Portable dvd player vs ibook

crazycat

crazycat

macrumors 65816
Why can i watch DVD's from all over the world on my portable dvd player (i dont have one) but cant on my ibook? What law is there which allows dvd players to play multi region dvd's but laptops cant?
 
The official reason that region codes exists is that the copyright owners of the content varies from region to region. For example, let's say that Fox owns the rights to the Simpsons in the US and Canada, and that Matt Groenig owns the rights to the Simpsons everywhere else. Why should Fox be able to make available Simpsons content in parts of the world where they don't own the rights too?

So, the region codes were developed so that material from US/Canada is not easily playable in other parts of the world.

Now to answer your question. Apple obeys the region code in their products because they respect the copyrights of the content providers. I'm not aware of the brand of DVD player you have, but whoever it's made by chooses not to protect the copyright owners. I would expect that the DVD player you have is not a Name Brand, but I could be wrong.

ft
 
It's nothing to do with rights (for example, Australia, New Zealand, and all of South and Central America are in the same region). Studios like to release movies on different dates in different parts of the world, for a variety of reasons (some even almost make sense, such as extra time for translation, but the delays even happen when none is required). The region codes are there to protect ticket sales at the cinema by making it harder for people in the later release countries to buy a disc in advance.
 
Region coding is the most stupid thing about DVDs, apart from possibly intros that can't be skipped. Fortunately most consumer DVD players have hacks/workarounds at least for the region coding.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Back
Top