Blu-Ray adopts region coding
 

I just copy/pasted this from Animeondvd.com since they didn't have a link to an article or anything.


Blu-Ray Adopts Region Coding (10:44 AM EST): Information from reliable sources indicate that the Blu-Ray camp has given in to the demands of at least one Hollywood studio that wants region coding. However, it's not as cut and dry as DVD region coding is. Confirmation is expected today or tomorrow (no formal press releases though since they want to downplay it) but here's what we know. The system will be very close to what was listed before:

Region 1: N. America, S. America, Japan, Korea and most of Asia (but not China)
Region 2: Europe and Africa
Region 3: China, Russia and other "pirate" countries (their words, not mine!)

Australia and New Zealand are not in any region code due to region coding being illegal there. The BDA has not determined yet how to handle that area. From what's been said by a sample of Blu-Ray producing Hollywood studios, the first wave of titles won't be region coded, and further noted that they will selectively use region coding, just like they will selectively use ICT.

While the mainstream world will go with region coding on a case by case basis it appears, I fully expect the anime world to remain as is, though the dynamic has changed considerably now due to Japan and the US being in the same region. Time, format success and nervousness of publishers will tell how the Japanese will react to this in terms of licensing.

HD DVD and their plans for region coding is still up in the air pending word from the MPAA and their own subcommittes. However, it was confirmed that Toshiba's two launch players won't recognize region code flags, even if The DVD Forum decides to adopt region coding in some form.

someone will hack it - so we can get our legit HK releases...

come to think of it, if that's true that's pretty amazing and lenient to be able to playback Korean and Japanese releases.

This had been announced ages ago. One reason I was hoping to import the PS3 if it was released earlier in Japan.

This doesn't mean that video games won't be region coded, but you probably realize that already.

I thought the new format was gonna be region free?

That kinda sucks.

They can't use the different TV formats as an excuse anymore so there is really no reason for this tired bullcrap. Yeah, I know they want to control sales to other countries, but that is no longer something that is practical.

The question I have is now that US, Korea, and Japan are all in the same region as far as Blu-Ray is concerned, does this mean that a R1 Blu-Ray player will be able to play R2 (Japan) and R3 standard DVDs? I have quite a few DVDs from R2 & R3 and this would mean that I wouldn't have to find a region-free Blu-Ray player to enjoy the movies I already bought from other regions.

This hasn't been totally confirmed yet, but it's expected that the Blu-Ray and HD-DVD players will have to enforce current DVD format region coding for those discs regardless of what region standards the HD formats adopt.