Region locked UHDs

[NLScavenger]

*The Outpost, Talk To Me and Twilight Saga are US only. No CA UHD release.



*Killers of the Flower Moon re-release from April 10 2024 in the 4Kult line is region free



*Reeker has three additional Mediabook variants

[Show spoiler]

*The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari region lock can be bypassed: the top menu button functionality is not disabled on the region lock screen
*There's only a single report for The Final Countdown and The Expendables 3. Needs additional confirmation.
*The Final Countdown has several mediabook variants that are not in the database






*Only the first pressing of Razorback is affected. Umbrella Entertainment announced a replacement program on July 31 2023.



*At the very least the two John Wick 1-4 box sets have region locked discs, but it's possible that the individual releases are also affected.




Update May 27 2021: Added The Outpost (2020) USA release (discovered by tonyt)

Update March 21 2022: Added Les Aventures d'Antoine Doinel FRA release (reported by cirik), Weathering With You standard edition USA release (reported by RBBrittain) and The Spine of Night USA release (reported by emobadger, French Manu, Andi-999)

Update February 9 2023: Added Planet of the Vampires GER release (reported by DiabolikDVD.com) and Freaks Out ITA release (reported by Doomhunter, also confirmed with the menu files)

Update February 10 2023: Added several German titles that I forgot to do last year.

Update May 27 2023: Added Shout Factory UHD of People Under the Stairs (reported by westieslovesblu with video clip)

Update June 3 2023: Added another Shout Factory UHD. This time Brotherhood of the Wolf (reported by BatOutOfHell and strangerbyday)

Update July 29 2023: Added Teorema ITA release (reported by nicwood and minister_x)

Update August 5 2023: Added Razorback AU release first pressing. Umbrella Entertainment announced a replacement program on July 31 2023.

Update September 20 2023: Added Fall US release (reported by emailking1 and secretplace and Il Conformista (reported by bryantinsley and jedilips)

Update November 15 2023: Added Talk to Me and Twilight Saga US releases. See explanation from Cliff.

Update January 27 2024: Added Killers of the Flower Moon ITA release (reported by nicwood)

Update January 31 2024: Added U-571 ITA release (reported by kimg1453)

Update February 13 2024: Removed U-571 ITA release for now due to conflicting report by barret75

Update March 22 2024: Added Thanksgiving ITA release (reported by GasmaskAvenger) and John Wick 1-4 Box FRA release (reported by elmousse007 on reddit)

Update October 19 2024: Added Terrifier 2 ITA release (reported by TheShape31)

Update December 23 2024: Added Silent Night, Deadly Night USA release (reported by CreasyBear)

Update February 17 2025: Added Mr. Monk's Last Case: A Monk Movie GER release (reported by Cap.T)

Update February 28 2025: Added Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In GBR release (reported by Audric and ThaIllusiveMan)


------------------------------------------------------

Original post

[Show spoiler]It appears that Shout Factory / GKIDS have region locked their UHD release of Weathering With You (November 17 2020). I guess all good things come to an end.

It is not known yet if the French UHD from earlier this month and the upcoming UK UHD are locked to region B. These use disc authoring assets from Shout Factory.

November 21 2020

Originally Posted by emailking1

This disc appears to be region locked (yes the 4K UHD). I'm aware UHDs are all region free and that, confusingly, the Blu-ray is black and the UHD is blue, but I don't know what other conclusion to reach.

I had my Oppo on Region B because I can play Region A Blu-Ray discs on my PS3. I put in the UHD, this message came up "This disc's region code is not compatible with your player." I figured I put in the wrong disc but nope it was the UHD. The Blu-ray displays the same message. Region Coding messages like that are video encoded on the disc so it's not just my player messing up or something.

As a sanity check, I put in known region locked title Friday the 13th Part 3 3D, "INVALID REGION" was displayed (expected).

I switched the player to Region A. Friday the 13th Part 3 3D loads and plays. Weathering With You Blu-ray loads and plays. Weathering With You UHD loads and plays and my TV detects Dolby Vision, which means it wasn't somehow really a blu-ray that was labelled a UHD. Watched the movie, picture appears to be 4K especially in the rain and snow scenes, and the HDR is incredible. No special features on disc, it's the definitely the UHD.

