FAQs

About DVD Region Specifications

Global region codes identify DVDs and Blu-ray discs that are compatible with the players typically sold in that region. The following are the different regions and their corresponding numerical equivalent:

What DVD Region am I in?

Standard DVDs

Region 1 – U.S., U.S. Territories, Canada, and Bermuda
Region 2 – Japan, Europe, South Africa, and the Middle East, including Egypt
Region 3 – Southeast Asia, East Asia, including Hong Kong
Region 4 – Australia, New Zealand, Pacific Islands, Mexico, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean
Region 5 – Eastern Europe, Baltic States, Russia, Central and South Asia, Indian subcontinent, Africa, North Korea, and Mongolia
Region 6 – China

Blu-ray Discs

Region A/1: North America, Central America, South America, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia
Region B/2: Europe, Greenland, French territories, Middle East, Africa, Australia and New Zealand
Region C/3: India, Nepal, Mainland China, Russia, Central and South Asia

I’m in the US – will a DVD from Europe (Region 2) or Australia (Region 4) play on my DVD player?

Only if your DVD player is already region-free or multi-region, but most likely it isn’t and you’ll have to modify it or purchase a region-free DVD player. You can check the manufacturer’s website or instruction manual for information on whether the player is region-free or multi-region.

I’m in the US – will a DVD from Europe (Region 2) or Australia (Region 4) play on my computer’s DVD player?

No, it won’t. You’ll need to modify it to play DVDs from other regions. Check your manufacturer’s instruction manual. The software ‘AnyDVD’ enables your computer’s DVD player to play DVDs from other regions.

What US DVD players do you recommend to play DVDs from another Region?

Philips 642 Region Free Player – Recommended by many North American fans. It will play PAL discs from any Region.

CyberHome CH-DVD 300S DVD Player – Cheap DVD player that will play PAL discs. You’ll need to modify it to make it region-free.

MacBook Users

MacBook Pro laptops come with Apple’s DVD Player already installed.  One potential problem you could encounter is that movie distributors require all hardware DVD players to use region encoding, which limits the device to playing DVDs only from a specific geographic region. If your drive is set to Region 1, which includes Canada, the United States and U.S. territories, you cannot watch a DVD from another region such as Europe or Japan until you change the code.  Insert the DVD into the optical drive on your MacBook Pro. A dialog box will open, prompting you to select a region for your DVD drive. Consult the DVD package to verify which region code to use.  Click the “Change Drive Region to” drop-down menu, and then click the region code.  Click “Set Drive Region.”  Click on the “Lock” icon to save your settings. BEWARE: YOU CAN ONLY CHANGE YOUR MACBOOK DVD REGION A TOTAL OF FIVE (5) TIMES.