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I have a question about the regional coding of DVD players. Why is it that home DVD players on sale in Hong Kong are universally capable of playing DVDs from any region while notebook computers are not? This forces the owners to choose one region and stick to it. 
Surely there is a double standard at work here?
If makers of home players are exempt from the restrictions designed to protect cinematic release dates, why aren't PC makers? If the likes of LG (which made my home player) can get around the regional code issue, then why  can't Apple (which made my notebook)? 
By the way, it is not just Hong Kong where region-free home players are the norm. Last week I heard the BBC's resident film critic, Dr Mark Kermode, say 'Does anyone in the UK still have a player that can't play DVDs from all regions?' 
As far as I can see, the whole 'release date protection story' is pretty thin anyway. I have  the Beatles' Yellow Submarine cartoon first released in 1968 and the disc is region-coded. Why? 

Name supplied 
Discovery Bay


Few things have caused as much fuss in the home entertainment industry as  DVD zoning. 
A few years ago, you had to ask if the DVD player was multi-zone, and often the shop would 'fix' it with a wink. 
Today, they seem to come right off the assembly line ready to play anything, as indeed the BBC film critic  pointed out. 
The whole idea of 'zoning' is said to have come from the idea that Hollywood films are released around the world at different times. A summer blockbuster in the United States may not show up in Asia until Christmas. Consequently, the Christmas DVD that goes on sale in the United States could potentially hurt sales of the same in Asia. That, at least, is the logic behind the technology. 
It is patently obvious, however, to all in the world who are not Hollywood producers that this is silly. Not only do people buy DVDs from Amazon, eBay and other online shops,  they also travel. 
We go all over the world and pick up DVDs and  want to play them when we get home. These have been bought legitimately, and most of us feel we should be able to play them. Also, some things are only available in one region, so what are we supposed to do if we want to view them? 
It is not the policy of Tech Talk to show people how to hack  into a computer and, no matter how silly the policies of computer companies, we cannot point  to a website with software that will change the settings on your computer's DVD player.
Suffice it to say, however, that it does not take a genius to work out how to do this. 
What happens then, though?
I spoke to both Apple and Dell and they have shown me websites with legal pronouncements. Apple said it did not think there was software available that could crack its DVD player, but it also admitted that so far nobody in Hong Kong has had a warranty revoked because of fooling with it. (Readers should be reminded that such a statement could mean that Apple has ignored it or that it was incapable of knowing what had happened. There is a difference.) 
Find a good article on the whole subject at http://hometheater.about.com/cs/dvdlaserdisc/a/aaregioncodesa.htm.  
Dell's warranty page for Asia Pacific is at www1.ap.dell.com/content/topics/topic.aspx/ap/policy/en/hk/termshk?c=hk&l=en&s=gen  
Apple's warranty page is at www.apple.com/legal/warranty/hardware.html  


Questions to Tech Talk will not be answered personally. E-mail Danyll Wills at tech.talk@scmp.com.



Much ado about DVDs and regional zoning