Originally posted by: Gillean
I'd say the real reason for the high adoption of region-free players isn't because we all buy R1 releases (I don't know anyone that does, I don't even know many that have a clue what region-coding is), but because in New Zealand region coding was actually deemed illegal and all players HAVE to be sold region-free,

They have to be sold region free because region coding is a way of price fixing. The bottom line is if a cheaper legal copy can be sourced overseas, then retailers can pass on that saving. It should be the same with consoles too... their region coding is a way of price fixing as well.

But one of the great benefits of importing from foreign markets is the number of films available. The USA has I think 40-50x more DVDs released locally then we do - so for every DVD movie released by local distributors, the USA release 40-50 into their market. I also find it disturbing that not only does the USA still get fullscreen releases, but they also get DVD players that are NTSC-only. There has never been a DVD player made that can play PAL but not NTSC (from what I hear not all US TV’s are multistandard either, whereas all ours most certainly are).

And asian releases, etc you can't get without special order. And it's good to have a place like JB (the store Gillean mentioned) where you can walk in and ask them to source for you a DVD (or CD), even if it's not released in the local market, and they'll import it for you. It's no substitute for ordering online, of course - but with releases which you can't buy any other way (because it might be an Indain DVD or a German DVD and you can't order online from their stores because don't speak gobilygook) it's handy.