Saturday, October 15, 2011

SoapClassics.Com: AS THE WORLD TURNS DVD Is Region Free, Will Play Anywhere In The World

Our international readers asked us to clarify that the new AS THE WORLD TURNS 4-disc 20-episode DVD collection would be playable outside of Region 1. DVDs are typically encoded with a specific region so if you buy a movie DVD made in the United States it won't play on a DVD player in Europe which is created to play Region 2 DVDs.

"The studios do that because they don't want to have DVDs playing in a Region it's not released in yet," SoapClassics.com President Mark Yates explained to We Love Soaps. "But we have no intention of restricting regions whatsoever."

The AS THE WORLD TURNS DVD collection is "Region All" sometimes called "Region 0" or "Region Free" so the same DVD will play everywhere.

"If someone wants to buy the English language version of this from our website," Yates continued, "we will happily sell it to them in the Netherlands and ship there. Our DVD right now is all Regions. We're not restricting any Regions to the English language version."

There is talk about creating different versions of the DVD at some point.

"We are in discussions right now (none of the deals are done) with three different international home video distributors who are working on locating the foreign language tracks for the shows," Yates revealed in our interview. "And we will then license them the local DVD distribution rights. International DVD distribution will be handled by a local level and will be Region appropriate. For example, if we were to license to Germany, a German distributor will create German packaging, German language programming, do the subtitling and/or dubbing."

Read all our SoapClassics.com stories and interviews here.

To order your copy of the ATWT DVD collection, visit soapclassics.com.

14 comments:

  1. This is great news! Thanks for asking.

    I'll order my copy as soon as I see my father (he'll have to lend me his credit card :P).

    I wonder if there are any foreign language tracks for the show? Here in the Netherlands we never dub anything that isn't aimed at kids.

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  2. I have tried to buy it...but it doesn't work for me(I live in Spain) because when I try to pay with my visa card, the transaction is rejected and it says:" The transaction has been declined because of an AVS mismatch. The address provided does not match billing address of cardholder." I guess that it is due with language problems about the street, names, etc... It would be great to pay through paypal or with other visa card system... I will have to wait to see the DVD pack in ebay or amazon...What a pity!

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  3. WHOOOOEEEHOOOEEE my DVD set is on his way to the Netherlands !!! @MauraWestFanNL

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  4. I just ordered my copy! It was order #425. Looks like a lot of people want to buy this.

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  5. At last, it worked for me and I could pay with my visa card...I hope to receive it soon in Spain!!!That DVD pack is GOLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  6. This is wonderful news about the ATWT DVDs being region free. Very happy for you, Mark and Anonymous - looking forward to receiving my DVD set, too!

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  7. Great to hear they will be region free.

    But a bigger question is will they have the original music intact?

    By the 80s, many soaps were using pop music in their episodes. Have they gotten the rights to those songs?

    For example, when LuJack and Beth on GL were riding the pony on the beach, "Almost Paradise" played over the video. Or one time Kurt Corday and Mindy has a montage cut to "Walking on Sunshine." I know because I still have those episodes on tape.

    A lot of times when SoapNet repeats old episodes, they substitute different songs from what originally aired because of the licensing fees.

    That's also the reason why SoapNet never aired Ryan's Hope beyond 1982 -- because they started using pop songs rather than original compositions at that point.

    So, Roger, do you know if the music that originally played in those P&G episodes be used

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  8. James, it was my understanding the episodes were going to be put on the DVD as is, just minus commercial break space. But I will have to tease you a bit and say the answer to the music question will be answered in more detailed in Jamey Gidden's interview with the SoapClassics' president later this week. ;)

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  9. Can't wait for that interview, Roger. :)

    It's a good question. The 4.000th episode of Goede Tijden Slechte Tijden was part of the 20th anniversary DVD. At the end of episode there was a long music montage. They used a great song, but had to replace it for the DVD.

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  10. I can't see how there would be time to replace anything. This has gotten put together in record time. SoapClassics did a great job.

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  11. I have no doubt about that. It really does look like it's going to be a great set. Can't wait for it to arrive here. :)

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  12. Hi Roger... just a question. Has the USA version (the only right now), the closed captions in English? I'm Italian and the english text would help me a lot!! Thanks

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  13. The answer I got was "Closed caption version will be coming out in January 2012". Will let you know if I hear anything else.

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