Ray Penney's Pages

Adelaide, South Australia.

There are six world Regions for DVD.
Discs manufactured in one region will usually only play on players that were manufactured in the same region, so discs bought in the Australia will not play on U.S. players and vice versa.
However, the regional coding system is entirely optional and discs without Regional Codes (Region 0) will play on any player in any country.
Please check the map below to make sure our DVDs will be able to play on your DVD machine, as some DVD players are sold as multizone units and can play DVDs from every region. Please check your DVD manual, or with the manufacturer, if in doubt.

Blu-ray A B C

The Blu-ray movie region codes are different from the standard DVD region codes. The following are the region codes for Blu-ray discs. HD-DVD Discs are not Region Coded.

DVD Region 1 2 3 4 5 6
 
Standard DVD Codes are as follows:
Region 1 - Canada, U.S., U.S. Territories.
Region 2 - Albania, Andorra, Austria, Bahrain, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canary Islands, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, European Union, Faroe Islands, Finland, France, France, Georgia, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Greenland, Hungary, Iceland, Iran (Islamic Republic of) Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait, Latvia, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia (the Former Yugoslav Republic), Malta, Moldova, Principality of Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Oman, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russian Federation, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, Slovenia,South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Syrian Arab Republic, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United Kingdom (Channel Islands) Vatican City State, Yemen, Yugoslavia
Region 3 - Southeast Asia, East Asia (including Hong Kong)
Region 4 - Australia, New Zealand, Pacific Islands, Central America, Mexico, South America, Caribbean
Region 5 - Former Soviet Union, Indian Subcontinent, Africa (also North Korea, Mongolia)
Region 6 - China
Region 7 - Reserved
Region 8 - Special international venues (airplanes, cruise ships, etc.)

DVD formats There are two TV video standards, PAL (Phase Alternating Line) and NTSC (National Television System Committee). NTSC is used mainly in North America, Japan, Mexico and Canada, and PAL is used almost everywhere else in the world including Australia and NZ. NTSC has a resolution of 352 x 240, and PAL has a video resolution of 352 X 288. PAL generates 25 full frames per second with 635 lines per frame while NTSC produces 30 frames a second with 525 scan lines per frame. Due to screen interlacing (in which all the odd lines and then all the even lines of the frame are presented), the vertical scan frequencies for PAL are 50Hz (50 scans per second) and 60Hz for NTSC. This basically means that the NTSC system sacrifices video clarity to minimize flicker, while PAL accepts more flicker to gain an improvement in clarity. A PAL signal can not be replayed on an NTSC only TV, and conversely an NTSC signal can not be replayed on a PAL only TV. However many current TV’s, DVD & Video Players are both PAL and NTSC compatible and can display both types of video. Please check your TV manual, or with the manufacturer, if in doubt.
Is my Country PAL or NTSC?
The following countries use the PAL standard

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