R1, R2, tie a shoe....

[Akashio]

Whats the difference between R1 and R2 DVDs?

[MistyCaldwell]

Think of it kinda like NTSC and PAL or SECAM. It's just a different way for the DVD to be read. I believe R1 is what most domestic dvd players read. But there are region free players (Apex makes some). R2 is what is released in the UK and Japan.
why is it this way? I don't know. The reason for NTSC and PAL makes sense...but dvd technology shouldn't have been for the same reason.

[Akashio]

is the quality affected?

[MistyCaldwell]

The quality of analog types like NTSC, PAL, and SECAM are different. I believe I heard SECAM has the best quality due to higher frame rates. I have never seen it although I have seen PAL and I find things animated in PAL awkward. I think it has a frame rate of 27 maybe? NTSC is 29.97

I can't imagine dvds would be different when talking about regions. I don't think that has anything at all to do with quality, it's just encoded differently, if that is even the right term for it.

[dokidoki]

Whats the difference between R1 and R2 DVDs?

Basically, the R[number] system was implemented so that you can't play discs from one region in another region. (unless you have a player that supports that)

I recommend reading this section on region codes:
http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html#1.10

In certain cases, some R2 anime DVDs can be much higher quality than the R1 release because the North American company did a poor job on it, got a bad master, or whatever. I hear the R1 Wings of Honneamise is pretty bad compared to the R2, and the R1 release of Spring and Chaos was actually recalled, it was so bad on first release. (I remember that the first version got a "D" in video quality in a review on www.animeondvd.com . They posted a pretty bad picture of it)

[kthulhu]

There is no quality difference between different DVD regions. The apparent reason for the regioning, to me, is that media companies have some shit about not wanting people to be able to view and, more importantly, sell DVDs in other regions, as well as for anti-piracy. Think about it this way:

If "Movie X" were really big here in the US and Japan, but got released on DVD here in the US first, some enterprising person in the US could sell the DVDs mail order or directly in Japan, without giving the movie companies any money beyond the initial DVD purchases. With regioning the movie companies can control the release and sales of DVDs.

As for piracy, Hong Kong, for instance, is region 6, I believe. The US is region 1. The idea is that a region 1 disc will not play in a region 6 player, and vice versa, so there is less of a chance that some HK pirate will rip, copy, and undersell the movie companies. Of course, it hasn't panned out that way, so regioning has become more of an annoyance, if anything. There are, as Misty mentioned, region free players, and most computer DVD drives seem to be region free also.

<a href="http://hometheaterinfo.com/dvd3.htm">DVD region list</a>.

[kthulhu]

Ok, I take back the quality difference statement,somewhat. IDEALLY, there is no difference.

[MistyCaldwell]

Ahaaaa, companies wanting to control who can watch the dvd, when and where...of course control would be the answer why there are regions.

I never knew it was just a "key number" on the disc and nothing more. I'm going to go hug my region free dvd player now

[MistyCaldwell]

Ok, I take back the quality difference statement,somewhat. IDEALLY, there is no difference.

Yeah, that has more to do with a crappy remaster job, nothing to do with the region code

[NME]

Plus some standards allow for better image quality because of a higher res and different frame rate. I personally think PAL DVD's look awesome when compared to an NTSC DVD. But thats just my opinion.