Multiregion Blu-Ray DVD Players - What Are They?
BLU-RAY (aka BLURAY) HI-defintion players are not the same worldwide. In fact a BLU-RAY disc from one of the three REGIONS won't usually play at all on players from the other two regions.
What are these regions and why are they? See below.
But is there such a thing as a MULTIREGION BLU-RAY player and if so will you need a special Multisystem TV?
Yes, MULTIREGION BLU-RAY players do exist today and no you don't need a PAL-NTSC TV to display the BLURAY movies. Any working TV with HDMI input will work fine.
BLU-RAY REGIONs A and B and C and DVD REGIONs 1 and 2 will be available around March 1st 2008.
What are BLU-RAY "Regional Codes"? "Country Codes"? "Zones"? and will they affect you and me?
Hollywood producers want to control the home release of movies in different countries because theater releases are often on different dates in the world wide release of a movie.
A movie may come out on Blu-ray Disc in the U.S. when it's just hitting screens in Europe so to prevent various regions of the world from buying the BLU-RAY movies before they have come out in cinemas, thereby reducing the box office sales of those films and certainly the eventual BLU-RAY dvd release as well of those films there are devices created to stop such TV viewing of new movies.
Besides being able to see movies before approved release dates many films come out in various edited versions. Some have scenes deleted or augmented in various versions but if you want the complete unedited version of your favorite film and it isn't available in your country you might normally have no way of ever seeing it unless you traveled to a country having your version available. But just because you can see it in that country doesn't mean you can take it home and view it on your player and on your TV. Quite the contrary. That's where a multiregion BLU-RAY DVD player comes in.
To block you studio require that the Blu-ray standard include codes to prevent playback of certain discs in certain geographical regions. Each player is given a code for the region in which it's sold. The player will refuse to play discs that are not coded for its region. This means that a disc bought in one country may not play on a player bought in another country and even if it could there is the matter of the VIDEO STANDARD to deal with. There are two standards in regular DVDs and two in BLU-RAY (Please rad below about this as actually in HDMI there are NO video standards) and they are NTSC and PAL. These alone make it impossible to view a disc of one standard on a TV that isn't of that standard even if you have a MULTIREGION BLU-RAY DVD player. The TV must match (unless you have a BLU-RAY discs playing in a MULTIREGION PLAYER via HDMI output)!
These TVs do exit and come in all video standards, formats (tune type CRT-LCD-PLASMA etc.) sizes and voltages. Or you can buy a quality DIGITAL VIDEO STANDARDS converter such as a TENLAB and simply use any working TV on earth to view your movies.
But please note:
If you out a BLU-RAY movie via the HMDI cable to an HMDI TV of any standard (PAL, NTSC, SECAM etc.) you will see a perfect picture as BLU-RAY and HDMI have done away with the traditional Video Standards like PAL, NTSC etc.
If you have a BLU-RAY region C disc it will play on all BLU-RAY players worldwide as there is no REGION C lock on them.
So any BLU-RAY region free for regions A and B or any BLU-RAY player that is not multiregion will play all REGION C BLU-RAY discs on any TV with HDMI input.
Miracle, the age of having to deal with non-compatible video standards has ended. Only REGIONS A and B are still incompatible and with a MULTIREGION (AKA MULTI-REGION, MULTI REGION etc.) player one can view any and ALL Blu-Ray movies on any TV on earth with HDMI.
To be confusing however please note:
If your TV does not have an HDMI input then you will still be stuck needing a PAL-NTSC TV or a video standards converter to view BLU-RAY movies via the RCA or S-VIDEO video output.
3 regions (also called locales or zones) have been defined, and each one is assigned a number. Players and discs are often identified by their region number superimposed on a world globe. If a disc plays in more than one region it will have more than one number on the globe.
Region A: North America, Central America, South America, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia
Region B: Europe, Greenland, French territories, Middle East, Africa, Australia and New Zealand
Region C: Pakistan, India, Mainland China, Russia, Central and South Asia
