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142-688: This is achieved by way of region-locked DVD players , which will play back only DVDs encoded to their region (plus those without any region code). The American DVD Copy Control Association also requires that DVD player manufacturers incorporate the Regional Playback Control (RPC) system. However, region-free DVD players, which ignore region coding, are also commercially available, and many DVD players can be modified to be region-free, allowing playback of all discs. DVDs may use one code, multiple codes (multi-region), or all codes (region free). Any combination of regions can be applied to

284-427: A Digital Cinema Package (DCP). For a typical feature film, these files will be anywhere between 90 GB and 300 GB of data (roughly two to six times the information of a Blu-ray disc) and may arrive as a physical delivery on a conventional computer hard drive or via satellite or fibre-optic broadband Internet. As of 2013, physical deliveries of hard drives were most common in the industry. Promotional trailers arrive on

426-408: A digital video projector instead of a film projector , are shot using digital movie cameras or in animation transferred from a file and are edited using a non-linear editing system (NLE). The NLE is often a video editing application installed in one or more computers that may be networked to access the original footage from a remote server, share or gain access to computing resources for rendering

568-402: A $ 315 million deal with Sony to replace all of its movie projectors with 4K digital projectors starting in the second quarter of 2009; it was anticipated that this replacement would be finished by 2012. As digital cinema technology improved in the early 2010s, most theaters across the world converted to digital video projection. In January 2011, the total number of digital screens worldwide

710-437: A DVD video player because of the restrictions that limit their ability to play imported DVDs." The report stated, "These restrictions are artificially imposed by a group of multinational film entertainment companies and are not caused by the existing differences in television display formats such as PAL, NTSC and SECAM [...] The ACCC is currently investigating whether Australian consumers are paying higher prices for DVDs because of

852-548: A Time in Hollywood in 70 mm and 35 mm in selected theaters across the United States and Canada. In addition to the equipment already found in a film-based movie theatre (e.g., a sound reinforcement system , screen, etc.), a DCI-compliant digital cinema requires a DCI-compliant digital projector and a powerful computer known as a server . Movies are supplied to the theatre as a set of digital files called

994-602: A US IP address, and a non-US version (with working Blu-ray-ripping feature). Some webpages allow the download of the non-US version also from the US (they store the non-US version directly and do not use download links to the developer's homepage). The software CCleaner v5.45.6611 has an added check to prevent the use in embargoed countries. Some programs (e.g., games) are distributed in different versions for NTSC and PAL computers. In some cases, to avoid grey market imports or international software piracy, they are designed not to run on

1136-454: A certain region. In older versions of the copy software CloneCD , the features " Amplify Weak Sectors ", " Protected PC Games ," and " Hide CDR Media " were disabled in the United States and Japan. Changing the region and language settings in Windows (e.g., to Canadian English) or patches could unlock these features in the two countries. SlySoft decided to leave these options disabled for

1278-423: A computer with the wrong TV system. Other programs can run on computers with both TV systems. Kaspersky Lab sells its anti-virus products at different prices in different regions and uses regionalized activation codes. A program bought in a country of a region can be activated in another country of the same region. Once activated, the software can also be used in and download updates from other regions as long as

1420-423: A configuration flag is set in each player's firmware at the factory. This flag holds the region number that the machine is allowed to play. Region-free players are DVD players shipped without the ability to enforce regional lockout (usually by means of a chip that ignores any region coding), or without this flag set. However, if the player is not region-free, it can often be unlocked with an unlock code entered via

1562-463: A converter. The Famicom does not include a 10NES chip, but is still unable to play imports unless an adapter is used, due to the different size of the media. The American Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) and the Super Famicom use differences in cartridge cases. A Super NES cartridge will not fit in a Super Famicom/PAL SNES slot due to its different shape and two pieces of plastic in

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1704-435: A different sound format (e.g. 7.1 as opposed to 5.1 surround sound ) or subtitles. 2D and 3D versions are often distributed on the same hard drive. The playback of the content is controlled by the server using a "playlist". As the name implies, this is a list of all the content that is to be played as part of the performance. The playlist will be created by a member of the theatre's staff using proprietary software that runs on

1846-399: A digital cinema playback system—including server, media block , and projector—can cost two to three times as much, and would have a greater risk of component failure and obsolescence. (In Britain the cost of an entry-level projector including server, installation, etc., would be £31,000 [$ 50,000].) Archiving digital masters has also turned out to be both tricky and costly. In a 2007 study,

1988-461: A disc that is encoded for Region 1 but not Regions 2–8 will have the value 2+4+8+16+32+64+128=254. A disc encoded for Regions 1, 2 and 4 will have the value 4+16+32+64+128=244. A region-free or RCE-protected DVD will carry the value zero, since no regions are excluded. The Xbox , Xbox 360 , PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3 consoles are all region-locked for DVD playback. The PlayStation 2 can be modified to have its regional-locking disabled through

2130-450: A disc's region code or allowing the user to manually select a particular region. Some manufacturers of DVD players now freely supply information on how to disable regional lockout, and on some recent models, it appears to be disabled by default. Computer programs such as DVD Shrink can make copies of region-coded DVDs without RCE restriction. One purpose of region coding is controlling release dates. One practice of movie marketing which

2272-434: A downside. The speed and ease of modern digital editing processes threatens to give editors and their directors, if not an embarrassment of choice then at least a confusion of options, potentially making the editing process, with this 'try it and see' philosophy, lengthier rather than shorter. Because the equipment needed to produce digital feature films can be obtained more easily than film projectors, producers could inundate

2414-470: A film for public exhibition in a cinema has always been expensive, but a large number of release prints are needed only for a narrow window of time during the first few weeks after a film's release. Spreading out release dates allows for reuse of some release prints in other regions. For example, the film 28 Days Later was available on DVD in the United Kingdom before it was released in theaters in

2556-423: A filter wheel or an emitter for LCD glasses. RealD uses a " ZScreen " for polarisation and MasterImage uses a filter wheel that changes the polarity of projector's light output several times per second to alternate quickly the left-and-right-eye views. Another system that uses a filter wheel is Dolby 3D . The wheel changes the wavelengths of the colours being displayed, and tinted glasses filter these changes so

2698-412: A good showing at the box office. The digital formation of sets and locations, especially in the time of growing film series and sequels, is that virtual sets, once computer generated and stored, can be easily revived for future films. Considering digital film images are documented as data files on hard disk or flash memory, varying systems of edits can be executed with the alteration of a few settings on

2840-606: A hardware modification is also needed. Region locks could be bypassed using special unlicensed cartridge adapters such as Game Genie . The swapping of cartridge shells also bypasses the physical regional lockout. The Nintendo 64 features similar lockout methods as the Super NES. The GameCube and Wii are both region-locked, as well as the Wii Shop Channel . On the Wii, channels from other regions will refuse to load with

