Encoding

DVD players.

You probably don't realise it, but they point out something wrong with the world. Deeply, distressingly wrong.

You may not know this (but many of you may), but the whole region coding thing for DVDs is a scam.

It's not like VHS tapes, which actually used a different technology for recording and playback in different regions. DVDs are the same the world over, but someone somewhere has decided they should be sold and used in certain countries only, so they add an encoding which tells your DVD player to reject the disc if you are in the "wrong" region.

The really cheap DVD players - you know, the ones that have trouble with dual layer discs and occasionally decide to break down with your disc inside it for no good reason - they're too cheap and nasty to handle the encoding, so they just ignore it. Thus, you can watch just about anything from anywhere.

If you get a good quality DVD player from a "reputable" brand, they'll be sophisticated enough to read and apply the encoding. But they don't have to. There is nothing in the technology itself that stops the machine from reading the disc. Just the code - deliberately and intentionally written to tell your machine to not do something it is more than capable of doing.

Then, they try to sell you an even more expensive DVD player that is, supposedly, "region free". But it has absolutely nothing to do with getting "better" technology - and everything to do with what the technology is programmed to do...

It's a scam. Nothing more than a money grubbing scam.

On the one hand, the "reputable" brands are getting more money out of you because they can make sure you don't buy a cheaper DVD from overseas - or import a DVD into the country where it hasn't been officially "released". On the other hand, the big corporations of the world have decided they want to control who watches what and where.

Not good, people. All sorts of Freedom-of-Information-Trampling not good.