Region Coding
What is DVD region coding?
Imposed by the film studios due to the staggered theatrical release of movies worldwide and to protect exclusive markets, DVD region coding was designed as a method of ensuring DVD's would be playable only in certain areas of the world.
DVD region 1: The US, US territories, Canada
DVD region 2: Europe, Japan, Middle East, Egypt, South Africa, Greenland
DVD region 3: Taiwan, Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia, Hong Kong
DVD region 4: Mexico, South America, Central America, Australia, New Zealand, Pacific Islands, Caribbean
DVD region 5: Russia (former USSR), Eastern Europe, India, most of Africa, North Korea, Mongolia
DVD region 6: China
How can I be sure a DVD will play on my equipment?
European law demands that any DVD player bought within the EU will have R2 set as it's default region. Any R2 DVD we produce should therefore be compatible with your player. All European R2 DVD use the PAL broadcast standard.
What is Region 0?
Also known as 'Region Free', Region 0 DVD's are compatible with any DVD player as they are specifically enabled for ALL areas of the world. However, Region 0 DVD are sometimes encoded in NTSC rather than PAL, which will require a NTSC compatible TV in order to ensure colour playback.
Can I watch DVDs on my PC or laptop?
Since December 31, 1999, all DVD-ROM drives have been manufactured with region restrictions, known as Region Protection Control (RPC2). Like DVD players purchased within the EU, European law dictates that DVD-ROM drives available are set to play R2 discs as default. Most PC monitors are easily able to display PAL or NTSC output, but if you use a 'TV-Out' port on your graphics card to pass the signal to a TV set you'll need an NTSC-compatible TV for stable colour playback of NTSC discs.
What is NTSC/PAL?
There are two different methods for picture decoding standards: Europe (R2) uses the PAL system; North America (R1) uses the NTSC system.
What will I need to view NTSC discs?
In order for stable colour reproduction during playback, you'll require a NTSC compatible TV, often referred to as a 'multi-standard' or 'world' specification.
How are NTSC and PAL different?
Firstly, NTSC and PAL differ in the number of scan lines available in the vertical axis of the screen; NTSC has 480, PAL has 576. Secondly, there is a slight variation between NTSC and PAL running speeds. Where conventional film runs at 24 frames per second (fps), a TV signal runs at 30 fps (60 fields) for NTSC, or 25 fps (50 fields) for PAL. For a PAL display, the simple method when transferring film is to present the film frames at 25 a second instead of 24 (the 4% speedup as mentioned above) and speed up the image to be synchronous with the images. The speedup raises the pitch of available audio tracks by one half of one tone although it's debatable as to whether this is distinguishable by the human ear. The solution for a NTSC display is to spread the 24 film frames across the 60 video fields by alternating the display of the first film frame for 2 video fields and the next film frame for 3 video fields. This process is referred to as 2-3 pulldown and, again, it's questionable whether this process is noticeable to the human eye. Neither format is inherently better than the other.
What is aspect ratio?
Aspect ratio refers to the relative dimensions of the film image (the width-to-height ratio) - there are two standard ratios: fullscreen and widescreen.
What is fullscreen?
This is the typical 'square' image favoured (until recently) by television presentations. This aspect ratio is expressed as 4:3 or 1.33:1, which means that the frame is 1.33 times as wide as it is tall. Fullscreen presentations fill the entire screen of standard 'square' televisions. If a fullscreen image is viewed on a widescreen television, the screen will be wider than image and black bars will be visible on the right and left sides.
What is widescreen?
Widescreen is the characteristic 'rectangular' image favoured by in most film presentations. There are several aspect ratios that may be called 'widescreen' but the most common are (in order of increasing width) 1.66:1, 1.78:1 (also referred to as 16:9), 1.85:1 and 2.35:1. If a widescreen image is viewed in on a standard television, the screen will be taller than the image and black bars visible at the top and bottom. The thickness of these bars will depend on the aspect ratio of the widescreen presentation: the wider the aspect ration, the thicker the black bars.
What is letterbox widescreen?
