

However, there may never be a North American release of less popular films, for example Das letzte U-Boot (DEFA, 1993), and if such DVDs are purchased from countries in other regions they will not play on North American video equipment.
Region free blu ray player uk code#
For example, in the USA I can purchase a DVD of Das Boot (Bavaria Film, 1981) with region code "1". The reason why is that the North American market is large enough to justify a separate North American release of very popular films. There are some foreign DVDs sold in North America which have a region code of "1", including films produced in the UK that are intended for sale in North America. For a more detailed breakdown of where these region codes are used, see the Wikipedia article DVD region code. There are also region codes "7" and "8", which have special purposes. South America, Central America, Caribbean, Mexico, New Zealand, Australia, Papua New Guinea and much of Oceaniaīangladesh, India, Nepal, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Africa (except Egypt, South Africa, Swaziland, and Lesotho), Central and South Asia, Mongolia, North Korea

Southeast Asia, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau territoriesĮurope, Middle East, Egypt, Japan, South Africa, Swaziland, Lesotho, Greenland, French Overseas departments and territories Region 0 is commonly referred to as "Region Free", especially when talking about DVD and Blu-ray Disc players. Part 2: Where DVD Region Codes Are Used? DVD Region Codeĭiscs that bear the region 0 symbol either have no flag set or have regions 1–6 flags set. An R1 dvd purchased in Canada is exactly the same as an R1 dvd purchased in the U.S., and vice versa. and CANADA share the SAME REGION CODE: Region 1. For example: Region 4 DVDs WON'T PLAY in a standard Region 1 DVD player Region 1 DVDs WON'T PLAY in a standard Region 4 DVD player. or Canada will only play DVDs that specify they are REGION 1 dvds standard DVD players purchased in New Zealand will only play DVDs that specify they are REGION 4 DVDs. For example: standard DVD players purchased in the U.S. Almost all commercial DVDs that are sold have what is called a "region code" (also called "regional code"), which only allows the DVD to be played on DVD players that have this region code, and the only DVD players that typically do have this region code are those sold in that same region. Part 3: What Is the Reason for DVD Region Code?ĭVD region code is a digital rights management technique mainly for controlling DVD content, release date and price by the distributors.


If you're order is less than £18 before you add any shipping costs (though some merchants wrongly include shipping in the total) then you won't get hit with any VAT or customs charges at all. The Government website that's meant to explain VAT & Duty isn't the clearest (and displays all wonky in Firefox) so we'll try and decipher what you can expect if you're importing Blu-rays from the US. Yes, there is a downside to buying your Blu-ray disc from the U.S.
