Region Coding: Difference between revisions

{{tropeUseful Notes}}

Note that the DVD region coding also applies to [[Play StationPlayStation]] Portable UMDs and software.

For [[Blu -Ray]] discs, the regional codes are as follows:

[[Play Station 3]] game media may optionally also adhere to Blu-Ray regional lockouts or model number queries, but all released games are region-free due to pressure from gamers and the governments of nations where regional lockout is deemed illegal.

{{examples|Examples}}

** The US version of the NES has a lockout chip called the 10NES. While its main reason of existence is to ensure that only games certified by Nintendo will run, it has the side-effect of region-locking the console, since various European consoles have different (and incompatible) versions of the chip. It also ended up using extra pins that're used by co-processors that're found on many Japanese games. Also, the Japanese NES has a slightly different slot, offering less pins than the NES (so in actual fact, the NES could actually implement co-processors given the extra pins, but ended up not doing so anyway).

*** The [[Nintendo DS|DSi]] has region locking, but only for specific [[Nintendo DS|DSi]] features, such as differing online features for each region. Future games will still be region-free, with the exception of downloadable ones.

*** The [[Play StationPlayStation Portable|PSP]] has region coding as well, although it's optional for games. UMD movies are always region locked, and EA and Sony themselves have abused the feature when it comes to games and applications: EA used it to lock copies of ''[[Battlezone (Video Game)|Battlezone]]'' sold in Asia so that it would only play on Asian PSPs (probably because the game is sold at a lower price in the region), while Sony abused it so that Asian PSPs will not detect or launch the comic book viewer app, and so that only Japanese and British PSPs can use the Remote TV Viewer application for remotely watching content received and recorded by [[PSPlay Station 3]] USB tuner, which was only sold in the UK and Japan.

*** It should be noted that the [[PSPlay Station 3]] is a strange case. It was originally to feature optional region coding itself, using two different possible methods- the first was by Blu-Ray regional codes and the second more precise method is to query the model number of the [[PSPlay Station 3]]- CECHx-yy for the original models where yy is the region code, and CECH-2xyyz for the slim models, where yy is the region code. In fact, the [[PSPlay Station 3]] still have the region coding mechanism intact (which it still uses on Blu Ray and DVD movies, as well as [[PSPlayStation 2]] and [[PS 1]] games, and also by some [[PSPlay Station 3]] games, but only for [[Country Switch]] purposes). Pressure from certain government parties, organizations and savvy users made them promise to not use the feature on [[PSPlay Station 3]] games and thus all discs are pressed as region free, as are [[PS 1]] and downloadable games that are bought off the PSN store. Several companies have threatened region-locking [[PSPlay Station 3]] games in the past: Midway with John Woo's Stranglehold, Sega with Bayonetta, and EA with Army of Two. All of them backed down after public outcries and threats of boycott, with EA only limiting the Army of Two to multiplayer server segregation. However, very recently, North American consoles have started displaying a Netflix option, which is absent from other consoles. Could be justified that Netflix itself is region-locked, but still...

* In the analog age, differing TV (and electrical) standards were used as a sort of de facto regional lock-in technology. Since NTSC (typically 60Hz60&nbsp;Hz) and PAL/SECAM (typically 50Hz50&nbsp;Hz) <ref>PAL and SECAM are also different systems. And well, as noted below, it gets more complicated</ref> hardware are completely incapable of dealing with content from the other system without absurdly expensive translation hardware, this kept import trade to a minimum. Many newer PAL/SECAM TVs now offer a special 60Hz60&nbsp;Hz mode, and nearly every PC TV tuner/AV accessory has always supported all three standards. If all you've got are American TVs and set-top receivers, you're still hosed, though, unless you have a fairly expensive NTSC/PAL television.

** It gets even more complicated. PAL, SECAM and NTSC are only ''color'' encoding standards (though they typically have a refresh rate attached, the refresh rate is actually ''optional''. That's why there's bastard systems like 60Hz60&nbsp;Hz PAL and 50Hz50&nbsp;Hz NTSC). Ever wonder what are those letter suffixes that follows a system name when you look at the technical specifications page of a world multi TV manual? That's the ''transmission'' standard, which goes all the way from System A to System S. This is really where the TV resolution, refresh rate, and audio-visual frequency offset is defined. It's possible to mix and match transmission standard and color encoding standards, though PAL typically use B, D, E, G, H, I, K, M, N and NC, NTSC typically use M (though Japan's system could be arguably called NTSC-M'(M-prime) due to the slight luminance rating difference), and SECAM typically use B, D, G, H, K, K'(K-Prime) and L. And that's not counting abandoned systems like System A (which went through a brief trial period with all three color encoding standards by the BBC in the late 40s), and System S. Wait, there's more! This has nothing to do the the PAL, NTSC-J, NTSC/UC, NTSC-K and NTSC-C standards used for region locking game consoles. The latter bunch of imaginary NTSC variants were drummed up by marketroids to state what region code a game is for! You don't have to get confused tho- these don't really come into play as far as line input is concerned- only resolution and refresh rate are really important here with line input, and these systems should fall out of use as countries switch over to digital. On the other hand...

*** Youtube allows videos to be region locked by uploaders if they so wished.

** Depends on the company and the MMO. An example of this is Nexon and [[Maple Story]], in which the version North America plays is the "Global" version, which can be played by any country or region that doesn't have a company that localized it. However, when it said area ''does'' get their own version, they eventually receive an [[Region Coding|'''IP filter]]''' from the Global edition so that any new players play their region's version instead. '''But''' even then there is some leniency, as Nexon will allow players who registered and played Global before a certain date to continue playing it in addition to their localilzed game.

*** The boneheaded part of the filter tho: those who can play global can also choose to sign up with some regional versions of the game, but those who can '''not''' sign up for global can only play the game in their own region. For example, someone in Australia (should be playing on the Global server proper) can sign up for both Global and the South-East Asian (SEA) version of the game (assuming he/she has the capability to install both clients side-by-side). On the other hand, someone in Malaysia is region-locked to playing only the SEA version of the game. This is because the SEA version does not request for identification aside from an address which can be easily faked.

** Amazon region locks the Unbox service, Android App Store and [[MP 3MP3]] store to the country the store is in. You can't buy anything unless your IP address belongs to an ISP in the country the store is in.

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