Djangoman

Until today I still can't really understand the logic behind regional coding expect in respect to the censorship policy of different countries. I might understand that but some countries even state that the DVD should not be distributed outside European region, or USA, etc. I can't understand why, because I think it's a crap ... what if we want certain titles which are not available in our region for instance? Not to mention that if it's available but only in cut version! And all of us here know that these problems have been eliminated since there are many many online suppliers willing to break such confusing policy of regional coding.

So, is it still necessary? Especially concerning the stupid RCE (which can be broken easily). Why bother?

What do you think?

DrGerbil

Why bother? Simple... because studios release movies at different times around the world. A movie might be released here now... and then, 6 months later, it premiers in Chile (arbitrary country). Well, studios don't want people to get the DVD and watch it in Chile 6 months ahead of time... as that would cut into the film's box office profits. There are other issues, of course, such as rights (distribution and otherwise), et cetera, et cetera.

marty888

Region codes make perfect sense, as explained above. Actually, the reason you mention first - censorship - probably plays the least importance.

haclong

Very good example :
Finding Nemo was released in France around Christmas time, 2003 and on Amazon.com, the DVD R1 was already available...

That's one of the example between other ones

Jackskeleton

Wow, your Cool new member status is well earned Django.

Look, Region coding has very little to nothing to do with censorship. It's all about studios right to distribute and mark there turf. as stated above and it goes beyond that. Lets take Kill Bill Vol 1 for example. It was distributed by Miramax here in the U.S. in Japan it was distributed by Universal. Region coding protects Universals investiment in gaining distribution rights from just anyone buying the U.S. dvd.

Look at it with anime. Lets say all Region 2 dvds of anime series were able to play on every machine with no problem. What good would it do for american distributors to pick up the rights for the anime if folks can just buy it from those R2 companies? Perhaps those R2 companies dont have enough power or ability to fully get it distributed here so they need those U.S. distributors so they can get the product wider released and distributed here in the u.s. So they need that means of protection to mark out turf.

It has nothing to do with censorship and a lot to do with business practices and balance in the studio distribution.

batesman

It does make total sense for the studios to protect their product, but let's face it, the whole idea and system behind it has pretty much failed and will continue to do so in the coming years.
The major studios release politics are nothing short of ridiculous sometimes, and especially with the example of Finding Nemo, which came out in most of Europe after the Region 1 DVD was released, they shouldn't be all too surprised that a considerable part of the 8 Million discs sold in the first 24 hours were sold to customers outside of US/Canada.

(Nemo is not representative however; the amount of money the studio loses on an average movie because of DVD-imports is quite simply laughable and the weakest argument for Region coding)

The amazing thing about this is, Disney is on a crusade to keep people from purchasing their product in other countries, to the point that they actually want to put pressure on major retailers in the US to prevent shipping to EU countries. Not to mention the hassle that Region 3 retailers are getting for selling stuff like Shaolin Soccer, which Disney will probably never make available in it's original form anyway (that is: uncut and without the HipHop soundtrack).

Now, does Disney actually expect people to wait 6 months until they can buy the DVD in their country, should this proposed ban actually happen? Obviously they're gonna download it, and I don't blame em.

I personally couldn't care less if I see Finding Nemo (or any other major studio product for that matter) immediately or 6 months later, it's the smaller product I care about, the independents, the foreign films, the documentaries. I live in Austria, and for certain types of films it's just a wasteland, films are dubbed for cinemas, the German DVD market is just horrid, 50% of the American films never make it here, American Indies are as rare as they come. If the whole Region coding scheme had actually worked or could actually be legally enforced somehow, that means I could never see those films legally and I would be deprived of culture reaching beyond European boundaries.

My Videostore was just recently sued by Disney in collaboration with a newly founded Anti-Piracy organization for renting out Region 1 product. I find it ironic that a considerable amount of our customers simply shrugged and said "Guess I'll have to download 'em". All I could say was: "Go for it".

Djangoman

Thanks Guys, now maybe I can get it a little bit from the studio's point of view...makes sense...it's a matter of market...but from the point of view of collector, those region coding is just another hindrance, just like what batesman said ...

Similar in Indonesia, I can bet that a lot of titles I've collected from R1 will never reach Indonesian market ... Here, the DVDs are released mostly in Full Screen Format although the date doesn't differ much from being released in R1 format. Why? Simply because I think most Indonesian still consider black bars in widescreen/letterbox presentation means incomplete image!

In that case I have to go through region code, no matter what the cover says: Only for distributed in US& Canada, or in case of UK, only for EU countries... whatever.

Subgeniusguy

Most Americans do too. Anyone residing in the US need only visit a Wal-Mart to be reminded. I still hear people in stores gripe about films being presented in OAR.