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DVD region codes are a DRM technique designed to allow motion picture studios to control aspects of a release, including content, release date, and price, according to the region. DVD video discs may be encoded with a region code restricting the area of the world in which they can be played.
The DVD Copy Control Association in California, USA, requires that DVD player manufacturers incorporate the Regional Playback Control (RPC) system – according to the Australian government's anti-monopoly watchdog, the ACCC. It is therefore this US Association that is responsible for the RPC system that effectively divides the world into six regions for the purposes of controlling and manipulating distribution within the global DVD market.
There are six different official regions and two informal variations. DVD discs may use one code, a combination of codes (Multi-Region), most codes (Region 0) or every code/no codes (Region All). The commercial DVD player specification requires that a player to be sold in a given place not play discs encoded for a different region; however, region-free DVD players are also commercially available. In addition, many DVD players can be modified to be region-free, allowing playback of all discs.
DVDs sold in the Baltic States use both region 2 and 5 codes. DVDs sold in Japan use the region 2 code, while Macau and Taiwan use the region 3 code. Hong Kong has historically used Region 3 and has added region 6 since the reunification, now using both.
Region 0 (playable in all regions except 7 and 8) is widely used by China and the Philippines. DVDs in Hispanophone Latin America uses both the region 1 and region 4 codes. Most DVDs in India combine the region 2, region 4, and region 5 codes; Indian Disney discs contain only the region 3 code.
European region 2 DVDs may be sub-coded "D1" to "D4". "D1" are United Kingdom–only releases; "D2" and "D3" are not sold in the UK and Ireland; "D4" are distributed throughout Europe.
Any combination of regions can be applied to a single disc. For example, a DVD designated Region 2/4 is suitable for playback in Western Europe, Oceania, and any other Region 2 or Region 4 area. So-called "Region 0" and "ALL" discs are meant to be playable worldwide.
The term "Region 0" also describes the DVD players designed or modified to incorporate Regions 1–6, thereby providing compatibility with most discs, regardless of region. This apparent solution was popular in the early days of the DVD format, but studios quickly responded by adjusting discs to refuse to play in such machines. This system is known as "Regional Coding Enhancement". In turn, Region Free players have all 8 flags set, similar to Region ALL DVDs. Many also include RCE breaks, to skip repeating menus or bypass static images.
Another purpose is controlling release dates. One of the traditions of movie marketing that the advent of home video threatened, is the practice of releasing a movie (to theaters) later in some countries than in others. Video tapes were essentially regional anyway, since video tape formats had to match those of the encoding system used by television stations in that particular region, such as NTSC and PAL, although from early 1990s PAL machines increasingly offered NTSC playback. DVDs are less restricted in this sense, and region coding allows movie studios to better control the global release dates DVDs. However, the fact that such classics as "Casablanca" are sold with region codes suggests that price discrimination plays a more important role than release dates do.
Thirdly, some titles are owned by different copyright holders in different territories. Region coding allows these copyright holders to protect their interests by preventing consumers from purchasing the same title from a region where the copyright is owned by a different company.
In general, it is easier for consumers in PAL countries to view NTSC DVDs than vice versa. Almost all DVD players sold in PAL countries play both kinds of discs, and most modern PAL TVs can handle the converted signal. However, most NTSC players can't play PAL discs, and most NTSC TVs don't work with PAL video. Those in NTSC countries, such as in North America, generally require both a multi-standard player and television to view PAL discs, or a converter box. There are also differences in pixel aspect ratio (720x480 vs. 720x576), display frame rate (29.97 vs. 25), and surround audio options (Dolby Digital vs. MPEG audio). Again, NTSC discs (with Dolby Digital audio) play on over 95% of DVD systems worldwide, while PAL discs play on very few players outside of PAL countries.
In most computer drives, users are allowed to change the region code up to five times. However, if the number of allowances reaches zero, the region last used will be permanent even if the drive is transferred to another computer. This limit is built into the drive's controller software, called firmware. Resetting the firmware count can be done with first- or third-party software tools, or by reflashing (see above) to RPC-1 firmware
Since some software does not work correctly with RPC-1 drives, there is also the option of reflashing the drive with a so-called auto-reset firmware. This firmware appears as RPC-2 firmware to software, but it will conveniently forget the stored region setting whenever power is cycled, reverting to the state of a drive that has never had its region code set.
Other software, known as DVD region killers, transparently remove (or hide) the DVD region code from the software player. Some can also work around locked RPC-2 firmware.
In common region-locked DVDs (not in RCE-DVDs), the region code is stored in the file "VIDEO_TS.IFO" (table "VMGM_MAT"), byte offsets 34 and 35. The eight regions each correspond to a value which is a power of 2: Region 1 corresponds to 1 (20), Region 2 to 2 (21), Region 3 to (22), and so on through Region 8, which corresponds to 128 (27). The values of each region that the disc is not encoded for are added together to give the value in the file. For example, a disc that is encoded for Region 1 but not Regions 2—8 will have the value 2+4+8+16+32+64+128=254. A disc encoded for Regions 1, 2, and 4 will have the value 4+16+32+64+128=244. A region-free or RCE-protected DVD will carry the value zero, since no regions are excluded.
