One of the most confusing aspects of buying DVDs on the World Wide Web is the fact that you must make sure you purchase the proper region DVD. If you don't, you won't be able to play the DVD on your DVD player. Why are DVDs made by the region? It's simple. Most areas of the world have different ways of recording and playing back data, thus, they require different versions of DVDs to be created to accommodate their particular way of playing back data.

The world is broken up into nine regions numbered zero to eight. Zero region means that a DVD is playable in all regions. One refers to Bermuda, Canada, the United States and all U.S. territories. Two refers to the Middle East, Europe, Egypt, Greenland, Japan, Lesotho, South Africa and Swaziland. Three refers to Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea and Taiwan. Four refers to Central America, Oceania, South America and Mexico. Five refers to most of Africa, parts of Eastern Europe, the Indian subcontinent, Mongolia, North Korea and Russia. Six refers to China. Seven has yet to be assigned, yet, and eight is used for international venues like airplanes and cruise ships.

Now, there are four varieties of encoding for region two, D1 through D4. D1 is a UK-only release. D2 and D3 are DVDs that are not sold in the United Kingdom but also released elsewhere in Europe. D4 are DVDs that are distributed on the entire continent. All DVDs are clearly marked what region and what level of distribution they belong to so that consumers purchase the proper DVDs for their DVD player. Europe is the only place in the world that has done this so far, so, when you buy DVDs there, make sure you're getting the right region and sub-division.

One nifty feature of DVD encoding is that multiple region versions can be applied to a single disc. This means that more than one region can play the same DVD on their DVD player, which can come in handy if you are traveling between regions and want to watch your favorite DVD on the trip. Normally, these DVDs are labeled as region zero on the packaging. However, in some cases DVDs are only released in very specific regions, which will lead to them only being played in those specific regions. Such packaging for a DVD in two regions would read 1/2 as opposed to zero, for example.

Since we're talking about region zero DVDs, there is also such a thing as a region zero DVD player. This DVD player is capable of reading all DVD region versions. Of course, this DVD player also will cost you an arm and a leg if you decide to purchase one. It's often cheaper to just buy region zero DVDs if you're looking for international releases and the like. Studios have fought back against region zero DVD players in many cases by encoding their DVDs so they only play in the region specified as opposed to the given region and region zero.