Forum - View topicRegion 0
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jodi
 Posts: 7 |
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Hello everyone..
Just a quick question about Region 0 DVD's.. Are there any officially released DVD's that are region free? Or does this always mean they are not a legitimate release, therefore a bootleg. Sorry if this is discussed elsewhere. Thanks for any help. |
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Tony K.
 SubscriberModerator  Posts: 12110 Location: Frisco, TX |
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There are a few legit R0 releases from Central Park Media. But other than those, I don't know of many others, at least in terms of anime. A lot of legit live action Asian movies are also R0, but I'm not too familiar with the whole technicalities of their system.
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NGE1113
 Posts: 1081 Location: Alexandria, VA. |
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I imported the Eva Platinum tin (an ADV UK release) from amazon.co.uk a while back (tins > artboxes for me), and when I got it, I decided to give the first disc a whirl through my DVD player to see what would happen. In the end, I found out that the disc played just fine, and that the whole set was region 0 (used PowerDVD to figure that out).
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trejkaz
Posts: 2 Location: Sydney, Australia |
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It would be interesting if someone maintained a list of these region 0 DVDs so that people outside the US could find out which ones they can import and expect them to still work on all their players.
This becomes particularly useful when a US company licences a series and then sends cease and desist letters to every fansub group long before the DVDs are even out (this is ridiculous IMO, it's hard to argue that a fansub can impact the sales of a nonexistent product, and if you want people to buy your stuff, get it out sooner so that we don't need to take the alternative route in the first place.) It's long enough to wait for the US DVDs to come out. Waiting the extra 12 months (this seems to be the typical average) for the Australian ones is just a pain, so being able to import some series a year earlier would be a godsend. Incidentally in Australia, selling a region locked DVD player is illegal, however plenty of computers are still locked, so in many media centre situations you still end up cracking the encryption on your own DVDs just to play them on your own player. Why the government hasn't deemed region locked DVD drives illegal yet is a mystery. An even better solution would be to make it illegal to sell region locked DVDs in the first place, but that would require the cooperation of more countries... |
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UKfan
 Posts: 280 Location: Manchester UK |
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More than a few 
From my collection: These are all marked as Region 0 or ALL. CPM Animation Runner Kurumi Animation Runner Kurumi 2 A Wind Named Amnesia Ayane's High Kick Cat Soup Demon City Shinjuku Descendants of Darkness Collection Detonator Orgun Dominion Tank Police Geobreeders Geobreeders Breakthrough Iczer Reborn Munto Munto 2 Nightwalker Midnight Detective 1 + 2 Photon Project A-Ko Collection Record of Lodoss War Collection Record of Lodoss War: Chronicles of the Heroic Knight They Were Eleven Time Stranger Venus Wars Strange how CPM really were not that bothered about region locking on their DVDs. And a few others (I guess the SS releases could be lumped with the CPM ones as well) Anime 18 Masquerade Midnight Panther Software Sculptures Maze OVA Maze TV Revolutionary Girl Utena Rose Collction 1 + 2 Kiseki (UK) Gunbuster Sol Bianca I have a multi-region DVD player anyway so it isn't much of a problem playing region locked DVDs in the UK. It's certainly wise to be careful with region free DVDs though as a lot of bootlegs are region free, although as shown above there are exceptions. |
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Porcupine
 Posts: 1033 |
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I remember in past times people who ran anime mp3 servers got e-mails or something from AIC telling them to stop. And no anime CDs were ever domestically released back then. It's the same thing. I'm just amazed why the anime companies let it slide these days. Maybe it's because they think (perhaps rightfully so) that they won't actually be able to enforce their own C&D letters, that's my suspicion. |
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Steventheeunuch
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The issue is not black and white, which are more or less the only point the two of you are making ("THey should never do it! It's pointless!" Vs. " They should alwayts do it, and more often!"). Truth is that it's a different issue for different things. There are still properties that need to get that sort of notoriety in fansub circles before it'll come out, stuff that can only be seen in English via fansubs, and things that will definantly take off regardless of exposure (Naruto, for instance). It's simply a case of the fansub community policing itself, which it cant do nowerdays due to the warez script-kiddy mentality floating around.
