From: Winston Walker <winston.walker @ wathneltd.com>
Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2001 11:27:18 -0400
Subject: [ILF] Region zero or 9

In response to your post foday, I found the following info of interest:

There are 8 regions (also called "locales"). 
Players and discs are often identified by the region number superimposed on
a world globe. If a disc plays in more than one region it will have more
than one number on the globe.

1: U.S., Canada, U.S. Territories
2: Japan, Europe, South Africa, and Middle East (including Egypt)
3: Southeast Asia and East Asia (including Hong Kong)
4: Australia, New Zealand, Pacific Islands, Central America, Mexico, South
America, and the Caribbean
5: Eastern Europe (Former Soviet Union), Indian subcontinent, Africa, North
Korea, and Mongolia
6: China
7: Reserved
8: Special international venues (airplanes, cruise ships, etc.)
(See the map at <www.unik.no/~robert/hifi/dvd/world.html>.)

Technically there is no such thing as a region 0 disc or a region 0 player.
There is such thing as an all-region disc. There are also all-region
players. Some players can be "hacked" with special command sequences from
the remote control to switch regions or play all regions. Some players can
be physically modified ("chipped") to play discs regardless of the regional
codes on the disc. This usually voids the warranty, but is not illegal in
most countries. (The only thing that requires player manufacturers to
region-code their players is the CSS license. See 1.11) On Feb. 7, 2001,
NASA sent two multiregion DVD players to the International Space Station.

Winston