2982-546: A joint venture of the six major studios , published the first version (V1.0) of a system specification for digital cinema in July 2005. The main declared objectives of the specification were to define a digital cinema system that would "present a theatrical experience that is better than what one could achieve now with a traditional 35mm Answer Print", to provide global standards for interoperability such that any DCI-compliant content could play on any DCI-compliant hardware anywhere in

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3124-633: A mechanism that allows for the game to query the model of the PS3, none did so during the first three years after the PS3's launch. In the case of Persona 4 Arena ; publisher Atlus declined to reverse its decision despite substantial outcry by some of their fanbase. The decision was made to avoid excessive importing, because all versions of the game share the same features and language support, but have differing price points and release dates in each region. They did, however, decide not to apply region-locking to its sequel ( Persona 4 Arena Ultimax ). Region locking

3266-474: A new willingness on the part of theaters to co-operate in installing 2K stereo installations to show Disney's Chicken Little in 3D film . Six more digital 3D movies were released in 2006 and 2007 (including Beowulf , Monster House and Meet the Robinsons ). The technology combines a single digital projector fitted with either a polarizing filter (for use with polarized glasses and silver screens),

3408-659: A region-free player to view NTSC discs (with the possible exception of Japanese discs in most European countries, since they are in the same region - this means European region 2 users could import Japanese discs and play them on their players without any obstacles.) There are also differences in pixel aspect ratio (720 × 480 vs. 720 × 576 with the same image aspect ratio ) and display frame rate (29.97 vs. 25). Most computer-based DVD software and hardware can play both NTSC and PAL video and both audio standards. Blu-ray players, which use up to 1080p signals, are backwards compatible with both NTSC and PAL DVDs. Usually,

3550-560: A region-free player tries to play a disc using the last region that worked with the previously inserted disc. If it cannot play the disc, then it tries another region until one is found that works. RCE could be defeated by briefly playing a "normal" region 1 disc, and then inserting the RCE protected region 1 disc, which would now play. RCE also caused a few problems with genuine region 1 players. Many "multi-region" DVD players defeated regional lockout and RCE by automatically identifying and matching

3692-473: A roll-out in the United States and Canada. By mid 2006, about 400 theaters were equipped with 2K digital projectors with the number increasing every month. In August 2006, the Malayalam digital movie Moonnamathoral , produced by Benzy Martin, was distributed via satellite to cinemas, thus becoming the first Indian digital cinema. This was done by Emil and Eric Digital Films, a company based at Thrissur using

3834-603: A separate hard drive and range between 200 GB and 400 GB in size. Regardless of how the DCP arrives, it first needs to be copied onto the internal hard drives of the server, either via a eSATA connection, or via a closed network, a process known as "ingesting." DCPs can be, and in the case of feature films almost always are, encrypted, to prevent illegal copying and piracy. The necessary decryption keys are supplied separately, usually as email attachments or via download, and then "ingested" via USB. Keys are time-limited and will expire after

3976-419: A short video loop of a map of the world showing the regions, which was coded as region 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. The intention was that when the disc was played in a non-region 1 player, the player would default to playing the material for its native region. This played the aforementioned video loop of a map, which was impossible to escape from, as the user controls were disabled. The scheme was fundamentally flawed, as

4118-580: A single disc. For example, a DVD designated Region 2/4 is suitable for playback in Europe, Latin America, Oceania, and any other Region 2 or Region 4 area. So-called "Region 0" and "ALL" discs are meant to be playable worldwide. The term "Region 0" also describes the DVD players designed or modified to incorporate Regions 1–8, thereby providing compatibility with most discs, regardless of region. This apparent solution

4260-777: A switch to region 2. European region 2 DVDs may be sub-coded "D1" to "D4". "D1" are the UK only releases; "D2" and "D3" are not sold in the UK and Ireland; "D4" are distributed throughout Europe. Overseas territories of the United Kingdom and France (both in region 2) often have other regions (4 or 5, depending on geographical situation) than their homelands. Most DVDs sold in Mexico and the rest of Latin America carry both region 1 and 4 codes. Some are region 1 only after 2006 to coincide with Blu-ray region A. Egypt, Eswatini, Lesotho, and South Africa are in DVD region 2, while all other African countries are in region 5, but all African countries are in

4402-425: A total of 18 digital screens, were launched on 9 February 2007. By March 2007, with the release of Disney's Meet the Robinsons , about 600 screens had been equipped with digital projectors. In June 2007, Arts Alliance Media announced the first European commercial digital cinema Virtual Print Fee (VPF) agreements (with 20th Century Fox and Universal Pictures ). In March 2009 AMC Theatres announced that it closed

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4544-625: A total of 39,789 screens) in the United States have been converted to digital, 3,007 screens in Canada have been converted, and 93,147 screens internationally have been converted. By the end of 2017, virtually all of the world's cinema screens were digital (98%). Despite the fact that today, virtually all global movie theaters have converted their screens to digital cinemas, some major motion pictures even as of 2019 are shot on film. For example, Quentin Tarantino released his latest film Once Upon

4686-410: A trade association now exists to that end. Ten years on the sector has become a sizeable revenue stream in its own right, earning a loyal following amongst fans of the arts, and the content limited only by the imagination of the producers it would seem. Theatre, ballet, sport, exhibitions, TV specials and documentaries are now established forms of Event Cinema. Worldwide estimations put the likely value of

4828-430: A wide-release movie can cost millions of dollars. In contrast, at the maximum 250 megabit-per-second data rate (as defined by DCI for digital cinema), a feature-length movie can be stored on an off-the-shelf 300  GB hard drive for $ 50 and a broad release of 4000 'digital prints' might cost $ 200,000. In addition hard drives can be returned to distributors for reuse. With several hundred movies distributed every year,

4970-538: Is "US" (21843 or hex 0x5553), Japan is "JP" (19024 or hex 0x4a50), and Canada is "CA" (17217 or hex 0x4341).) Although there are only three Blu-ray regions, the country code allows much more precise control of the regional distribution of Blu-ray Discs than the six (or eight) DVD regions. Since Blu-ray discs are cheaper in America than in Japan, American releases of Japanese anime series are often protected in that way to prevent reversal importations. Some discs check whether

5112-622: Is a discrete wavelet transform (DWT) based compression standard that could be adapted for motion imaging video compression with the Motion JPEG 2000 extension. JPEG 2000 technology was later selected as the video coding standard for digital cinema in 2004. On January 19, 2000, the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers , in the United States, initiated the first standards group dedicated towards developing digital cinema. By December 2000, there were 15 digital cinema screens in

5254-516: Is a modification of the discrete cosine transform (DCT) algorithm, which was first proposed by Nasir Ahmed in 1972 and was originally intended for image compression . The DCT was adapted into the MDCT by J.P. Princen, A.W. Johnson and Alan B. Bradley at the University of Surrey in 1987, and then Dolby Laboratories adapted the MDCT algorithm along with perceptual coding principles to develop

