geoegress opened this issue on Oct 11, 2010 · 34 posts
SamTherapy posted Mon, 11 October 2010 at 9:17 PM
Quote - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD_region_code is apparently the reason
Nope. Region codes came along much later than TV picture standards were defined.
NTSC is cheap and cheerful, PAL is more expensive to produce but generally gives better quality colour.
In the trade they are known as Never Twice the Same Colour and Pay A Lot respectively.
The French standard is SECAM, which is basically a fucked about with version of PAL. Created purely out of national pride.
Region codes were created so the movie distributors could roll out home releases of movies in a staggered fashion and charge different amounts, depending on the local market. After all, why would anyone pay £15 in the UK for a DVD release if they could buy it online from the USA for half that? Region codes offer no benefit to the consumer at all and they are not tied to a broadcast format.
Coppula eam se non posit acceptera jocularum.