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FAQ: Region Codes Explained
Region Codes Explained
DVDs are region coded. This is to prevent (mainly overseas) people buying a DVD from a US source and playing it months before it’s even released in the cinemas in their own countries.
DVD Shrink provides a neat and easy way around this.
Just check this box after you click Backup:
You will notice only regions 1 to 6 are made free. This is OK. Region 7 is “reserved” (i.e. not in use) and region 8 is for hotels, airplanes, ships etc (and who’s gunna take a DVD there and play it on their players?)
To check on the region coding of the disc you have burned, open IfoEdit (free download at www.ifoedit.com).
Open VIDEO_TS.IFO in IfoEdit and navigate to VMGM_MAT
Check byte 0x0023 and if you want to edit it, double click on it and enter a new number.
The way the region code works is “bitwise” and the bit is set only if the corresponding region is to be disabled.
Bit 0 = region 1
Bit 1 = region 2 etc
So if you want all clear, make them 0.
Since regions 7 and 8 are meaningless, DVD Shrink ends up with 192, which in binary is 1100 0000 (notice bits 6 and 7 are checked, meaning the region is disabled for those bits).
Let’s try a couple of real world examples:
- you bought an original disk for R1 only. Then bit 0 will be the only clear bit – in binary 1111 1110 = 0xFE = 254
- original disk is R2 and R4. Bits 1 and 3 will be the only clear bits – in binary 1111 0101 = 0xF5 = 245
Moral: Region codes of 0, 64, 128 and 192 will play in your player. If it doesn’t, you can eliminate region coding as a source of the problem.
Important Note: Changing your region code will NOT usually solve the playback problem if your source disk is PAL and you want NTSC. To fix that up, the easiest way is to buy a player capable of playing PAL and NTSC DVDs. Or you could try a conversion.
Hope this clears up some of the confusion about region codes.
As usual, please direct questions to the forum.
Regards
DVDs are region coded. This is to prevent (mainly overseas) people buying a DVD from a US source and playing it months before it’s even released in the cinemas in their own countries.
DVD Shrink provides a neat and easy way around this.
Just check this box after you click Backup:
You will notice only regions 1 to 6 are made free. This is OK. Region 7 is “reserved” (i.e. not in use) and region 8 is for hotels, airplanes, ships etc (and who’s gunna take a DVD there and play it on their players?)
To check on the region coding of the disc you have burned, open IfoEdit (free download at www.ifoedit.com).
Open VIDEO_TS.IFO in IfoEdit and navigate to VMGM_MAT
Check byte 0x0023 and if you want to edit it, double click on it and enter a new number.
The way the region code works is “bitwise” and the bit is set only if the corresponding region is to be disabled.
Bit 0 = region 1
Bit 1 = region 2 etc
So if you want all clear, make them 0.
Since regions 7 and 8 are meaningless, DVD Shrink ends up with 192, which in binary is 1100 0000 (notice bits 6 and 7 are checked, meaning the region is disabled for those bits).
Let’s try a couple of real world examples:
- you bought an original disk for R1 only. Then bit 0 will be the only clear bit – in binary 1111 1110 = 0xFE = 254
- original disk is R2 and R4. Bits 1 and 3 will be the only clear bits – in binary 1111 0101 = 0xF5 = 245
Moral: Region codes of 0, 64, 128 and 192 will play in your player. If it doesn’t, you can eliminate region coding as a source of the problem.
Important Note: Changing your region code will NOT usually solve the playback problem if your source disk is PAL and you want NTSC. To fix that up, the easiest way is to buy a player capable of playing PAL and NTSC DVDs. Or you could try a conversion.
Hope this clears up some of the confusion about region codes.
As usual, please direct questions to the forum.
Regards
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