Surprise! HD DVD to Get Region Coding

A few months back I mentioned in passing that the DVD Forum, the folks behind the HD DVD spec, had graciously decided not to include region coding on HD DVDs, though by all accounts they gracelessly allowed that they might add the ‘feature’ later if they, you know, felt like it.

Apparently, it’s later.

Engadget reports that at the 34th DVD Forum Steering Committee meeting earlier this week, the committee called for the development of a spec for — drum roll, please — region encoding.

I’m sure it’ll be some time before we see anything concrete, but it’s nice to know that the DVD Forum is actively removing one of the best selling points of the format for those of us who like foreign movies.

[ Emru Townsend, Digital World ]