advice needed on Blu-Ray laptop(UK) and USA movies

[dognosh]

hi guys
i have read that Blu-Ray movies will be restricted to region coding,3 of them.
But my american movies seem to play on my british bought vaio ? !

having a look at my 'CRASH' movie i bought over the pond it doesn't seem to have any markings saying it is region coded(USA & JAPAN is region 1 and EUROPE & AFRICA is 2 , yes ?)

so is my vaio player unrestricted(multi-region) or is the movie unrestricted ?

in UK the laptop is a VAIO VGN-AR11S


ty

p.s. anyone know if laptop has HDMI 1.2 or 1.2A as i can't seem to find info on it ?

[dognosh]

ok the actual disc say region 1,so my laptop blu ray is unrestricted ?
my thinking is if restricted then it won't play movie at all ? (rather than play it at lower res ?)

just hope sony don't release a firmware update putting restriction on it in future

[sawdust]

Originally Posted by dognosh

ok the actual disc say region 1,so my laptop blu ray is unrestricted ?
my thinking is if restricted then it won't play movie at all ? (rather than play it at lower res ?)

just hope sony don't release a firmware update putting restriction on it in future

When i had mine, if you look at the properties of the bd drive, you will see a section where you can set the region, as of right now I think it is set to all. (maybe because of the limited movies. I am sure in the future they will afix the coding to it.

[Psiweaver]

Note to self don't download and install drivers for your blu-ray drive without backing your drivers up so as to remain region free.

[dognosh]

Originally Posted by Psiweaver

Note to self don't download and install drivers for your blu-ray drive without backing your drivers up so as to remain region free.

ok,connected laptop via HDMI to an HDTV in a shop
laptop showed flick but not TV ?

so is it restricted,hence won't go out of HDMI port?
or is there a setting i need to set? (which i can not find)
or possibly my HDMI and TV's HDMI were not compliant ?

ty guys

[Applefiend]

OK what I think you have there is HDCP. Any digital output on a blu ray player is encrypted with this HDCP crap. Once every 20 odd seconds you get a second of video, then it spits out random data. On a TV or monitor that's HDCP compliant the TV and the player sync up and you get your video. There's hdmi/DVI-D connectors that have HDCP, others(the older ones) that don't.

They were also going to bugger up analogue signals too, to just above DVD quality, but they backed down.

Also I think your laptop is Region A Blu ray even though it's from the UK. Play any disk from US or japan, the old NTSC regions.

[davidandrews]

[Excuse me if i am being thick)

whats the point of a HDMI connection if it won't output the signal

I was thinking about getting one of these laptops and hooking it up to my plasma, does this mean if i do the signal wont be shown on the TV?

!!!

[dognosh]

Originally Posted by davidandrews

[Excuse me if i am being thick)

whats the point of a HDMI connection if it won't output the signal

I was thinking about getting one of these laptops and hooking it up to my plasma, does this mean if i do the signal wont be shown on the TV?

!!!

who said HDMI doesn't work ?

my suspicion is i have american movie on a british laptop,or my HDMI on laptop or HDMI on TV(my guess) didn't conform to the 1.2 or ,12A standard

oooh,just remembered i had lappy on batteries,i wonder if it needs to be connected to AC to power the HDMI ? (and all the processing required ? )

either way i am clutching straws till i get my answer

[davidandrews]

Dognosh, won't dvdregionfree software work for you?

[dognosh]

Originally Posted by davidandrews

Dognosh, won't dvdregionfree software work for you?

even region coded works on laptop,seems BD player is region free
i just couldn't get it to work out of HDMI on to a TV
i will try again when i get hold of UK region movies

[davidandrews]

1, I was wondering if although it was playing through laptop then region coding stopped it going out the HDMI port, hence my suggestion about the software to help you out:

http://www.dvdregionfree.net/index.p...=display&pid=1http://www.dvdregionfree.net/index.p...=display&pid=1

2, Watching this thread with loads of interest! Was wanting a new lappy and i was hoping to be able to connect it to my HDTV via HDMI cable, so hope you suss it out!

Hope that helps.....

[dognosh]

going to sony center in bath this saturday to pick up my extended battery,will connect to their HDTV and try it out

[Psiweaver]

Let us know how it goes as im interested to see if they implemented blu-ray well in laptops or not.

[davidandrews]

Hope things went well?

I am hoping to buy this laptop in the next week or two, but would obviously like to check that any blu-ray discs i buy can be outputted to my HDTV via HDMI connection....

thanks

[dognosh]

didn't go as battery didn't turnup
they just called me and it's arrived
going to sony shop this sat

don't forget i am gonna play an american(region coded) movie on a british system so experiment might not be conclusive

except ! ! ! i seem to also have,possibly , a region free BD DVD now !

[davidandrews]

let us know if you get anywhere with connecting it to a TV to watcha movie in Blue Ray (only reason I want one!).....
Thanks!

[dognosh]

it works

ok,my setup
UK vaio blu ray laptop
USA region coded blu ray movie , CRASH
connected to UK HD plasma( SONY )
via HDMI cable

HDMI was connected to TV and lappy before i powered up laptop just incase it would help recognition of TV
powered lappy
went in to the advanced section of my graphics card setup
changed display from LAPTOP to SONY TV(so it was recognised )
fired up BD player
and it played

but it didn't look 1080,might be movie or the coding or something else
looked better than DVD
more testing in the future i suppose

[theknub]

awesome! can u hit the info button on ur t.v. remote and it display what resolution the input source is?

[dognosh]

Originally Posted by theknub

awesome! can u hit the info button on ur t.v. remote and it display what resolution the input source is?

ooops
didn't think of that when i was in sony shop

[theknub]

haha, no worries