Letterbox widescreen (sometimes referred to as LBX) is a method of preserving the rectangular image of a widescreen presentation. Unfortunately, letterboxed presentations (depending on the aspect ratio) do not always reach the sides (left and right) of viewable screen on a widescreen TV set, prompting the need for viewers to use the 16:9 or 'Zoom' feature of their DVD player or TV to expand the image causing a loss of resolution. This issue relates only to widescreen TVs.
What is anamorphic widescreen?
Anamorphic enhancement is a process for widescreen TVs where the original image is compressed by 33% in the vertical axis during encoding. When the player decodes the image, the vertical axis is decompressed giving a higher resolution and greater clarity. Anamorphically enhanced DVDs can be viewed just as easily on fullscreen TVs as widescreen ones although the process is usually not discernible. PC monitors, despite almost universally being 4:3, have a higher resolution than TV sets and so can display the widescreen image in a window 854x480 pixels or higher for NTSC, 1024x576 or higher for PAL). Despite a common misunderstanding, the term 'anamorphic' does not ensure that the image will entirely fill the screen of a widescreen TV set.
What is Dolby Digital as a sound format?
Dolby Digital is a system capable of multi channel digital audio, coded using technology previously known as AC-3, often abbreviated as DD.
What is Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono?
A single channel of digital audio. On a surround sound system, the audio stream will be directed through the front centre speaker.
What is Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono?
Somewhat confusingly, this is actually also a single channel of digital audio. The same audio stream is directed to the front left and front right speakers. Very few discs use this format.
What is Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo?
Two channels of digital audio. One stream will be directed to the front left speaker, the other to the front right speaker.
What is Dolby Digital Surround?
Initially known as simply Dolby Surround, this is an audio mixing technique that bolts on a rear channel and a centre channel onto a standard two-channel signal. With a two speaker sound system, these extra channels will be automatically mixed into the audio streams for the left and right speaker.
What is Dolby Digital 4.0?
Four channels of digital audio. On a surround sound system the audio streams will be directed to the front left, front right, rear left and rear right speakers.
What is Dolby Digital 4.1?
Four channels of digital audio incorporating an additional low frequency effects channel (denoted by the '.1', this channel is otherwise known as LFE). On a surround sound system the audio streams will be directed to the front left, front right, rear left and rear right speakers with the LFE channel directed to the subwoofer.
What is Dolby Digital 5.1?
Five channels of digital audio incorporating a LFE channel. On a surround sound system the audio streams will be directed to the front left, front right, rear left and rear right speakers, the low frequency channel directed to the subwoofer with dialogue generally confined to the front centre speaker.
What is Dolby Digital 5.1 EX?
Five channels of digital audio incorporating a LFE channel, including support for a rear centre speaker by mixing across sound from the rear left and rear right speakers.
What is Dolby Digital 6.1?
Six channels of digital audio incorporating a LFE channel. This format differs from DD5.1 EX as it provides dedicated support for a rear centre speaker. This format is fully compatible for owners of a traditional 5.1 surround sound system.
What is DTS?
An abbreviation of Digital Theatre Systems, DTS is a rival audio format to Dolby Digital 5.1 and also involves five channels of digital audio incorporating a LFE channel. It differs slightly from DD5.1 by utilising a slightly narrower dynamic range and higher bit-rate audio encoding.
What is DTS ES?
Five channels of DTS digital audio incorporating a LFE channel, including support for a rear centre speaker by mixing across sound from the rear left and rear right speakers.
Can I view a DVD with a Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track if I don't have a surround sound system?
Absolutely. Dolby Digital will automatically downmix the audio streams depending on how many speaker channels are available.
Can I view a DVD with a DTS audio track without a DTS decoder?
Unfortunately not. To benefit from DTS audio you'll require a dedicated decoder in your DVD player, your home cinema amp/receiver, or your TV.
What are subtitles for the hard of hearing/hearing impaired?
These are subtitles specifically designed for viewers who may have trouble clearly defining particular dialogue or sound when viewing a DVD. Such subtitles streams not only reproduce dialogue in text on the screen but also give visual clues to sonic events taking place on the screen. For example, if the sound of a telephone can be heard then '[phone rings]' or similar text will be displayed.