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Sony Region Coding September 6, 2007

Posted by thomo the lost in : Technology , trackback

I think I mentioned that I had been travelling a lot lately. One of my travelling companions is my Sony PSP and a couple of mind-bending games (to help overcome the mind-numbing boredom of long haul travel). I like the PSP as it is not too big to carry in a pocket but big enough so that I can see the screen (and the graphics are nice). The built in WiFi is terrific as well as I can check my email on it at the airport when I can connect to the Internet.

Of course, I can check my email on my phone as well (Nokia E65) but the PSP makes it easier to see with the larger screen area.

Whilst passing through Dubai Airport though I noticed the great numbers of DVDs for sale there - sorted on stands and marked by regions (Region 1, Region 3 and Region 0). I wondered about the region coding still and why the manufacturers continue to persist with this idiocy.

Take my PSP for example. I travel with it. Lots of people do. I play games on it and I listen to music on it sometimes (although the MP3 player is more convenient for that). I watch music videos on it but not movies.

Sony, in their short-sighted business way, added region coding to everything (Games, Music Videos and Movies) but only do the region check on the Movies. What does this mean? It means that me (and a number of other travellers I am sure) will buy Sony PSP games wherever we are in the world and buy Music UMDs which are without region code but not buy movies. After all, I bought my PSP in north Asia, but I cannot buy a movie for it in Dubai as the region codes are different.

Any wonder that pirated DVDs sell so well in many countries - the region coding is not present on them.

So all Sony has achieved is reduce its potential number of sales whilst annoying me, a consumer who has not done anything wrong. Silly people. Why treat the legal consumer as the criminal? Idiots!

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