5396-406: Is a significant saving on print expenses in such cases: at a minimum cost per print of $ 1200–2000, the cost of film print production is between $ 5–8 million per movie. With several thousand releases a year, the probable savings offered by digital distribution and projection are over $ 1 billion. The cost savings and ease, together with the ability to store film rather than having to send a print on to

5538-1613: Is also region-locked. For example, a user with a Japanese PSN account will only be able to access the Japanese PSN store despite owning a US PS3, and can only pay for a game with a Japanese PSN gift card or Japanese credit card. However, with a few rare exceptions, notably Joysound Dive , downloaded content from each PSN store are also region free, as are PSOne and PS2 classics offered on the store. The regions include: ( categorised under SIEA : Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guina, Guam, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, United States, Uruguay) ( categorised under SIEE : Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kuwait, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Malta, New Zealand, Norway, Oman, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Ukraine) ( categorised under SIEJ : Japan) ( categorised under SIE Asia : Brunei, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Lao People's Demoncratic Republic, Macau, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam) ( categorised under SIEK : South Korea) Although PlayStation Portable has no region locking for UMD games, UMD movies are locked by region. However, Sony has confirmed that it

5680-411: Is covered by a very large number of microscopic mirrors, one for each pixel, so a 2K device has about 2.2 million mirrors and a 4K device about 8.8 million. Each mirror vibrates several thousand times a second between two positions: In one, light from the projector's lamp is reflected towards the screen, in the other away from it. The proportion of the time the mirror is in each position varies according to

5822-633: Is dwindling. As of 4 May 2014, 37,711 screens (out of a total of 40,048 screens) in the United States have been converted to digital, 3,013 screens in Canada have been converted, and 79,043 screens internationally have been converted. Realization and demonstration, on October 29, 2001, of the first digital cinema transmission by satellite in Europe of a feature film by Bernard Pauchon, Alain Lorentz, Raymond Melwig and Philippe Binant. Digital cinemas can deliver live broadcasts from performances or events. This began initially with live broadcasts from

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5964-402: Is greater than that of 2K digital cinema. 2K resolution (2048×1080) is also only slightly greater than that of consumer based 1080p HD (1920x1080). However, since digital post-production techniques became the standard in the early 2000s, the majority of movies, whether photographed digitally or on 35 mm film, have been mastered and edited at the 2K resolution. Moreover, 4K post production

6106-625: Is in Arena Sihlcity Cinema in Zürich. These displays do not use a projector; instead they use a LED video wall , and can offer higher contrast ratios, higher resolutions, and overall improvements in image quality. Sony already sells MicroLED displays as a replacement for conventional cinema screens. Digital distribution of movies has the potential to save money for film distributors. To print an 80-minute feature film can cost US$ 1,500 to $ 2,500, so making thousands of prints for

6248-563: Is possible to disable region locking on said systems via a modchip or performing a disk-swap when the console starts. In the case of the PlayStation 2, a Swap Magic disc can be used to bypass regional locks. DVD movies on the PlayStation 2 are also region-locked. All PlayStation 3 games except for Persona 4 Arena and Way of the Samurai 3 are region free. Although publishers could choose to region-lock specific games based on

6390-645: Is possible to implement region-locking on the PSP, and the firmware will disable features based on region. For example, Asian region PSPs will not display the "Extras" option on the XMB despite having been upgraded to the US version of Firmware 6.20, preventing owners of such PSPs from installing the Comic Book Viewer and the TV Streaming applications. As the applications are installed through a PC, and users from

6532-559: Is present for backwards-compatible PlayStation and PlayStation 2 games, as well as DVD and Blu-ray movies. Additionally, some games separate online players per region, such as Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots . The PlayStation Store only contains content for its own country. For example, the EU store will not supply usable map packs for an imported US copy of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare . In addition, downloadable content for

6674-448: Is recognized by the console using the 10NES chip. If the chip inside the cartridge conflicts with the chip inside the console, the game will not boot. The 10NES chip also doubled as a form of digital rights management to prevent loading unlicensed or bootleg games. The redesigned Nintendo Entertainment System (Model NES-101) released in 1993/1994 lacks the 10NES chip, and can play PAL and unlicensed games, although Famicom games still need

6816-464: Is that region-coding allows for local censorship, such as the Region 1 DVD of the 1999 drama film Eyes Wide Shut which contains the digital manipulations needed for the film to secure an MPAA R-rating , while these manipulations are not evident in discs that are not in region 1. Regional lockout A regional lockout (or region coding ) is a class of digital rights management preventing

6958-537: Is that they discourage developers from region-locking and will only relent in special cases (as with the PS3 Persona 4 Arena ). However, as with the PlayStation 3, digital content such as downloadable content for games still requires a PSN account from the region the content was made for. That said, PSN accounts themselves are not region-locked and an account for one region can be made on a console from another one. Digital cinema Digital cinema refers to

7100-454: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences found the cost of long-term storage of 4K digital masters to be "enormously higher—up to 11 times that of the cost of storing film masters." This is because of the limited or uncertain lifespan of digital storage: No current digital medium—be it optical disc , magnetic hard drive or digital tape—can reliably store a motion picture for as long as

7242-715: The Digital Light Processing (DLP) technology developed by Texas Instruments (TI). D-Cinema projectors are similar in principle to digital projectors used in industry, education, and domestic home cinemas, but differ in two important respects. First, projectors must conform to the strict performance requirements of the DCI specification. Second, projectors must incorporate anti-piracy devices intended to enforce copyright compliance such as licensing limits. For these reasons all projectors intended to be sold to theaters for screening current release movies must be approved by

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7384-671: The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) were locked through both physical and technical means; the design of cartridges for the NES differed between Japan and other markets, using a different number of pins. As the Famicom (the Japanese model) used slightly smaller cartridges, Japanese games could not fit into NES consoles without an adapter (and even with that, they could still not use the extra sound functionalities of

7526-971: The Nintendo eShop can be purchased and downloaded regardless of region. These regions are: Before version 8.0.0, most Asian countries belonged to the Americas, just like with the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U. The only exception to this is the Chinese version of the Nintendo Switch distributed by Tencent in Mainland China. This version of the console can still play cartridge-based games from any region, however they can only connect to Chinese servers. Thus, it cannot access any game updates, DLC or online modes from games in other regions, or download said games digitally. Conversely, all other versions of

7668-584: The remote control . This code simply allows the user to change the factory-set configuration flag to another region, or to the special region "0". Once unlocked this way, the DVD player allows the owner to watch DVDs from any region. Many websites exist on the Internet offering these codes, often known informally as hacks . Many websites provide instructions for different models of standalone DVD players, to hack, and their factory codes. Older DVD drives use RPC-1 (Regional Playback Control) firmware, which means

