Region Question about Standards - Blu-ray Forum

damnspynovels · 01-01-2009, 02:51 PM

Couldn't find an answer to this elsewhere or via searching.

I notice that some BD discs are region free. Does this mean that I can play them in any country?

I ask this because whilst I appreciate they have no region restriction, with BD is the video standard not an issue like is with DVD?

For example, it's one thing for someone living in the UK to buy a DVD player that's region free - because their player by default of Region 2 having to support both PAL & NTSC is multistandard. But in North America by contrast, Region 1 only has to officially support NTSC, so finding a dual standard player that might be region free is more difficult.

So the simple question is, if I bought a region free BD, from the UK which would traditionally (if it was DVD) be in the PAL standard, would it work in my PS3 in North America?

It strikes me that the vast majority of BD movie discs are region free - which as an expatriot of britain living in North America, who often buys UK TV Shows on DVD - bodes very well for the future.

lv426 · 01-01-2009, 03:32 PM

As far as I know a UK PS3 can do PAL and NTSC, Where a US PS3 only does NTSC

You will not have any problems playing the main film or any extras that are in hd, but sd extras on uk BD's are in pal format. so you won't be able to play these.

I am not 100% about this, hopefully someone else will confirm if I am right or not.

steve_dave · 01-01-2009, 04:24 PM

it depsnds on the company distributing the disc...

Warner, Paramount, Disney, Fox, Sony, and Universal always provide the SD extras in NTSC format (480).

For these companies its just easier as they can just port over the North American ecnodes without having to make a new SD 576 encode for the international discs.

However, some films like Tristan and Isolde are handled by a different company in other countires. Dutch Filmworks sells it in Denmark & the Netherlands and unfortunately, the extras are in PAL format (576) so the US PS3 won't play these back.

And even if a disc is region free, some companies like Optimum Home Entertainment put a PAL format trailer before the menus and thus US PS3s can't play the disc.

01-01-2009, 02:51 PM	#1
damnspynovels Member Member since:Dec 2008	Region Question about Standards Couldn't find an answer to this elsewhere or via searching. I notice that some BD discs are region free. Does this mean that I can play them in any country? I ask this because whilst I appreciate they have no region restriction, with BD is the video standard not an issue like is with DVD? For example, it's one thing for someone living in the UK to buy a DVD player that's region free - because their player by default of Region 2 having to support both PAL & NTSC is multistandard. But in North America by contrast, Region 1 only has to officially support NTSC, so finding a dual standard player that might be region free is more difficult. So the simple question is, if I bought a region free BD, from the UK which would traditionally (if it was DVD) be in the PAL standard, would it work in my PS3 in North America? It strikes me that the vast majority of BD movie discs are region free - which as an expatriot of britain living in North America, who often buys UK TV Shows on DVD - bodes very well for the future. Last edited by damnspynovels; 01-01-2009 at 02:58 PM.

01-01-2009, 03:32 PM	#2
lv426 Member Member since:May 2008 Location:UK 4K collection:18 Blu-ray collection:89 DVD collection:17	As far as I know a UK PS3 can do PAL and NTSC, Where a US PS3 only does NTSC You will not have any problems playing the main film or any extras that are in hd, but sd extras on uk BD's are in pal format. so you won't be able to play these. I am not 100% about this, hopefully someone else will confirm if I am right or not. Last edited by lv426; 01-01-2009 at 03:36 PM.

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01-01-2009, 04:24 PM	#3
steve_dave Blu-ray Duke Member since:Nov 2008 Trading Score:21	it depsnds on the company distributing the disc... Warner, Paramount, Disney, Fox, Sony, and Universal always provide the SD extras in NTSC format (480). For these companies its just easier as they can just port over the North American ecnodes without having to make a new SD 576 encode for the international discs. However, some films like Tristan and Isolde are handled by a different company in other countires. Dutch Filmworks sells it in Denmark & the Netherlands and unfortunately, the extras are in PAL format (576) so the US PS3 won't play these back. And even if a disc is region free, some companies like Optimum Home Entertainment put a PAL format trailer before the menus and thus US PS3s can't play the disc.

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