DVD and Blu-ray region codes explained
A region code says which part of the world a disc was sold into. For a collector it means one thing: a disc bought abroad may not play on the machine at home.
What is a region code?
A flag in the data on the disc, asked for by studios so a film could still be in cinemas in one country while the disc was on shelves in another. The player compares the flag with the region it was built or set for and refuses to play if they disagree. The disc is not damaged — the player is declining.
A disc can carry more than one region, and plenty do. One coded for all of them is printed as Region 0 or Region ALL, which is less a region than the absence of a restriction.
Which countries are in each DVD region?
DVD uses numbers, roughly by continent.
| Region | Covers |
|---|---|
| 1 | United States, Canada and US territories |
| 2 | Most of Europe, Japan, the Middle East, Egypt, South Africa, Greenland |
| 3 | Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea, Taiwan |
| 4 | Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific, Mexico, Central and South America |
| 5 | Russia and the former Soviet states, most of Africa, the Indian subcontinent |
| 6 | Mainland China |
| 0 / ALL | Not restricted |
Two more exist and you will rarely meet them: 7, held in reserve and used on press discs, and 8, for aircraft and cruise ships.
Are Blu-ray and 4K regions the same as DVD regions?
No, and this is where the confusion starts. Blu-ray has its own scheme: three regions, written as letters, with the lines drawn in different places.
| Region | Covers |
|---|---|
| A | The Americas, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Southeast Asia |
| B | Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Australia, New Zealand |
| C | China, Russia, India and most of Central and South Asia |
Compare the two tables and the mismatch is plain. Japan is Region 2 on DVD, in with Europe, and Region A on Blu-ray, in with the United States. Australia is Region 4 on DVD and Region B on Blu-ray, in with the UK. A Region A disc is not a Region 1 disc in a new box.
Blu-ray is also locked much less often: many titles ship region free, and whether yours does depends on the studio and on the individual release rather than on any rule you can apply in advance.
4K is different again, and simpler: the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray format was specified without region coding, so those discs are generally region free and an import plays on any 4K player.
One thing to watch: a 4K release is often a two-disc pack, and the standard Blu-ray alongside it still carries whatever region its studio gave it.
How do I tell what region my disc is?
Look at the back of the case. A DVD usually carries a small globe with a number in it; a Blu-ray carries a letter, or sometimes the words "region free". A 4K disc normally says nothing, because there is nothing to say.
Printing is not a guarantee: some releases carry no marking, some reissues were packed in older artwork, and a few boxes are wrong. The dependable identifier is the catalogue number, which belongs to one release and no other.
Why does the same disc play on one player and not another?
Because the lock lives in the player. The disc states its region; the player decides what to do about that. Hand the same Region 2 DVD to a machine sold in London and one sold in Chicago and you get a film on one and an error on the other.
Players sold as multi-region or region free take any disc, and specialist dealers have sold them for years. If imports matter to you, that is the thing to shop for before the discs. This page is about what the coding is, not about getting around it on a machine you already own.
Is PAL the same thing as a region code?
No. Region is a permission check; PAL, NTSC and SECAM are broadcast video standards, describing how the picture is stored — NTSC at 480 lines and about 30 frames a second, PAL at 576 lines and 25. An NTSC-only television or player may show a PAL disc as a rolling or black-and-white mess even when the region is fine, and a region-free player is not automatically a converter.
The side effect collectors notice most is running time. Film runs at 24 frames a second and a PAL transfer is usually sped up to 25 to match, making the disc about 4% shorter than its NTSC counterpart: a 100-minute film reads as roughly 96 minutes on the box. Nothing has been cut, and the sound sits slightly higher in pitch unless the transfer corrected for it. Blu-ray and 4K have no PAL or NTSC, though a disc still has a frame rate and some players prefer one over the other.
How does ctlgs record region?
Region is a property of the release, not of the film, so that is where it sits. The home video catalog keeps one entry for the film and a separate entry for every disc or tape of it. The release entry holds Format (DVD, Blu-ray, 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, VHS, LaserDisc and the rest), Region as a list, since a release can be coded for several, and Video standard for NTSC or PAL, along with run time, aspect ratio, packaging and the identifying codes.
Which is the point when you own both: a Region 2 DVD and a Region A Blu-ray of the same film are two objects with two catalogue numbers, and your copy goes under the one you have, with its condition and what you paid. The reasoning is in editions and pressings and tracking what you own. If you came here from the old site, see what happened to Filmogs.
Last updated 2026-11-06