When movie studios wanted to control the time and place of video release around the world, they came up with the region codes for the world. This was because their theater releases are not simultaneous throughout the world. The movie studios also sell "rights to distribuite" to various foreign distributors for their movies and would like to ensure the market is exclusive for a certain period of time. The easy availability of movies on DVDs along with their high quality were major reasons the DVD and DVD player coding was considered essential. This way it was possible to ensure that the DVD players in one particular region would not be able to play back discs from another country.

The whole world has been divided into six area codes, with Region 1 being U.S., Canada, and U.S. Territories, Region 2 having Europe, South Africa, Japan and theMiddle East. Greece is also part of this region. Region 3 composes Southeast Asia and East Asia, while Region 4 has Australia, Central America, South America and Mexico. Region 5 encompasses Eastern Europe, India, North Korea, and Africa, while Region 6 has China.

DVD Standards in Greece

In Greece (Region 2), the DVDs and DVD players sold locally would have the code "two" or number "2" on them. The region code is usually marked on the back of the individual DVD packages as a regional coding logo of a globe with the region number superimposed over it. Or, it can also be specifically spelled out, as in