***PLEASE NOTE***
The Warner and Columbia film studios have recently added Regional Coding Enhancement (RCE) to some Region 1 titles such as The Patriot and The Perfect Storm. Some of our international customers have had problems playing RCE discs on their "region-free" DVD players. For more information on RCE, click here.
Because DVD is subject to the same issues of piracy and market sharing that govern the entire video industry, region encoding was introduced to set geopolitical boundaries for compatibility of DVDs and players. For instance, a DVD encoded for Region 1 can only be played on a Region 1 (United States and Canada) DVD player.
There are currently six global DVD regions (see chart), and DVD manufacturers can encode their product to play in any combination of regions. The vast majority of DVDs are Region 1 or 2 compatible, and many DVDs are "all region" for playback on any player, anywhere.
DVD Video Formats: What's the difference between PAL and NTSC?
There are two television display systems in commercial use: PAL (common in Europe and parts of Asia) delivers a scanning/frame rate of 25 frames per second, while NTSC (used in the U.S. and Canada) delivers a scanning/frame rate of 29.97 frames per second. Currently there are no DVD players that convert from PAL to NTSC or vice versa. However, many PAL DVD players are able to display NTSC video on televisions that support what is known as the 60-Hz PAL system. For all DVD players in the U.S. and Canada, NTSC is the exclusive system in use.
DVD Player Region Codes and Corresponding Country List
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NTSC:
NTSC is the most common video format in the United States and Canada. NTSC, an acronym for the National Television Standards Committee, delivers 29.97 frames per second.
Countries that use the NTSC Television Display System:
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PAL is the video format used in Europe and parts of Asia. PAL, an acronym for Phase Alternation Line, delivers 25 frames per second.
Countries that use the PAL Television Display System:
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SECAM is a video format used primarily in France and Russia. It stands for Séquentiel Couleur avec Memoire.
Countries that use the SECAM Television Display System:
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