Subsequently, sending C&D letter to every fansub site from every company is an expensive process- in order to have the appropriate legal documentation in order to send these things put, they need to pay lawyers. Lawyers, if popular culture and real life and junk has taught us anything, cost a lot of money. This is money that could go towards higher production values and whatever else. For some instances, the projected profit 'lost' from a fansub wouldn't really make up for the C&D letters/legal hassle they'd have to go through. As for Japanese companies sending English language C&D letters to English sites for English fansubs, this is more or less done because they potentially have a licensor in mind, or contracts are still underway, therefore they arent yet the responsibility of whichever company in the US has them. I personally don't want fansubs to go away as I think they're capable of a lot of good, but it's a thin line and I dont like how things are going at the moment. Maybe one day it'll be better |
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Emerje
 Posts: 7552 Location: Maine |
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What a coincidence, at Portcon Maine Saturday morning at a panel on the legality of fansubs and scanlations the topic of region 0 came up. It was a little surprising (though maybe it shouldn't have been) that people instantly associate R0 with bootlegs. Hopefully people left the panel a little better informed.
Emerje |
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trejkaz
Posts: 2 Location: Sydney, Australia |
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Indeed. One (Region 0) is very much a solution to the other (bootlegs.) Although, I suppose if availability comes earlier then the bootlegs will just become cheaper. It's a bit unfortunate, really. I think in an ideal world I would watch the fansubs to the end, still buy DVDs as soon as they get translated (unlike now where I have to wait more than an extra year just for the privilege), and stay completely away from bootlegs (as I do now) as those guys don't deserve a profit (at least fansubbers are making no profit.) ... And as for sending ceast and desist letters *before* something is licenced, that's even more retarded than doing it before the title is on the store shelves. |
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marie-antoinette
 Posts: 4136 Location: Ottawa, Canada |
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While there are some official R0 releases, the fact still remains that the majority out there are bootlegs and looking at the region coding is one of the easiest ways to spot a bootleg. |
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Dargonxtc
 Posts: 4463 Location: Nc5xd7+ スターダストの海洋 |
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As already said there is actually quite a few legit Region 0. The majority of them comes from CPM (Central Park Media). I was surprised as hell when I found that out, and went through my collection thinking I had been swindeled. But it was obvious that it was only CPM and once I got to the Now and Then, Here and Now box, i knew that it was all legit. Which sucks because I started at A.
So really if you are buying a title that is not a CPM title and it is 0 or ALL, I would be very suspicious. There are other legit ones, but I would look into those further. Unfortunately some CPM titles are actually becoming pretty hard to get a hold of, or if its still easy you can tell stocks are depleting. Is there a certain title you are looking at? |
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marie-antoinette
Posts: 4136 Location: Ottawa, Canada |
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No, I'm just saying that CPM is only ONE company, so using them to claim that region 0 DVDs are legit isn't really valid. Even all the titles you listed are only a fraction of what is out there, and I'd be willing to bet that at least 95% of the region 0 anime DVDs are bootlegs.
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Dargonxtc
Posts: 4463 Location: Nc5xd7+ スターダストの海洋 |
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Sorry that post wasn't directed at you. Sorry if it sounded like it was.
You are right, checking region code is a good place to start with checking for bootlegs. Just be aware, that there are more that one company legit 0 release. But the majortity, as I said, is coded the 'normal' way. |
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jodi
Posts: 7 |
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I was not aware that CPM released legit Region 0 discs. So thank you for making me aware of this.
Actually, the region in terms of working in my player is not a concern, as I have a region free player. I just wanted to know so I can avoid bootlegs. There are so many around. Recently I was looking on eBay (UK), for a box set of "Key the metal idol". After looking around, I came to the conclusion that the majority of the DVD's for sale were fake! Which I found hard to believe, (this was what prompted my question).. Although, there is, and I myself have bought lots of legit Anime from eBay. I normally just avoid R0 altogether. I wish we didn't have this problem, sometimes it becomes a real pain trying to find legit copies of certain series, or not being sure of what you are buying, I don't want copies in my collection! Anyway thanks for the replies everyone. |
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Emerje
Posts: 7552 Location: Maine |
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I don't believe that anyone said that. It isn't valid to say that all R0 DVDs are bootlegs either, just like it wouldn't be valid to say that all DVDs with Chinese subtitles are bootlegs as some claim, there is a thriving, non-bootleg video industry in China. Or that all import DVDs with English subs are bootlegs because there in fact have been Japanese releases with English subtitles. There are almost always exceptions. Fact is, the best way to spot a bootleg is to know the product. Know who has the license, know who these companies are, and know what the official release looks like. It only takes a bit of understanding to tell the difference. Emerje |
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