7810-502: The AC-3 audio format for cinema needs. Cinema in the 1990s typically combined analog photochemical images with digital audio. Digital media playback of high-resolution 2K files has at least a 20-year history. Early video data storage units ( RAIDs ) fed custom frame buffer systems with large memories. In early digital video units, the content was usually restricted to several minutes of material. Transfer of content between remote locations

7952-433: The DCI before being put on sale. They now pass through a process called CTP (compliance test plan). Because feature films in digital form are encrypted and the decryption keys (KDMs) are locked to the serial number of the server used (linking to both the projector serial number and server is planned in the future), a system will allow playback of a protected feature only with the required KDM. Three manufacturers have licensed

8094-595: The DLP Cinema technology developed by Texas Instruments (TI): Christie Digital Systems , Barco , and NEC . While NEC is a relative newcomer to Digital Cinema, Christie is the main player in the U.S. and Barco takes the lead in Europe and Asia. Initially DCI-compliant DLP projectors were available in 2K only, but from early 2012, when TI's 4K DLP chip went into full production, DLP projectors have been available in both 2K and 4K versions. Manufacturers of DLP-based cinema projectors can now also offer 4K upgrades to some of

8236-443: The DVD region can usually be changed five times. Windows uses three region counters: its own one, the one of the DVD drive, and the one of the player software (occasionally, the player software has no region counter of its own, but uses that of Windows). After the fifth region change, the system is locked to that region. In modern DVD drives (type RPC-2), the region lock is saved to its hardware, so that even reinstalling Windows or using

8378-721: The Event Cinema industry at $ 1bn by 2019. Event Cinema currently accounts for on average between 1-3% of overall box office for cinemas worldwide but anecdotally it's been reported that some cinemas attribute as much as 25%, 48% and even 51% (the Rio Bio cinema in Stockholm) of their overall box office. It is envisaged ultimately that Event Cinema will account for around 5% of the overall box office globally. Event Cinema saw six worldwide records set and broken over from 2013 to 2015 with notable successes Dr Who ($ 10.2m in three days at

8520-399: The Famicom due to their differing hardware). Official adapters existed inside early copies of Gyromite ; other Famicom games could be played by disassembling the cartridge and then swapping out the original board of the game with a different Famicom game's board. Additionally, the NES also contained the 10NES authentication chip; the chip was coded for one of four regions: A game's region

8662-531: The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull solely on film. Paul Thomas Anderson recently was able to create 70-mm film prints for his film The Master . Film critic Roger Ebert criticized the use of DCPs after a cancelled film festival screening of Brian DePalma 's film Passion at New York Film Festival as a result of a lockup due to the coding system. The theoretical resolution of 35 mm film

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8804-552: The Monday-Thursday daytime/evening slot and are characterised by the One Night Only release, followed by one or possibly more 'Encore' releases a few days or weeks later if the event is successful and sold out. On occasion more successful events have returned to cinemas some months or even years later in the case of NT Live where the audience loyalty and company branding is so strong the content owner can be assured of

8946-503: The National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO) released its Digital Cinema System Requirements. The document addresses the requirements of digital cinema systems from the operational needs of the exhibitor, focusing on areas not addressed by DCI, including access for the visually impaired and hearing impaired, workflow inside the cinema, and equipment interoperability. In particular, NATO's document details requirements for

9088-524: The New York Metropolitan Opera delivering regular live broadcasts into cinemas and has been widely imitated ever since. Leading territories providing the content are the UK, the US, France and Germany. The Royal Opera House, Sydney Opera House, English National Opera and others have found new and returning audiences captivated by the detail offered by a live digital broadcast featuring handheld and cameras on cranes positioned throughout

9230-519: The Nintendo Switch are unable to play cartridge-based games made by Tencent specifically for the Chinese Nintendo Switch. All Nintendo handheld consoles except both Nintendo DSi models and the Nintendo 3DS are fully region-free. In the case of the former, only the physical and digital games that cannot be played on earlier DS models are region-locked. The latter's region lock strictly applies to all software designed for it, with

9372-589: The PAL versions of the Atari 7800 can run NTSC games, but still suffering from the same problems the Atari 2600 had. The Atari 5200 , Lynx and Jaguar are region-free. Nintendo was the first console maker to introduce regional locks to its consoles, using them for every one of its home consoles except for the Nintendo Switch . Nintendo has mostly abstained from using them for its handheld consoles. Games for

9514-530: The PlayStation 3 systems is region-matched with the game itself. For example, DLC from the US PlayStation Store must be used in conjunction with a US-region game. More specifically, the PS3's file system includes region-of-origin, so DLC cannot be shared between different region games much like save files cannot. Also, the PSN Store is tied to each user's PSN account, and payment methods for PSN

9656-626: The Royal Ballet, Mariinsky Ballet, the Bolshoi Ballet and the Berlin Philharmoniker. In the last ten years this initial offering of the arts has also expanded to include live and recorded music events such as Take That Live, One Direction Live, Andre Rieu, live musicals such as the recent Miss Saigon and a record-breaking Billy Elliot Live In Cinemas. Live sport, documentary with a live question and answer element such as

9798-580: The SNES slot prevent Super Famicom cartridges from being inserted in the SNES. PAL SNES carts can be fully inserted in Japanese consoles, but a similar chip to the 10NES, called the CIC, prevents PAL games from being played in NTSC consoles and vice versa. While physical modification of the cases (either console or cartridges) is needed to play games from the different regions, in order to play games of different TV systems,

9940-533: The Theatre Management System (TMS), the governing software for digital cinema systems within a theatre complex, and provides direction for the development of security key management systems. As with DCI's document, NATO's document is also important to the SMPTE standards effort. The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers ( SMPTE ) began work on standards for digital cinema in 2000. It

10082-730: The US and 30 more in the rest of the world. In April 2004, in cooperation with the American Society of Cinematographers , DCI created standard evaluation material (the ASC/DCI StEM material) for testing of 2K and 4K playback and compression technologies. DCI selected JPEG 2000 as the basis for the compression in the system the same year. Initial tests with JPEG 2000 produced bit rates of around 75–125  Mbit/s for 2K resolution and 100–200 Mbit/s for 4K resolution . In China, in June 2005, an e-cinema system called "dMs"

10224-408: The US for legal reasons, but, strangely enough, in the program " AnyDVD ", which is also illegal according to US law, no features were disabled. The current version of CloneCD (5.3.1.4) is not region-restricted anymore. The newer versions of the copy software DVDFab (9.1.5.0 and higher) come in a US version (with no Blu-ray-ripping feature), which is downloaded if the homepage dvdfab.cn identifies

