Blu-ray region coding changed

Region codes for Blu-ray discs look likely to be changed from those of the standard DVD format. With the new changes, North America and Japan, along with East Asia, may share the same region, Japanese IT Media has reported.

Currently there are nine different regions, however under the Blu-ray format there will only be three.

The new region codes are:

• Region 1: North America, South America, East Asia except for China (India, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Malaysia etc.)
• Region 2: Europe and Africa
• Region 3: China, Russia and other countries

Region coding ensures that discs from one region can not be run in another.

While it is good news for North American and Japanese fans who will be able to exchange movies, and potentially games, Europeans will be left disappointed as they will be unable to import and swap software with the two biggest gaming markets in the world.

Source: Gamers Report

Related:

• HD DVD: no region codes and relaxed copy protection systems
• New decoder chip to play both Blu-ray and HD DVD formats