Sex and The City - DVD Releases

DVD Releases

All six seasons of Sex and the City have been released commercially on DVD, with season six being split into two parts. They have been released officially on region 1 (Americas), region 2 (Europe & Middle East), region 3 (Korea) and region 4 (Oceania & South Pacific) formats. In addition to their region encoding, releases vary depending on the region in which they were released.

In addition to standard single season DVD box sets of the show, limited edition collectors' editions have also been released that include all six seasons in one complete set. Even these vary between region 1, 2 and 4. While Europe got a complete set that came with special 'shoebox' packaging (a reference to Sarah Jessica Parker's character's love for shoes in the show), the USA and Canada version came packaged in a more traditional fold-out suede case and with an additional bonus DVD including many special features. Mexico's and Oceania's edition come packaged in a beauty case.

As well as missing out on some special features, many in Europe had trouble with the region 2 edition of the season 1 DVD. The season was not converted into a PAL video signal, instead remaining in its original American NTSC format which caused some compatibility problems with some European television sets and DVD players. All subsequent Region 2 DVD releases of the program were appropriately transferred to PAL video using the original film prints, and season 1 has since been re-released in PAL format.

Outside the US, Sex and the City boxed sets were released through Paramount Pictures. American and Canadian DVDs were released through the program's original broadcasters, HBO. In Australia, single editions have been released, where each disc is sold separately. In South Korea, a complete, six-season, special DVD shoebox sets were released. In Brazil, the first and fifth season were released on DVD Dual, but all other seasons were released the DVD box set, had its launch in the Brazilian market in 2006, and only with subtitles in Portuguese.

Selected episodes are also available as part of the Sex and the City Essentials DVD collection. These are four separately-packaged discs containing three selected episodes that fit a common theme.

• The Best of Lust: Contains the episodes "The Fuck Buddy", "Running with Scissors", and "The Turtle and the Hare".
• The Best of Mr. Big: Contains the episodes "Sex and the City", "Ex and the City", and "I Heart NY".
• The Best of Romance: Contains the episodes "Baby, Talk is Cheap", "Hop, Skip and a Week", and "An American Girl in Paris (Part Deux)".
• The Best of Breakups: Contains the episodes "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", "I Love a Charade", and "The Post-it Always Sticks Twice".
• The Best of Fashion: Contains the episodes "Secret Sex", "The Real Me", and "Luck Be an Old Lady". This DVD was only released to Target stores in the US and was the only DVD of the "Essentials" collection to have a colored cover instead of a black and white one like the other four.