10366-689: The United States and Canada, 11 in Western Europe, 4 in Asia, and 1 in South America. Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI) was formed in March 2002 as a joint project of many motion picture studios ( Disney , Fox , MGM , Paramount , Sony Pictures , Universal and Warner Bros. ) to develop a system specification for digital cinema. The same month it was reported that the number of cinemas equipped with digital projectors had increased to about 50 in

10508-409: The United States. Videotapes were inherently regional since formats had to match those of the encoding system used by television stations in that particular region, such as NTSC and PAL , although from the early 1990s PAL machines increasingly offered NTSC playback . DVDs are less restricted in that sense. Region coding allows movie studios to better control the global release dates of DVDs. Also,

10650-685: The ability of copyright owners, such as film companies, to prevent competition by restricting imports from countries where the same (authorised) video titles are sold more cheaply." In 2012, a report from The Sydney Morning Herald revealed that region-free DVD players were legal in Australia, as they were exempt from the Technological Protection Measures (TPMs) included in the US Free Trade Agreement. Under New Zealand copyright law, DVD region codes and

10792-545: The adoption of digital technology within the film industry to distribute or project motion pictures as opposed to the historical use of reels of motion picture film , such as 35 mm film. Whereas film reels have to be shipped to movie theaters , a digital movie can be distributed to cinemas in a number of ways: over the Internet or dedicated satellite links, or by sending hard drives or optical discs such as Blu-ray discs. Digital movies are projected using

10934-545: The box office – event was also broadcast on terrestrial TV simultaneously), Pompeii Live by the British Museum, Billy Elliot, Andre Rieu, One Direction, Richard III by the Royal Shakespeare Company. Event Cinema is defined more by the frequency of events rather than by the content itself. Event Cinema events typically appear in cinemas during traditionally quieter times in the cinema week such as

11076-943: The build is 91UKV6PRA1, for the A6740uk released in 2009. WildTangent EMEA, Magic Desktop will not work on models in the US. The HP FlexBuild regions are: On the internet , geo-blocking is used primarily to control access to online media content that is only licensed for playback in a certain region due to territorial licensing arrangements. Regional lockouts in video games have been achieved by several methods, such as hardware/software authentication, slot pin-out change, differences in cartridge cases, IP blocking and online software patching. Most console video games have region encoding. The main regions are: The Atari 2600 does not have regional locking, however NTSC games can display wrong colors, slow speed and sound on PAL systems, and vice versa. Atari 7800 has regional locking on NTSC systems, making PAL games unplayable on them. However,

11218-460: The converted signal. NTSC discs may be output from a PAL DVD player in three different ways: However, most NTSC players cannot play PAL discs, and most NTSC TVs do not accept 576i video signals as used on PAL/SECAM DVDs. Those in NTSC countries, such as the United States, generally require both a region-free, multi-standard player and a multi-standard television to view PAL discs, or a converter box, whereas those in PAL countries generally require only

11360-682: The copyright in a title may be held by different entities in different territories. Region coding enables copyright holders to (attempt to) prevent a DVD from a region from which they do not derive royalties from being played on a DVD player inside their region. Region coding attempts to dissuade importing of DVDs from one region into another. DVDs are also formatted for use on two conflicting regional television systems: 480i /60 Hz and 576i /50 Hz, which in analog contexts are often referred to as 525/60 ( NTSC ) and 625/50 ( PAL / SECAM ) respectively. Strictly speaking, PAL and SECAM are analog color television signal formats which have no relevance in

11502-404: The corresponding format. NTSC is the analog TV format historically associated with the United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Philippines, Taiwan, and other countries. PAL is the analog color TV format historically associated with most of Europe, most of Africa, China, India, Australia, New Zealand, Israel, North Korea, and other countries (Brazil adopted the variant PAL-M , which uses

11644-654: The country code allows much more precise control of the regional distribution of Blu-ray discs than the six (or eight) DVD regions. In Blu-ray discs, there are not any "special regions" like the regions 7 and 8 in DVDs. Ultra HD (4K) Blu-Ray discs are region-free as they're generally encoded as worldwide region. For the UMD, a disc type used for the PlayStation Portable , UMD movies have region codes similar to DVDs, although many PSP games are region-free. Region coding

11786-423: The country code is US or Canada (sometimes also Mexico) and play only in these countries, others allow all country codes (even those of non-Region-A countries) except the Japanese. AnyDVD HD (7.5.9.0 and higher) has an option to enforce the US country code. The software developers say users can also change the country code to enforce in the registry value "bdCountryCode" themselves or set "no country code" by using

11928-600: The digital domain (as evident in the conflation of PAL and SECAM, which are actually two distinct analog color systems). However, the DVD system was originally designed to encode the information necessary to reproduce signals in these formats, and the terms continue to be used (incorrectly) as a method of identifying refresh rates and vertical resolution. However, an "NTSC", "PAL" or "SECAM" DVD player that has one or more analog composite video output (baseband or modulated) will only produce NTSC, PAL or SECAM signals, respectively, from those outputs, and may only play DVDs identified with

12070-507: The distributor (who saves the money of producing and transporting a film print) pays a fee per copy to help finance the digital systems of the theaters. A theater can purchase a film projector for as little as $ 10,000 (though projectors intended for commercial cinemas cost two to three times that; to which must be added the cost of a long-play system , which also costs around $ 10,000, making a total of around $ 30,000–$ 40,000) from which they could expect an average life of 30–40 years. By contrast,

12212-437: The drive allows DVDs from any region to play. Newer drives use RPC-2 firmware, which enforces the DVD region coding at the hardware level. These drives can often be reflashed or hacked with RPC-1 firmware, effectively making the drive region-free. This may void the drive's warranty. Some drives may come set as region-free, so the user is expected to assign their region when they buy it. In this case, some DVD programs may prompt

12354-650: The drive is locked. Most commercial players are locked to a region code, but can be easily changed with software. Other software, known as DVD region killers, transparently remove (or hide) the DVD region code from the software player. Some can also work around locked RPC-2 firmware. The region coding of a DVD can be circumvented by making a copy that adds flags for all region codes, creating an all-region DVD. DVD backup software can do this, and some can also remove Macrovision , CSS , and disabled user operations (UOps). In common region-locked DVDs (but not in RCE-DVDs),

12496-519: The drive with a different computer will not unlock the drive again. Unlike DVD regions, Blu-ray regions are verified only by the player software, not by the computer system or the drive. The region code is stored in a file or the registry, and there are hacks to reset the region counter of the player software. In stand-alone players, the region code is part of the firmware. For bypassing region codes, there are software and multi-regional players available. A new form of Blu-ray region coding tests not only

12638-767: The editing console with the structure being composed virtually in the computer's memory. A broad choice of effects can be sampled simply and rapidly, without the physical constraints posed by traditional cut-and-stick editing. Digital cinema allows national cinemas to construct films specific to their cultures in ways that the more constricting configurations and economics of customary film-making prevented. Low-cost cameras and computer-based editing software have gradually enabled films to be produced for minimal cost. The ability of digital cameras to allow film-makers to shoot limitless footage without wasting costly film has transformed film production in some Third World countries. From consumers' perspective digital prints do not deteriorate with

