Discs and players can be region locked. You can also find multi-region players, but it’s important to note that most of them have been made region-free through hacking and are not officially approved by the manufacturer.
A player will identify the region code of the disc(s) and allow or prevent access. So if you take a region 3 DVD and try to play it on a region 1 DVD player, an error will be returned. You’ll see something like “Error: This disc is prohibited from playing in your region.” This is important for anyone looking to ditch streaming for physical media in the modern age. You’ll need to pay attention to the region numbers on DVDs you purchase from private sellers, online, and at retailers.
As for how the countries are organized: Region 1 includes the United States and Canada, Region 2 includes Japan, Europe, South Africa, the Middle East, and Greenland, and Region 3 covers South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Southeast Asia. From there, region 4 includes Australia, New Zealand, Latin America and Mexico, while region 5 includes Eastern Europe, Russia, India and Africa, and finally region 6 is China. Regions 7 and 8 are for special use cases. To avoid problems, don’t mix regions between discs and drives, or just use a region-free drive. Blu-Ray region coding is simpler, with only Region A, Region B, and Region C. A covers North America, South America, US territories, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia, B includes Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Australia, and New Zealand, while Central and South Asia (including China, India, and Russia) falls under C.
