The DVD Forum, that controls the DVD standard will start kicking producers of region free or crackable DVD players. They are threathing the producers with legal steps, and hope they will stop their production.
However, that hasn't stopped Far Eastern manufacturers punching out cheap machines that only play lip service to region encoding. The Web is full of pages outlining ways the players can be reprogrammed, usually through their remote controls, to ignore a discs restrictions. |
For that reason - and because they tend to be cheaper than official products - these Far Eastern machines have become rather popular, particularly in Europe where buyers pay more for DVDs than their US counterparts, have a poorer selection of discs to choose from and have to wait longer for them to ship.
Taiwanese manufacturers will account for around 14 per cent of the global DVD player market. Next year, that figure is expected to rise to 23 per cent.
The TET's source says that the DVD Forum first approached Taiwanese player makers a year ago. Clearly the Forum's overtures were rejected, hence the new 'get tough' stance.
Of course, it's hard to see the ban having much of an effect in the US, where there's relatively little need for region busting thanks to the wide availability of titles. The European and Japanese markets are different, however, and import restrictions enforced in these territories would hit manufacturers hard.
This is actually a little meaningless as the Register reports also this:
Assuming, of course, such a ban could be made to stick. All Taiwanese vendors need do is remove the DVD logo and they can continue importing their products. It's questionable to what extent potential customers look for the DVD logo when buying a player rather than just the letters D, V and D on the box. ® |
Source: TheRegister
