> then what abt the region coding thingy??? if i was to buy one now, 
> wouldn't it affect me if the region code is taken out... i understand 

The trend in newer hardware is towards stricter hardware enforcement
of region codes. This particularly seems to be an issue with
PC DVD drives. If you need multi-region access, you may need
to pick a model with that in mind, as work-arounds do not
seem to exist for all models.

I think the issue that are most likely to be in flux are (1) compatability 
with some sort of writable DVD formats (which can depend on things
like the wavelength of the laser(s) used) (2) firmware to handle
odd corner cases of the DVD format. (e.g. there's a list of DVD
player that can't play "The Matrix")

--
    Albert Lunde                      Albert-Lunde@nwu.edu