12780-445: The end of the period for which the title has been booked. They are also locked to the hardware (server and projector) that is to screen the film, so if the theatre wishes to move the title to another screen or extend the run, a new key must be obtained from the distributor. Several versions of the same feature can be sent together. The original version (OV) is used as the basis of all the other playback options. Version files (VF) may have

12922-838: The end-to-end digital cinema system developed by Singapore-based DG2L Technologies. In January 2007, Guru became the first Indian film mastered in the DCI-compliant JPEG 2000 Interop format and also the first Indian film to be previewed digitally, internationally, at the Elgin Winter Garden in Toronto. This film was digitally mastered at Real Image Media Technologies in India. In 2007, the UK became home to Europe's first DCI-compliant fully digital multiplex cinemas; Odeon Hatfield and Odeon Surrey Quays (in London), with

13064-598: The final video, and allow several editors to work on the same timeline or project. Alternatively a digital movie could be a film reel that has been digitized using a motion picture film scanner and then restored, or, a digital movie could be recorded using a film recorder onto film stock for projection using a traditional film projector. Digital cinema is distinct from high-definition television and does not necessarily use traditional television or other traditional high-definition video standards, aspect ratios, or frame rates. In digital cinema, resolutions are represented by

13206-409: The firmware count can be done with first- or third-party software tools, or by reflashing (see above) to RPC-1 firmware. Since some software does not work correctly with RPC-1 drives, there is also the option of reflashing the drive with a so-called auto-reset firmware. This firmware appears as RPC-2 firmware to software, but will reset the region changes counter whenever power is cycled, reverting to

13348-444: The horizontal pixel count, usually 2K (2048×1080 or 2.2 megapixels ) or 4K (4096×2160 or 8.8 megapixels). The 2K and 4K resolutions used in digital cinema projection are often referred to as DCI 2K and DCI 4K. DCI stands for Digital Cinema Initiatives. As digital cinema technology improved in the early 2010s, most theaters across the world converted to digital video projection. Digital cinema technology has continued to develop over

13490-533: The incorrect wavelength cannot enter the wrong eye. XpanD makes use of an external emitter that sends a signal to the 3D glasses to block out the wrong image from the wrong eye. RGB laser projection produces the purest BT.2020 colors and the brightest images. In Asia, on July 13, 2017, an LED screen for digital cinema developed by Samsung Electronics was publicly demonstrated on one screen at Lotte Cinema World Tower in Seoul . The first installation in Europe

13632-450: The industry saves billions of dollars. The digital-cinema roll-out was stalled by the slow pace at which exhibitors acquired digital projectors, since the savings would be seen not by themselves but by distribution companies. The Virtual Print Fee model was created to address this by passing some of the saving on to the cinemas. As a consequence of the rapid conversion to digital projection, the number of theatrical releases exhibited on film

13774-418: The lens onto the cinema screen. Later projectors may use lasers instead of xenon lamps. Alone amongst the manufacturers of DCI-compliant cinema projectors Sony decided to develop its own technology rather than use TI's DLP technology. SXRD (Silicon X-tal (Crystal) Reflective Display) projectors have only ever been manufactured in 4K form and, until the launch of the 4K DLP chip by TI, Sony SXRD projectors were

13916-515: The license is valid. Problems may arise when the license must be renewed, or if the software must be reinstalled, in a region other than the one where it was bought. The region is identified by the IP address (there is no activation possible without Internet connection), so the use of VPN or a proxy is recommended to circumvent the restriction. The Kaspersky regions are: The desktop versions of HP Pavilion and Compaq Presario are region-locked, according

14058-477: The market with cheap productions and potentially dominate the efforts of serious directors. Because of the quick speed in which they are filmed, these stories sometimes lack essential narrative structure. The electronic transferring of digital film, from central servers to servers in cinema projection booths, is an inexpensive process of supplying copies of newest releases to the vast number of cinema screens demanded by prevailing saturation-release strategies. There

14200-688: The mechanisms in DVD players to enforce them have no legal protection. The practice was also criticized by the European Commission which as of 14 March 2001 were investigating whether the resulting price discrimination amounts to a violation of European competition law. The Washington Post highlighted how DVD region-coding was a major inconvenience for travelers who have the desire to legally purchase DVDs worldwide and return with them to their countries of origin, students of foreign languages, immigrants who want to watch films from their country of origin, and foreign film fans. Another criticism

14342-498: The message "This channel can't be used." The coded regions are: The GameCube and Wii's regional lockout can be bypassed either by console modification or simply by third-party software. Datel 's FreeLoader or Action Replay discs are most notable. The Wii U is also region-locked, as well as its Gamepads . The Nintendo Switch is region-free, therefore allowing games from any region to be played, whether through physical cartridges or digital downloads. For instance, games from

14484-491: The more recent 2K models. Early DLP Cinema projectors , which were deployed primarily in the United States, used limited 1280×1024 resolution or the equivalent of 1.3 MP (megapixels). Digital Projection Incorporated (DPI) designed and sold a few DLP Cinema units (is8-2K) when TI's 2K technology debuted but then abandoned the D-Cinema market while continuing to offer DLP-based projectors for non-cinema purposes. Although based on

14626-547: The movie was publicly demonstrated in five theaters across the United States ( Philadelphia , Portland (Oregon) , Minneapolis , Providence , and Orlando ). In the United States, on June 18, 1999, Texas Instruments' DLP Cinema projector technology was publicly demonstrated on two screens in Los Angeles and New York for the release of Lucasfilm's Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace . In Europe, on February 2, 2000, Texas Instruments' DLP Cinema projector technology

14768-427: The next cinema, allows a larger scope of films to be screened and watched by the public; minority and small-budget films that would not otherwise get such a chance. The initial costs for converting theaters to digital are high: $ 100,000 per screen, on average. Theaters have been reluctant to switch without a cost-sharing arrangement with film distributors . A solution is a temporary Virtual Print Fee system, where

14910-644: The number of showings. Unlike film, there is no projection mechanism or manual handling to add scratches or other physically generated artefacts. Provincial cinemas that would have received old prints can give consumers the same cinematographic experience (all other things being equal) as those attending the premiere. The use of NLEs in movies allows for edits and cuts to be made non-destructively, without actually discarding any footage. A number of high-profile film directors, including Christopher Nolan , Paul Thomas Anderson , David O. Russell and Quentin Tarantino have publicly criticized digital cinema and advocated

