Regions changing?

[DealsR4theDevil]

I have read on this site that the regions in which movies are coded are changing. Particularly The U.S. and Japan being in the same region soon. Is this true?

[WickyWoo]

It is for Blu-ray, always has been

DVD remains the same

[seto]

Blu-ray has the US and Japan in the same region. There shouldn't be a region coding issue there.

If you're asking about DVD, FUNimation doesn't release in Japan so expect Region 1 coding.

[WickyWoo]

What they're talking about is whether US releases will be delayed because of reverse importation

[Merlins]

As said, all America (North, Middle and South) and most parts of Asia (Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan and the rest of South East Asia share the same region coding for Blu-ray players, Region A. However, most releases are not coded in region A but in region A, B and C making them region free.

Players sold in Europe, Africa and Australia have Region B.

Players sold in Russia, China and India have region C if that region ever will be used.

Most movies are region free.

Nothing has changed, this has been the case all along.

[gand41f]

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

What they're talking about is whether US releases will be delayed because of reverse importation

...or will have to be priced extremely high (see Wings of Honneamise) or without Japanese audio track (see Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within).

enjoy
gandalf

[gand41f]

Originally Posted by Merlins

Nothing has changed, this has been the case all along.

It has changed from DVD.

A little background here is probably needed to understand the context of the concerns of anime fans in the United States. HDM optical discs are much more expensive in Japan than in the US, and studios would like to preserve the higher profit margin they get in Japan. This was not a problem in DVD as the two countries are in different regions.

With Blu-ray, they are in the same region. The studios have somewhat solved the problem with US movies as they are not including Japanese audio or subtitles in their US versions. If you are wondering why some Sony discs seem to have subtitles for almost all languages spoken on earth except Japanese, that's why.

The problem is with Japan-originating content, most notably anime. The Japanese people don't need subtitles to understand these. So far we've seen them try to price the movie very high (Wings of Honneamise) or leave out the Japanese audio track (Final Fantasy: The Sprits Within, but this content wasn't originally Japanese so they could get away with it). The third option is to delay the US release until enough of the Japanese customers have bought the discs.

enjoy
gandalf

[Merlins]

Originally Posted by gand41f

It has changed from DVD.

It is different from DVD but nothing has changed for Blu-ray.

DVD regions was a pain in the ass. Blu-ray not so much especially since most are region free. DVD had almost no region free titles.

[Seretur]

BTW, can anyone conclusively show an instance of a region-coded Blu-ray title that was released over a year ago and that is now being pressed as a region-free title?

I assume this is mandatory, and Blu-ray has been on the market long enough. So I'm just curious.