At 08:37 AM 21/06/03 -0700, Bruce Johnson wrote: > >(Damned fascists...The ONLY reason that Region encoding was forced on >us is because the DVD Forum capitulated to the demands of the Chinese >government for control over what can be played in their country.
First time I've heard this ... all the Chinese-made DVD players I've seen (I live in Hong Kong, and I bought one recently) will happily play any region. And you can buy bootleg DVDs of anything at all there for less than $1/copy before they're released in the US. China is far more serious about control of broadcast media. I think it's more likely that the content producers want a controlled release -- as most movies don't come out in cinemas worldwide simultaneously, the cinema owners don't want the DVD from another region where the movie has had its run to be on sale before they show it. Having region encoding makes it more difficult for grey market imports. It may have been convenient to blame this on China, but it's only part of the reason. >all that region encoding does is make their production and >distribution network much more complicated; instead of one SKU per >title, they have to maintain 7. There is much more difference between the "zone versions" than one protection bit. Different subtitles and audio tracks; different cuts due to censorship (sex and violence rather than politics, mostly), different extras (including promos) and menus. The packaging (including the images and text screened on the disk itself) will also be country specific. In any case, these are unlikely to be all made in the same place, but by the local licensees, who want to protect their market by making imports hard to use. It's the same in the book and audio market, but they can't use technical means to force compliance. -- G-List is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- We have Apple Refurbished Monitors in stock! | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> G-List list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/g-list%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
