A:
"Sony DVD players sold in the United States support Region 1 discs. They are not compatible with any other region codes."
That is either not true now or it has not always been true.
I faced this "Region" issue (I needed to play region 6 disks) several years ago and solved it by purchasing a Sony DVP-SR500H DVD player right here at Best Buy. My SO has a collection of Beijing Operas on Chinese DVDs which all play just fine on this Sony player. Yesterday, I picked up a new DVD player to use in another room. It would NOT play her Chinese disks. That new player gives a "Check Disc" message and refuses to play them. Each of the disks which would not play on the new DVD players still play just fine on the Sony DVP-SR500H.
That new DVD player, BTW, was tested on a variety of regular disks including JPEGS, MP4s, an MP3 audio disk and home made cell phone videos. They all played just fine on the new DVD player, only the foreign Chinese disks failed to play on the new player even while they all played fine on the Sony DVP-SR500H DVD player.