International DVDs make a number of wonderful films available for purchase, but there is one thing you must pay close attention to if you are planning to buy them. Movie studios and distributors have created a regional coding system that means many international DVDs will not play in a DVD player bought in the U.S. Regional coding is optional, but enough studios follow it that you must be careful.

Region codes were created because movies are released at different times all over the world (usually in the United States first). Studios and distributors were losing money because DVDs were already being released in one country when the movie was just hitting the theaters in another country, and people were importing the DVDs for their own profit and costing the theaters business. Hence, DVD players and international DVDs were given one of six codes, and only matching codes will enable a you to play a DVD.

International DVDs from Different Regions

Region One consists of the U.S. and Canada. Region Two is comprised of the Middle East and Europe. The other four regions are similarly divided on geographical lines: one for Mexico, Central, and South America; one for China; one for Southeast Asia; and one for former Russia and Eastern Europe.

Some DVDs may have a region code of "0," which means that DVD is region-free. You are supposed to be able to play these discs on any DVD player in the world. If a DVD is not coded as a 0, that means it is not region free, and you must find out what region it is from and make sure that coincides with your DVD player.