British movie fans were last week converging on Woolworth and Comet stores,
hoping to buy one of a batch of Samsung DVD players that can be made to play DVD
discs from anywhere in the world. The £250 player beats the regional
coding system designed to ensure that movies imported from North America won’t
play on machines sold elsewhere. You just punch a four-digit code into the
remote control. The secret has leaked out from the factory, where staff set the
regional code depending on export destination. Samsung admits the universal code
is “spreading like wildfire on the Internet”. The code will only work for the
first batch of machines.
More from New Scientist
Explore the latest news, articles and features
Popular articles
Trending New Scientist articles
1
We've found a mysterious substance on Titan and Pluto
2
A quantum state that lasts forever may finally be within our grasp
3
Remarkable fossils rewrite the story of how animals conquered the land
4
Unpicking the genetics of fibromyalgia sheds new light on its causes
5
What’s the secret to living well beyond the average life expectancy?
6
Technology is changing our perspective on nature – at every scale
7
Can prebiotics, probiotics or postbiotics help your ageing microbiome?
8
How I used psychology to come back from the worst year of my life
9
The secrets to keeping your brain sharp in old age
10
Has the answer to life's origins been hiding in our cells all along?