15052-615: The only 4K DCI-compatible projectors on the market. Unlike DLP projectors, however, SXRD projectors do not present the left and right eye images of stereoscopic movies sequentially, instead they use half the available area on the SXRD chip for each eye image. Thus during stereoscopic presentations the SXRD projector functions as a sub 2K projector, the same for HFR 3D Content. However, Sony decided in late April, 2020 that they would no longer manufacture digital cinema projectors. In late 2005, interest in digital 3D stereoscopic projection led to

15194-492: The only exception being the application Nintendo 3DS Guide: Louvre , which by itself, is not a game, but an application that serves as a guide for visitors of the Louvre Museum . Similar to the Wii, the 3DS's regional lockout can be bypassed by third party software or custom firmware such as Luma3DS. The PlayStation and PlayStation 2 are region-locked into three regions: NTSC U/C , NTSC-J , and PAL . However, it

15336-518: The player software, not by the computer system or the drive, not like DVD regions. The region code is stored in a file or the registry, and there are hacks to reset the region counter of the player software. In standalone players, the region code is part of and enforced by the firmware. For bypassing region codes, there are software and multi-regional standalone players available. On the other hand, some standalone players can be modified to be region-free. A new form of Blu-ray region coding tests not only

15478-432: The recent Oasis documentary, lectures, faith broadcasts, stand-up comedy, museum and gallery exhibitions, TV specials such as the record-breaking Doctor Who fiftieth anniversary special The Day Of The Doctor , have all contributed to creating a valuable revenue stream for cinemas large and small all over the world. Subsequently, live broadcasting, formerly known as Alternative Content, has become known as Event Cinema and

15620-650: The refresh rate and resolution commonly associated with NTSC). SECAM, a format associated with French-speaking Europe, while using the same resolution and refresh rate as PAL, is a distinct format which uses a very different system of color encoding. Some DVD players can only play discs identified as NTSC, PAL or SECAM, while others can play multiple standards. In general, it is easier for consumers in PAL/SECAM countries to view NTSC DVDs than vice versa. Almost all DVD players sold in PAL/SECAM countries are capable of playing both kinds of discs, and most modern PAL TVs can handle

15762-407: The region 2, region 4, and region 5 codes, or are region 0. Region-code enhanced, also known as just "RCE" or "REA", was a retroactive attempt to prevent the playing of one region's discs in another region, even if the disc was played in a region-free player. The scheme was deployed on only a handful of discs. The disc contained the main program material region coded as region 1. But it also contained

15904-500: The region are not blocked from downloading them, it is possible to install them on non-Asian PSPs that have been imported into the region. While PlayStation Vita games had the potential to be region-locked, all games released for the system are region-free. Like with the PlayStation 3, the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 are not region-locked, although it is still possible to develop region-locked games. Sony's official stance

16046-415: The region code is stored in the file "VIDEO_TS.IFO" (table "VMGM_MAT"), byte offsets 34 and 35. The eight regions each correspond to a value which is a power of 2: Region 1 corresponds to 1 (2), Region 2 to 2 (2), Region 3 to 4 (2), and so on through Region 8, which corresponds to 128 (2). The values of each region that the disc is not encoded for are added together to give the value in the file. For example,

16188-409: The region of the player/player software, but also its country code, repurposing a user setting intended for localization (PSR19) as a new form of regional lockout. This means, for example, while both the US and Japan are Region A, some American discs will not play on devices/software configured for Japan or vice versa, since the two countries have different country codes. (For example, the United States

16330-606: The region of the player/player software, but also its country code. This means, for example, while both the US and Japan are Region A, some American discs are not going to be played on devices/software installed in Japan or vice versa, due to the two countries having different country codes (the United States has 21843 or Hex 5553 ("US" in ASCII , according to ISO 3166-1 ), and Japan has 19024, or Hex 4a50 ("JP"); Canada has 17217 or Hex 4341 ("CA"). Although there are only three Blu-ray regions,

16472-405: The release of a certain product, to avoid losing sales to the product's foreign publisher, to maximize the product's impact in a certain region through localization, to hinder grey market imports by enforcing price discrimination , or to prevent users from accessing certain content in their territory because of legal reasons (either due to censorship laws, or because a distributor does not have

16614-423: The required brightness of each pixel. Three DMD devices are used, one for each of the primary colors. Light from the lamp, usually a Xenon arc lamp similar to those used in film projectors with a power between 1 kW and 7 kW, is split by colored filters into red, green and blue beams which are directed at the appropriate DMD. The 'forward' reflected beam from the three DMDs is then re-combined and focused by

16756-510: The rights to certain intellectual property outside their specified region). The DVD , Blu-ray Disc , and UMD media formats all support the use of region coding; DVDs use eight region codes (Region 7 is reserved for future use; Region 8 is used for "international venues", such as airplanes and cruise ships), and Blu-ray Discs use three region codes corresponding to different areas of the world. Most Blu-rays, however, are region-free. Ultra HD Blu-ray discs are also region-free. On computers,

16898-434: The same 2K TI "light engine" as those of the major players they are so rare as to be virtually unknown in the industry. They are still widely used for pre-show advertising but not usually for feature presentations. TI's technology is based on the use of digital micromirror devices (DMDs). These are MEMS devices that are manufactured from silicon using similar technology to that of computer chips. The surface of these devices

17040-439: The same Blu-ray region code (region B). North Korea and South Korea have different DVD region codes (North Korea: region 5, South Korea: region 3), but use the same Blu-ray region code (region A). In China, two DVD region codes are used: Mainland China uses region 6, but Hong Kong and Macau use region 3. There are also two Blu-ray regions used: China uses region C, while Hong Kong and Macau use region A. Most DVDs in India combine

17182-416: The server. In addition to listing the content to be played the playlist also includes automation cues that allow the playlist to control the projector, the sound system, auditorium lighting, tab curtains and screen masking (if present), etc. The playlist can be started manually, by clicking the "play" button on the server's monitor screen, or automatically at pre-set times. Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI),

17324-408: The smaller dynamic range of digital cameras, correcting poor digital exposures is more difficult than correcting poor film exposures during post-production. A partial solution to this problem is to add complex video-assist technology during the shooting process. However, such technologies are typically available only to high-budget production companies. Digital cinemas' efficiency of storing images has

17466-539: The specification as are the minimum specifications for the projectors employed including the color gamut , the contrast ratio and the brightness of the image. While much of the specification codifies work that had already been ongoing in the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers ( SMPTE ), the specification is important in establishing a content owner framework for the distribution and security of first-release motion-picture content. In addition to DCI's work,

17608-493: The standard added additional playback rates (like 25 fps in SMPTE mode). For the sound component of the content the specification provides for up to 16 channels of uncompressed audio using the "Broadcast Wave" (.wav) format at 24 bits and 48 kHz or 96 kHz sampling. Playback is controlled by an XML -format Composition Playlist, into an MXF -compliant file at a maximum data rate of 250 Mbit/s. Details about encryption, key management , and logging are all discussed in

