Welcome to brain Stuff from house stuff works dot com where smart happens. I am Marshall Brain with today's question why can I play some DVD movies but not others on my computers? DVD ROM player DVD movies have region codes, and they typically only play on a player or DVD ROM drives sold in the country where the DVD movie was sold. The actual region code is in one byte on the DVD. The DVD player or drive has a
region code and its firmware. Personal computer DVD ROM players often have the code either in their software or the MPEG two dcoder. The two codes must match for the player or drive to play the movie. The code is also printed on the back of the DVD package, superimposed on a small image of the lobe. Region code protection is used by the movie studios to thwart an authorized duplication of their copyrighted material and to control the worldwide
release dates. Movie studios agreed to the DVD format when DVD manufacturers agreed to put a region code on every disc. DVD region locking is used to control which DVD movies play in which regions or groups of countries. Movies are often released on different dates around the world, Region one has its own player that will only play Region one discs. Likewise, Region two players only play Region two discs, and so on.
The six region codes are number one United States and Canada, number two, Europe and Japan, number three, Southeast Asia, number four, Latin American Australia, number five Russia and the rest of Asian Africa, and number six China. Be sure to check out our new video podcast, Stuff from the Future. Join how staffork staff as we explore the most promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow. The hou stefforks iPhone app has arrived. Download it today on iTunes.