Can region locking both permit and disallow certain features?

[Jar Jar Stinks]

I just opened the Terminator Five Film Collection from Italy. The first disc is printed with the symbols for Regions B & C. The disc directly plays the main feature in both my Region A players; however, I can't access the menu or the special features. Is this a mastering error or is this by design? Are there other discs that lock out just some features?

This is the set:

[MifuneFan]

They're possibly PAL encoded

[Jar Jar Stinks]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

They're possibly PAL encoded

But that wouldn't prevent access to the menu.

[AmishParadise]

Originally Posted by Jar Jar Stinks

But that wouldn't prevent access to the menu.

If the refresh rate used isn't supported by your Blu-ray player and/or display it certainly would.

[Jar Jar Stinks]

Originally Posted by Armchair NZ

Yes. At least one other Blu-ray that I'm aware of. The US release for How to Train Your Dragon 2 has a commentary and other extras that are locked to region A. The film itself is region-free. But those extras will only appear if the disc is in a region A player.

Interesting. It's really strange that my disc of Fox disc of The Terminator would lock out those special features. Checking the disc details on 3 different players (including a PC) shows only one video track, yet I can see all the extras in DVDFab software.

[bigshot]

It's PAL. I have a region free German copy of The Innocents and the feature plays fine in my Sony player, but when I try to access the supplements it goes to a black screen. The supplements are 480p PAL. It plays fine in my region free Oppo that supports PAL DVD playback. When a player jumps frame rates, there is a glitch and delay at the beginning with some equipment. They tend to encode the menu screens in the same format as the videos listed in them to minimize that.

[Jar Jar Stinks]

Originally Posted by Armchair NZ

It's possibly a rights issue. The extras only being licensed to specific territories, or something. Are the extras it's supposed to get any different from those included on region A Terminator releases?

Same 3 extras are included. I did just discover that there is no menu per say.

It also features Fox/MGM's crippled "menu" design for catalog titles, in which (a) there is no main menu, only a pop-up that can be accessed during playback; and (b) the disc is authored with BD-Java, but lacks bookmarking, so that there is no way to resume playback from the point where you stopped
https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-T.../61372/#Review

I couldn't access the pop-up.

[Jar Jar Stinks]

Originally Posted by Armchair NZ

Maybe it is just a menu access problem. You mentioned the disc autoplays straight into the movie. What happens when it ends? Does it just start again at the beginning? Or does the menu pop up at the end?

Shows legal garbage, then starts the movie again.

[TheHutt]

That's FOX and they don't encode in PAL. It also doesn't seem like a Region issue (as they don't put region protection anymore as well).

But basically one could do different things with the regions. Either the region is checked by the player (which then outputs the region code error), or it is checked programmatically by the BD's authored menu (thus resulting in customized "Wrong region" screens). Who says all this menu has to do is to output the "Wrong region" screen? It basically could do anything.

[steve_dave]

This may have been covered but you tried both the Top Menu and Pop Up Menu buttons during playback?

[Jar Jar Stinks]

Originally Posted by steve_dave

This may have been covered but you tried both the Top Menu and Pop Up Menu buttons during playback?

Well, this embarassing. The pop up menu actually is working. There isn't a real menu and the pop up menu is really subtle and blended in. So, this has been much ado about nothing. Sorry.

[Geoff D]

When in doubt, try both menu buttons

[David M]

Can region locking both permit and disallow certain features?

Yes. Authors can fence off any part of the disc that they want. You could for example let the main feature play but lock out bonus features. Although I've never seen this done.

Or you could show a totally different menu for Region A vs Region B (which we did on the Flicker Alley/Arrow WOMAN ON THE RUN and TOO LATE FOR TEARS).

[HD Goofnut]

In my experience most BD players can handle PAL (50hz) content. Where it gets dicey is the displays. My PC and Panasonic can handle 50hz content, but my older displays can't.