Switched region back to Region B. Friday the 13th Part 3 3D says "INVALID REGION". Weathering With You UHD displays "This disc's region code is not compatible with your player." Weathering With You Blu-ray displays "This disc's region code is not compatible with your player."

Am I missing something? Can anyone confirm this behavior?

November 22 2020

Originally Posted by Sam_One

Yep, same thing happened to me. Put the UHD disc in my Region B player and got the "wrong region" message. Then put it in my Region A player and it played without a problem. And it was definitely the 4k UHD disc with Dolby Vision and all. No idea what they did there but it's a disappointing precedent.

November 26 2020

Originally Posted by vincentric

I have a region free Oppo203, can confirm SF/GKIDS done effed up the UHD with region locking. The UHD plays fine when the player is set to region A, but when it is set to B & C the incompatible region message pops up -



I guess they didn't get the memo UHD's are supposed to be region free, or they were aware and went ahead and locked it anyway. Something about a bunch of inept monkeys comes to mind.

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November 27 2020

Originally Posted by winnie77

I've just received my copy from Amazon and I'm in France. I was surprised that the 4k disc is region locked. So sad. It doesn't play on my xbox one S.
The 350 copies of the 4k in France are sold out. I was so happy to hear that the American one has French dub and subs but it doesn't work. A pity ��

EDIT:

Originally Posted by trainspodder

I noticed the exact same thing a few years back when I bought the nordic 4K release of Death Wish (https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Death.../#RegionCoding)

I thought I was going crazy, but I confirmed it multiple times switching between the regions on my Oppo 203. Both the BD and UHD discs were indeed locked to region B.

Nordic distributors are absolute trash so for them to mess up a UHD release wasn't surprising. What surprised me more was that region locking UHD discs was even possible to begin with.

[Geoff D]

2020 just keeps on giving, doesn't it? The Apocalypse is truly upon us

[slimdude]

Well this is strange because 4K UHD Blu-rays are supposed to be region free, unless your region free mod is malfunctioning. This is why I've never install a region free mod on my Oppo 203 because, I had an instinct that it will eventually create playability problems with the player. Whenever you modify anything from its original productivity, it's subjected to cause problems because it's a foreign object. If a disc is not region free or region A, I just won't buy it.

[TwoTecs]

If studios do start doing this, couldn't the UHD association tell them to stop since the format is supposed to be region-free and it would be bad business for those selling region-free discs.

[koberulz]

Originally Posted by slimdude

Well this is strange because 4K UHD Blu-rays are supposed to be region free, unless your region free mod is malfunctioning. This is why I've never install a region free mod on my Oppo 203 because, I had an instinct that it will eventually create playability problems with the player. Whenever you modify anything from its original productivity, it's subjected to cause problems because it's a foreign object. If a disc is not region free or region A, I just won't buy it.

What a ridiculous take.

[brainofj72]

Okay now I wish Shout hadn’t gone 4K

[Jackie Scanlon]

Perhaps when all the studios signed up to UHD being region free they didn't expect small boutique labels around the world to start releasing UHD titles?

Although, in terms of the technology, I thought it wasn't possible for UHD to be region locked(?), so maybe it's just a glitch.

Until another (different) disc comes along with the same issue, I think it's too early to be getting upset about it.

[Scottishguy]

Can the BD association take then to task for this? While it might indeed p*ss us off, ze end consumer. I'm not exactly a fan of laying to much 3rd party authority over a deal between two different companies.

[RBBrittain]

I wonder if anime distributors are once again trying to get around BDA rules by accessing resources to impose geographical restrictions not sanctioned by BDA. I know that some anime publishers used country coding on BDs to prevent North American anime BDs from being played in Japan (and vice versa) even though they're both Region A. Perhaps they're now using resources to access regular BD region coding that isn't supposed to be used with UHDBD.

[CSM101]

Could it be just another Shout Factory mistake?

[rocknblues81]

Originally Posted by NLScavenger

It appears that Shout Factory / GKIDS have region locked their UHD release of Weathering With You (November 17 2020). I guess all good things come to an end.

It is not known yet if the French UHD from earlier this month and the upcoming UK UHD are locked to region B. These use disc authoring assets from Shout Factory.

November 21 2020


November 22 2020


November 26 2020


November 27 2020

“All good things must come to an end.”

