 The Blu-ray Disc region coding scheme divides the world into three regions, labeled A, B, and C.

A new form of Blu-ray region coding tests not only the region of the player/player software, but also its country code.This means, for example, while both the US and Japan are Region A, some American discs will not play on devices/software installed in Japan or vice versa, since the two countries have different country codes (the United States has 21843 or Hex 5553 ("US" in ASCII, according to ISO 3166-1), and Japan has 19024, or Hex 4a50 ("JP"); Canada has 17217 or Hex 4341 ("CA")).Although there are only three Blu-ray regions, the country code allows much more precise control of the regional distribution of Blu-ray Discs than the six (or eight) DVD regions.