Blu-ray Discs use a much simpler region-code system than DVD with only 3 regions, labelled A, B, and C.
The Washington Post has highlighted how DVD region-coding has been a major inconvenience for frequent travelers, students of foreign languages, immigrants who want to watch films from their homeland and foreign film enthusiasts.
Category:Digital rights management Category:DVD Category:Self-censorship
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
William Mervin Mills or "Billy" Mills (born June 30, 1938) is the second Native American ever to win an Olympic gold medal. He accomplished this feat in the 10,000 meter run at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics making him the only American ever to win the Olympic gold in this event. A former United States Marine, Billy Mills is a member of the Oglala Lakota (Sioux) Tribe. His 1964 victory is considered one of the greatest of Olympic upsets.
He attended the University of Kansas on an athletic scholarship. He was named a NCAA All-America cross-country runner three times and in 1960 he won the individual title in the Big Eight cross-country championship. The University of Kansas track team won the 1959 and 1960 outdoor national championships while Mills was on the team. After graduating with a degree in Physical Education, Mills entered the United States Marine Corps. He was a First Lieutenant in the Marine Corps Reserves when he competed in the 1964 Olympics.
Billy Mills qualified for the 1964 Summer Olympics on the U.S. Track and Field Team in the 10,000 m and the marathon.
The favorite in 1964 was Ron Clarke of Australia who held the world record. The runners expected to challenge him were defending champion Pyotr Bolotnikov of the Soviet Union, and Murray Halberg of New Zealand, who had won the 5000 m in 1960.
Mills was a virtual unknown. He had finished second in the U.S. Olympic trials. His time in the preliminaries was a full minute slower than Clarke's.
Indeed, Clarke set the tone of the race. His tactic of surging every other lap appeared to be working. Halfway through the race only four runners were still with Clarke: Mohammed Gammoudi of Tunisia, Mamo Wolde of Ethiopia, Kokichi Tsuburaya of Japan, and Mills. Tsuburaya, the local favorite, lost contact first, then Wolde. With two laps to go only two runners were still with Clarke. On paper, it seemed to be Clarke's race. He had run a world record time of 28:15.6 while neither Gammoudi nor Mills had ever run under 29 minutes.
Mills and Clarke were running together with Gammoudi right behind as they entered the final lap. They were lapping other runners and, down the backstretch, Clarke was boxed in. He pushed Mills once, then again. Then Gammoudi pushed them both and surged into the lead as they rounded the final curve. Clarke recovered and began chasing Gammoudi while Mills appeared to be too far back to be in contention. Clarke failed to catch Gammoudi but Mills pulled out to lane 3 and sprinted past them both. His winning time of 28:24.4 was almost 50 seconds faster than he had ever run before and set a new Olympic record for the event. No American had ever before won the 10,000 m, nor has one come seriously close since.
American television viewers were able to hear the surprise and drama as NBC expert analyst Dick Bank screamed "Look at Mills, look at Mills" over the more sedate play by play announcer Bud Palmer who seemed to miss what was unfolding. For bringing that drama to the coverage, Bank was summarily fired.
After the race Mills talked with Clarke and asked if he was straining as hard as he could on the final straightaway to the finish, to which Clarke replied, "Yes." Mills has stated that he tried to be relaxed during his final kick to the finish line and felt that helped him to pass both Gammoudi and Clarke. An infrequently mentioned fact is both Clarke and Mills ran the marathon at the 1964 Olympics after the 10,000 m. Clarke finished in 9th place, Mills finished in 14th, in a respectable 2:22:55.4, approximately two-and-a-half minutes behind Clarke.
Billy Mills was inducted into the United States National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1976, and the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 1984. He is also in the National Distance Running Hall of Fame, the Kansas Hall of Fame, the South Dakota Hall of Fame, the San Diego Hall of Fame, and the National High School Hall of Fame.
Billy Mills is the subject of the 1984 film Running Brave, starring Robby Benson.
Mills also serves as the spokesperson for Running Strong for American Indian Youth, an organization that helps support projects that benefit the American Indian people, especially the youth.
In 1990 he wrote Wokini: A Lakota Journey to Happiness and Self-Understanding with Nicholas Sparks.
His Lessons of a Lakota was published in 2005.
Category:1938 births Category:Living people Category:American long-distance runners Category:Athletes at the 1964 Summer Olympics Category:Lakota people Category:Native American sportspeople Category:Olympic track and field athletes of the United States Category:Olympic gold medalists for the United States Category:United States Marine Corps officers Category:University of Kansas alumni Category:National Distance Running Hall of Fame inductees Category:People from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
