I am a huge anime fan, and many of the series that I follow have not been released in the United States yet, so if I order them on DVD from Japan, I would not have been able to play them on my DVD player because of the Region Zone. That is, until recently.

For those that may not know, DVDs are hard coded for world use through zones. The current codes are as follows:

• Region 1 - US and Canada
• Region 2 - Japan, Europe, South Africa, Middle East, and Greenland
• Region 3 - S. Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Parts of South East Asia
• Region 4 - Australia, New Zealand, and Latin America (including Mexico)
• Region 5 - Eastern Europe, Russia, India, and Africa
• Region 6 - China
• Region 7 - Reserved for Special Use
• Region 8 - Cruise Ships, Airlines, etc.
• Region 9, 0, or All - Uncoded for Worldwide use

There are many reasons why this encoding is in place - licensing issues, censorship, but mainly money. Studios release movies at different times across the globe, and if it is available on DVD in the United States before it is released in France, they could potentially lose out on box office receipts if the consumer could purchase the DVD.

Consumers are often told if they have a Region 1 player, it will not play Region 2 disks. That is not truly the case. Most DVD players can be unlocked using a simple code from the remote.

In order to unlock your DVD player, you need two things: your DVD player model number and the hack found at VideoHelp.com/dvdhacks. This site is a search engine that lists thousands of hack codes to unlock your DVD player.

The latest player that I unlocked was a CyberHome CH-DVD 300 that I got from WalMart for $29.99. The process was simple and painless. Here are the steps I had to take to set it to uncoded or worldwide use:

1. Power On
2. Open Tray
3. Press Menu, 1, 9
4. Change Zone to 0 (third line from the bottom)
5. Press Enter
6. Press Open/Close (Eject)

Voila! One uncoded DVD player capable of playing DVDs from anywhere in the world. One word of warning: Using any hacks on your player can void your warranty, so try this at your own risk.