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DVD players used to be (probably still are?) region locked, and those didn’t require internet service either. The region was either hard coded or could only be changed like 5 times.

It was an attempt to enforce geographic licensing fees and stop piracy.

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Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Yeah, if media companies can torture consumers they will usually try to. See also the Sony Rootkit.

In that light it’s actually surprising that the Gameboys never had region locking.

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- Natanael@infosec.pub ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Regional games were language limited
  
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- Killer_Tree@sh.itjust.works ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Yeah, I have not given Sony a dime since they thought they could install malware on consumer computers. When they got caught, they doubled down and released a “fix” that was even worse malware. FUCK Sony.
  
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chiliedogg@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
For some media formats there were legitimate issues.

For instance, American NTSC encoding’s 30fps (29.97 actually, but not diving into color encoding right now) refresh rates were due to the 60Hz American electrical grid, whereas PAL encoding’s 25fps was due to a 50Hz electrical grid.

It’s also why American tvs showing a panning shot of a film (24fps) or a European TV program will sometimes look choppy. They added filler frames when re-encoding for NTSC.

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