What are DVD Region Codes

DVD discs contain Regional Codes which can be used to prevent the playback of certain discs depending upon the geographical area they are played in. The various studios and home video companies lobbied to make sure this coding system was a required part of the current DVD standards, because they wish to control how their DVD titles are exported to other countries. (For example, while a recent film may already have played theatrically in the United States and been released to the home video market, that same film may not yet have opened in some European or Asian countries.)

In most instances, discs manufactured in one region will usually only play on players that were manufactured in that same region - this means that discs bought or imported from Japan will not play on U.S. players, and vice versa. However, the regional coding system is entirely optional, and discs without Regional Codes will play on any player in any country.

Australia falls into region four and most Australian Dvd players are region 4 only. Unless otherwise specified you should assume your player is a region 4 player ( Multi region dvd players are available but as we sell region 4 dvds only you will not have a problem).

The map below shows the different dvd region of the world. If you have any further doubts about regions do not hesitate to contact us at enquiries@kishkash.com.au

DVD Formats

Just to confuse you even more, as well as being a region code on a dvd there is also a format. Australia uses a format called PAL which stands for Phase Alternating Line.it was introduced in the early 1960's in Europe.

There are two other formats which are used elsewhere around the world, NTSC and SECAM. Just about all of our dvd's are PAL, if they are not we will clearly specify this in the product page. Some titles are only available in NTSC so this is why. So unless otherwise stated the dvd will be PAL.

The map below illustrates the different formats used around the world if, if you have any doubts please do not hesitate to contact us.

SECAM is compatible with PAL and vice versa. However if a PAL dvd is played on a NTSC or vice versa there will be distorting of picture. Again if you bought your dvd player in Australia you have nothing to worry about as all of our PAL dvds will play on your system.