17750-418: The state of a drive that has never had its region code changed. Most freeware and open source DVD players ignore region coding. VLC , for example, does not attempt to enforce region coding; however, it requires access to the DVD's raw data to overcome CSS encryption, and such access may not be available on some drives with RPC-2 firmware when playing a disc from a different region than the region to which

17892-557: The use of modchips . Although region locked on film DVDs and film Blu-ray Discs, the PlayStation 3 , PlayStation 4 , PlayStation 5 , Xbox One , and Xbox Series X are region free for video games, though add-on content on the online store is region locked and must match the region of the disc. Blu-ray discs use a much simpler region-code system than DVD with only three regions, labeled A, B and C. As with DVDs, many Blu-rays are encoded region 0 (region free), making them suitable for players worldwide. Blu-ray regions are verified only by

18034-508: The use of a certain product or service, such as multimedia or a hardware device, outside a certain region or territory. A regional lockout may be enforced through physical means, through technological means such as detecting the user's IP address or using an identifying code, or through unintentional means introduced by devices only supporting certain regional technologies (such as video formats , i.e., NTSC and PAL ). A regional lockout may be enforced for several reasons, such as to stagger

18176-496: The use of film and film prints. Most famously, Tarantino has suggested he may retire because, though he can still shoot on film, because of the rapid conversion to digital, he cannot project from 35 mm prints in the majority of American cinemas. Steven Spielberg has stated that though digital projection produces a much better image than film if originally shot in digital, it is "inferior" when it has been converted to digital. He attempted at one stage to release Indiana Jones and

18318-446: The user to select a region, while others may actually assign the region automatically based on the locale set in the operating system. In most computer drives, users are allowed to change the region code up to five times. If the number of allowances reaches zero, the region last used will be permanent even if the drive is transferred to another computer. This limit is built into the drive's controller software, called firmware. Resetting

18460-401: The value 4294967295 or hex 0xFFFFFFFF. (Before the change of the value, AnyDVD must be closed, and after changing, it must be restarted.) Some stand-alone Blu-ray players and player programs allow to change the country code (e.g. via the parental lock) and can bypass this protection like that. Some features of certain programs are/were disabled if the software is/was installed on a computer in

18602-407: The venue to capture the emotion that might be missed in a live venue situation. In addition these providers all offer additional value during the intervals e.g. interviews with choreographers, cast members, a backstage tour which would not be on offer at the live event itself. Other live events in this field include live theatre from NT Live, Branagh Live, Royal Shakespeare Company, Shakespeare's Globe,

18744-809: The world and to provide robust protection for the intellectual property of the content providers. The DCI specification calls for picture encoding using the ISO/IEC 15444-1 " JPEG2000 " (.j2c) standard and use of the CIE XYZ color space at 12 bits per component encoded with a 2.6 gamma applied at projection. Two levels of resolution for both content and projectors are supported: 2K (2048×1080) or 2.2 MP at 24 or 48 frames per second , and 4K (4096×2160) or 8.85 MP at 24 frames per second. The specification ensures that 2K content can play on 4K projectors and vice versa. Smaller resolutions in one direction are also supported (the image gets automatically centered). Later versions of

18886-463: The years with 3D, RPX, 4DX and ScreenX, allowing moviegoers with more immersive experiences. The transition from film to digital video was preceded by cinema's transition from analog to digital audio , with the release of the Dolby Digital (AC-3) audio coding standard in 1991. Its main basis is the modified discrete cosine transform (MDCT), a lossy audio compression algorithm. It

19028-433: Was 36,242, up from 16,339 at end 2009 or a growth rate of 121.8 percent during the year. There were 10,083 d-screens in Europe as a whole (28.2 percent of global figure), 16,522 in the United States and Canada (46.2 percent of global figure) and 7,703 in Asia (21.6 percent of global figure). Worldwide progress was slower as in some territories, particularly Latin America and Africa. As of 31 March 2015, 38,719 screens (out of

19170-450: Was becoming more common as of 2013. As projectors are replaced with 4K models the difference in resolution between digital and 35 mm film is somewhat reduced. Digital cinema servers utilize far greater bandwidth over domestic "HD", allowing for a difference in quality (e.g., Blu-ray colour encoding 4:2:0 48 Mbit/s MAX datarate, DCI D-Cinema 4:4:4 250 Mbit/s 2D/3D, 500 Mbit/s HFR3D). Each frame has greater detail. Owing to

19312-625: Was clear by that point in time that HDTV did not provide a sufficient technological basis for the foundation of digital cinema playback. In Europe, India and Japan however, there is still a significant presence of HDTV for theatrical presentations. Agreements within the ISO standards body have led to these non-compliant systems being referred to as Electronic Cinema Systems (E-Cinema). Only three manufacturers make DCI-approved digital cinema projectors; these are Barco , Christie and Sharp/ NEC . Except for Sony, who used to use their own SXRD technology, all use

19454-579: Was criticized for facilitating unlawful market control strategies, such as price fixing . Sale of region-coded DVDs are illegal in New Zealand . The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) have warned that DVD players that enforce region-coding may violate the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 . A December 2000 report from the ACCC advised consumers to "exercise caution when purchasing

19596-517: Was established and was used in over 15,000 screens spread across China's 30 provinces. dMs estimated that the system would expand to 40,000 screens in 2009. In 2005 the UK Film Council Digital Screen Network launched in the UK by Arts Alliance Media creating a chain of 250 2K digital cinema systems. The roll-out was completed in 2006. This was the first mass roll-out in Europe. AccessIT/Christie Digital also started

19738-527: Was popular in the early days of the DVD format, but studios quickly responded by adjusting discs to refuse to play in such machines by implementing a system known as "Regional Coding Enhancement" (RCE). DVDs sold in the Baltic states use both region 2 and 5 codes, having previously been in region 5 (because of their history as part of the USSR), but EU single market law concerning the free movement of goods caused

19880-591: Was publicly demonstrated, by Philippe Binant, on one screen in Paris for the release of Toy Story 2 . From 1997 to 2000, the JPEG 2000 image compression standard was developed by a Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) committee chaired by Touradj Ebrahimi (later the JPEG president). In contrast to the original 1992 JPEG standard, which is a DCT-based lossy compression format for static digital images , JPEG 2000

20022-418: Was slow and had limited capacity. It was not until the late 1990s that feature-length films could be sent over the "wire" (Internet or dedicated fiber links). On October 23, 1998, Digital Light Processing (DLP) projector technology was publicly demonstrated with the release of The Last Broadcast , the first feature-length movie, shot, edited and distributed digitally. In conjunction with Texas Instruments,

20164-399: Was threatened by the advent of digital home video was the tradition of releasing a movie to cinemas and then for general rental or sale later in some countries than in others. This practice was historically common because before the advent of digital cinema , releasing a movie at the same time worldwide used to be prohibitively expensive. Most importantly, manufacturing a release print of

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