[TwoTecs]

Originally Posted by Scottishguy

Can the BD association take then to task for this? While it might indeed p*ss us off, ze end consumer. I'm not exactly a fan of laying to much 3rd party authority over a deal between two different companies.

The association is not a third party. Using the format means you play by their rules.

[johnpaul2]

How is this even physically possible ? I mean, if this UHD is region locking, since I can't recall having read any UHD specs detailing this and any region having been defined : what is actually its region code ? How is it setup and which countries is it compatible with ?
Again, if there is no region defined, how can a UHD be region locked ?

[Gacivory]

Hope this list stays very small. Like one disc long.

[LexInHD]

Originally Posted by johnpaul2

How is this even physically possible ? I mean, if this UHD is region locking, since I can't recall having read any UHD specs detailing this and any region having been defined : what is actually its region code ? How is it setup and which countries is it compatible with ?
Again, if there is no region defined, how can a UHD be region locked ?

Blu-Ray uses two geographical locking code methods. The first is Region coding, which is carried over from the DVD days, though the numbering and coverage is different. This is because different studios/distributors have rights in different parts of the world and it protects the home video market profits by preventing reverse importation or reselling of "better releases" outside of their intended market. The second is country code and it's thankfully quite rare in it's employment. This means that the disc will only play in players installed (or with firmware designating the country) in countries whose codes are on the disc. So you might get a 1, 3, 5, and 8 disc that won't play in 2, 4, 6, and 7, even if those countries are all in the same region. For UHD-BD, the BDA decided they were not going to make geo-code lockout mandatory, though it is completely optional. As long as each video disc released employs the mandatory BDA-approved CP methods, a release with geo-code using either of the above is still considered acceptable by the BDA, until they decide otherwise.

[danman227460]

They would go by regions set in the DVD era and blu-ray era.

It was actually surprising to see UHD be region free when DVD/Blu-rays were all locked.

Hopefully this isn't a precedent but I can see boutique labels potentially adopting this. Especially Arrow who has UK and USA/CA region only discs.

Originally Posted by johnpaul2

How is this even physically possible ? I mean, if this UHD is region locking, since I can't recall having read any UHD specs detailing this and any region having been defined : what is actually its region code ? How is it setup and which countries is it compatible with ?
Again, if there is no region defined, how can a UHD be region locked ?

[NLScavenger]

Fwiw, here's the "startup.properties" file in the JAR folder from the Lionsgate UHD of Ghost in the Shell (1995).

disc.regions=a,b,c
disc.regions.rental=a,b,c
disc.episode.count=-1
disc.episode.commentary=-1
disc.parental=-1
disc.is_uhd=true
disc.title.region_error=11
disc.title.feature=5
disc.title.vam=6
disc.title.top_menu_disabled=7
disc.title.top_menu_enabled=8

Maybe a BD region code check can be enforced in UHD via BD-J, but someone with knowledge about BD-J would have to chime in.

[dickdarlington]

Originally Posted by danman227460

They would go by regions set in the DVD era and blu-ray era.

It was actually surprising to see UHD be region free when DVD/Blu-rays were all locked.

Hopefully this isn't a precedent but I can see boutique labels potentially adopting this. Especially Arrow who has UK and USA/CA region only discs.

Physical media is currently lying at death’s door, but even the simplification of the region coding from the DVD to Blu-ray era was huge. That being said, most of the major studios never region-locked their Blu-ray releases (as the releases were primarily the same across the globe). Region coding was left to the boutique and independent labels due to contractual agreements.

Having UHD being region-free unlocks the ability for distributors to maximize sales due to the possibility of imports.

Seeing the news that a UHD is locked from a Shout Factory release that’s licensed from Toho is not surprising, but very disappointing based upon what was set by the BDA.

[BluBonnet]

[trainspodder]

I noticed the exact same thing a few years back when I bought the nordic 4K release of Death Wish (https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Death.../#RegionCoding)

I thought I was going crazy, but I confirmed it multiple times switching between the regions on my Oppo 203. Both the BD and UHD discs were indeed locked to region B.

Nordic distributors are absolute trash so for them to mess up a UHD release wasn't surprising. What surprised me more was that region locking UHD discs was even possible to begin with.