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No Blu-Ray Region Barrier For Japan / USA Date: 8/18/2006 |
| Sony and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. have announced on Thursday that Blu-Ray disc media will be playable on hardware available on the market in both the countries of Japan and the United States. In effect, no region lockout will exist barring customers from, for instance, playing American released Hollywood films on Japanese equipment and Japanese released anime on USA equipment. Manufacturers and the U.S. movie industry are to thank for the move, deciding to remove a wall that has exited between Japan and U.S. media through the DVD standard since it's start in the late 1990's. Over the years American fans eager to see high resolution copies of the latest and greatest animation in Japan have bolstered a lucrative import market for JDM DVD releases, bypassing region coding lockouts through hardwire modifactions to US players, sharing secret backdoor diagnostic mode codes, buying Japanese DVD decks themselves and flocking to purchase inexpensive grey market "region free" players often manufactured in Asia. |
| Source: Anime News Service |
