James Delahunty
8 Oct 2005 20:32
At the DVD Forum Japan Conference 2005, it was indicated that Toshiba's HD-DVD discs might not use region codes at all like DVD does. The main focus of the conference in Japan was of course HD-DVD. Toshiba's Hisashi Yamada made one quote that will be of interest to most of you. "We’ve gotten a variety of opinions about region controls. Even in the Steering Committee, they are extremely unpopular; we decided to not put them in. HD DVD probably won't contain any region playback controls."
Of course, as Engadget pointed out, that "probably" word is still in there. However, the possibility that region codes wont be a feature of HD-DVD is good news for now. Region codes on DVD discs are designed to ensure that DVDs made for a certain region are only sold in that region. The region code on the disc, if it conflicts with that set on your DVD player, will result in failure to play back the DVD.
For this reason, you can't just import DVDs from other countries (unless you use a region free hack, if one is available for your player). Of course you can remove region codes from DVDs during a backup process, but even that has it's complications; DMCA in the United States and EUCD in Europe which both make circumvention of copy protection illegal.
I wonder how content providers such as the main Hollywood movie studios backing the HD-DVD format will feel about the lack of region codes. Will there be another method to do the same trick as region codes did for DVD implemented?
Source:
Engadget