First a little technical background.  All DVDs must have at least one of the region code bits set in the byte.  Otherwise it won't play anywhere.  There is no such thing as region 0 with a DVD.  For and "all region" DVD, the bits for regions 1 thru 6 must be set.

The issue.  It seems that many, many, many contributors are not setting any regions for DVDs that are all region.  It came to light when I was updating a report for displaying region codes.  I had set it so that when it the region code was zero, it would display a 1-6 region code image.  Then it hit an entry whereby the 6 region codes were set, which is 100% correct.  That caused my report to display each of the 6 region codes (smaller versions so that all are viewable).

That got me to thinking.  Why is DVDP allowing DVDs to have no region code when that is technically incorrect?  The person that submitted a DVD that I have correctly, set all 6 region bits.

Should't DVDP pop up a warning that no region locations were set and to indicate that all locations are set for DVDs that are so-called region free?

DVDP should display ALL for DVDs that have all 6 region locations set, not MULTI.

In the meantime, I'm off to update my report to handle this inconsistancy.

Well said, Staid.

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Quoting bbbbb:

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According to Wikipedia it's not true that at least one flag has to be set: "discs that bear the region 0 symbol either have no flag set or have region 1–6 flags set".

Wikipedia is not the be all to end all.

I quote DVD Demystified - Second Edition:

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Region 0 is a common but misleading term. There is no region 0.  Region-free players and all-region discs exist, but region 0 players and region 0 discs are non-existant. A player modified to work in all regions may have all of the bits in the region mask set, which means that it is technically a region 65535 or region FFFF player.

There are two bytes set aside for region coding, of which only one byte was ever used.

I've personally never seen a region 0 disc.  Any company who labels said disc like that is mistaken.  The best thing to do is label it ALL or do not put on a region symbol.

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I agree. If the DVD is encoded for regions 1 to 6, we have to set "all" per the rules. Which displays as M and at first glance can't be distinguished from a region code free ("0") DVD unless you hover the mouse pointer over the symbol.

People may have misread the spec.  The matching of the region code on the disc and the player is done via a mask.  Inverse logic is used for the bits on the disc, in that when a region is set for allowable playback, the bit is cleared.  So, when authoring software has all of the bits set, they are actually cleared on the DVD, hence the "zero."  But, here is the part that seems to be forgotten, if you do not set the region as being playable, the bit for that region will be set, which the player will interpret as meaning it is not allowed to play the disc.  So, if you do not set any region flags, the disc will not be playable anywhere.  A region flag MUST be set for the DVD to be playable somewhere.  Of course, this is not withstanding software that copies a disc, removing the encryption, which removes the region coding, or players that are modified to not bother checking the region code under any circumstance.  I'm talking about the purpose for which the region codes were intended.

Region coding only applies to CSS-encrypted DVD-Video discs.  No encryption means the player does not check for region coding.

Since bit 7 is reserved and never set and since bit 8 does not pertain to consumer discs, i.e., only for plane, boats and hotels, only bits 1 through 6 (not 1 to 6, as "to" is not inclusive) are of interest to consumers.

The professional DVD authoring software that I use is DVD Maestro.  You have to set the flags for the regions in which you want the disc to be playable, and yes, because it is a professional authoring package, you can deal with all 8 flags.  Since I do not create DVDs that will be encrypted, the setting of the flags is neither here nor there.  I just them them anyway.

Quoting Kinoniki:

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Or you could make a feature request, but I personally don't see the benefit of setting 6 regions instead of none.

An enhancement request it is.

Quoting Kinoniki:

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Discs encoded for regions 1-6 should never be set according to the contribution rules.

Quite the opposite: according to the contribution rules DVDs encoded for Regions 1-6 must be listed as "All" (and not as "None").

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I personally don't see the benefit of setting 6 regions instead of none.

Well, it would be correct data.

Quoting Kinoniki:

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Trying to purposly misinterpret the rules is not going to get you anywhere.

Agree with, Kino. We see far too much of that.

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