R (one variety of recordable DVD disc),
- SVCD and VCD (two precursors to the DVD format), and
- CD-DA (regular prerecorded audio CD).
It can also play CD-Rs and CD-RWs containing CD-DA data, VCD data, SVCD data, MP3 files, and even JPEG pictures.
The VCD format stores video at approximately VHS quality; the SVCD format stores video at higher quality and includes some DVD-like menu features.
The interesting thing about VCD and SVCD is that they use regular CD discs; thus the video hobbyist can create them on a regular CD recorder …assuming–and this is a big assumption–that ey has the proper recording software and video-editing tools. This is what I am learning about.
Incidentally, this particular player, which is NTSC, will also play back PAL discs… assuming that they have a Region 1 or ALL code. This was not mentioned on the box, and only announced by one sentence in the manual. Do such PAL discs exist?
The XV-S502SL memorizes the playback positions of the last thirty discs played in it. And the main playback buttons on the remote glow in the dark. 
Wow! That’s everything I could possibly want to know about regions. Thanks very much to everyone who took the time and trouble to reply to my question.
The only thing that I have to add is that Consumer Reports rated GE DVD players as the worst of the bunch a couple of years ago. A buddy of mine has one, but he hasn’t had too many problems with it. (It does, however, have the annoying habit of “looping” a section of Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou? for some inexplicable reason.)
THANK GAWD for this thread! I was just going to start one of my own, since I’ve got tax refund money and a collection of DVDs with nothing to play them on right now (I moved out of a house that had a Playstation 2). I’m just like Zev - budget of $200 or under, don’t need any bells and whistles. Lucky I know how to use the “search” function. Although I wasn’t allowed to search for “DVD”, so I had to get creative (damn hamsters).
Maybe I missed it, but I didn’t see anybody post this yet:
Go here for all things video. They have everything you ever needed to know about conversions, capture, what have you. They even have an extensive comparison of DVD players with side-by-side feature comparison (they even say which ones are hackable). They have forums for asking all of your most detailed questions.
Make sure it does SVCD and VCD.
And I can now add that I’ve had my Apex for a year and it’s worked flawlessly through watching about 150 movies.
My only advice is this: Buy a DVD player that can play DVDs from any region. I’ve got a cheap DVD player and was able to play the few code 1 DVDs, that just aren’t available in Europe as code 2 DVDs, with that.
My parents have got an expensive player and of course those DVDs won’t play on it.
This whole regional code thing is just the sad attempt to produce an artificial market and I for one am not going to play that silly game. If I am on vacation and see a good DVD, that just isn’t available at home, I want to be able to buy and play it.
So, my recommendation would be to get a player, which ignores region codes (side note: I am still of the opinion that region codes are illegal in the first place, but apparently so far nobody succesfully sued. sigh).
Here’s some advice from Toshiba:
Of course, they’ll want you to buy a Toshiba player…but this article will give you some insight into the technologies involved in digital video.
If you want to learn more:
To reiterate what others have said: $200 is enough to buy a very nice (nearly top of the line). I recommended that a friend take up a deal for Best Buy a few months back, buy a six pack of DVDs (all of which were pretty good movies) for $80, and they threw in the player for free. If you want to go cheap, think about $50-75.
If your TV doesn’t have any video inputs, I strongly suggest you replace the TV. You lose a noticeable amount of resolution going through the RF converter.
Go cheap, spend $75 bucks, and put the other $125 into a TV fund. You can get a nice standard TV for $200-300.
If you go pricier and stick with your TV, I suggest a 5 disc changer. Not so useful for DVDs, but it’ll be able to be your CD player as well.
Beware, you cannot play PAL DVDs successfully unless you have a PAL capable TV set. This has nothing to do with Region-Coding, or with your DVD Player, it’s all to do with your TV.
My first DVD player was (is) a Toshiba and I have had zero problems with it. It is currently coming up on 4 years old.
My second DVD player is a Panasonic and is a progressive scan player. Far better picture than my Toshiba (progressive scan DVD player and new widescreen HDTV) but it is quite noticeably slower accessing menus, starting movie play, etc., than my older Toshiba.
I believe my Panasonic retailed at around 179.00 when I bought it 12 months ago. My Toshiba was almost 400.00 4 years ago.
Even though your t.v. is older and won’t support it, I recommend getting a progressive scan player with component, s-video, and digital audio outputs anyway. The odds are, your new dvd player is going to outlive your curren t.v. and when you try to replace the t.v. you are going to need these connector options.
I understand where a lot of people are coming from in regards to regional encoding but I recommend you really evaluate how important that is going to be to you. Do you purchase obscure, rare, or “cult” type films from eBay that are only available overseas? Do you vacation overseas regularly, and if so do you shop for movies while on vacation? I’m not saying some people do not need to get around regional encoding, but for 99.99% of the consumer market it is a non-issue.
Good luck,
MeanJoe
That is true, however it’s the principle that’s annoying me. Forcing regional codes on the customers is something that gives me the creeps. It’s especially annoying, since I am one of the 0.01% that actually has got DVDs from both region 1 and region 2.
If you were into movies enough to care you probably would already have a DVD player, but I also would recommend an all-region player just to keep your options open. You don’t necessarily have to find one that’s advertised as such, I don’t remember the URL but there’s a pretty good site listing tons of models that are switchable to all-region coding just by entering a code on the remote. Apparently there are some regio n 1 DVDs that are being “super region coded” (or something) so that all-regions players won’t play them; I haven’t run into any yet, but with a player that is remote-hackable rather than designed as all-region it’s a simple matter to switch back.
A couple of minor observations:
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zev - you have already stated you have no desire for home theater sound. Obviously, your call. I want to say, however, that the improvement in sound from a home theater system has turned out to be at least as important to our family as the improvement in image and flexibility from DVD’s. It’s not just for action films. It can be a subtle, immersing quality that adds to any type of movie (especially modern movie with appropriately designed sound).
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As others have said, DVD “engines” are relatively simple and many brands have the same private label guts inside them.
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With #1 and #2 in mind, when we bought our DVD, we actually bought a home theater system and got the DVD player for free. We bought a Cambridge Soundworks system which has been great, but there are many out there now, with prices starting at $300 - 500. I bet there are deals where you can get a free DVD player - you might consider it, if the brand is one you know and have researched…
Like WordMan mentioned above, I recommend doing some Sunday-clippings watching. My brother got a Sony DVD player, with a complete surround sound speaker system for just over $200 at Best Buy. I know you weren’t up for that in your OP, but neither was my brother. He hasn’t regretted a minute of it, especially the first time you hear something behind you in your own living room.