Region Free Blu-ray Players?

[Lee Christie]

Since everyone agrees that region coding was a bad idea and a complete failure for DVD... and if you don't agree go ahead and say so... is there a way to get a multi region Blu-ray player to play any region Blu-ray? Or simply modify a common player, PS3, or Samsung or something, I know some DVD players had hidden menus to do that. So far I've only heard of hacks for PC programs. (Cyberlink etc.) Are we still going to have to wait a while until someone figures out the hardware players?

I'm sick of sitting around waiting for films like Juno, still not out until June (was April for Region A) and other awesome region coded films. It's cool that many back titles are region free, but what about the new films? Whatever happened to international trade? It's not like you're worrying about 240V/110V or 50Hz/60Hz, this is a damn disc with a bunch of ones and zeros saying "no you can't watch this film because you're a limey b*stard and you have to wait until June because we hate you!!!" </rant>

[jw]

I saw somewhere they sell modded BD players in the UK, just google it.

I am not sure where region coding has affected dvd negatively. They seem to have flourished fine here in the states

[Lee Christie]

Originally Posted by jwbbud

I saw somewhere they sell modded BD players in the UK, just google it.

I am not sure where region coding has affected dvd negatively. They seem to have flourished fine here in the states

You get all the good DVDs first so unless you're in to Doctor Who or something you're probably fine with a region 1 DVD player, it's us poor saps in region 2 etc that suffer, although we don't really because the reason I called region coding a failure if that today its very easy to obtain a region free player, even Amazon sells them you don't have to go to some shady back-alley store, and there's free PC software player such as VLC which plays any region DVD without even caring. Maybe in 5 years or so Blu-ray will be like that.

[jw]

oh, figured with the euro worth more than the dollar they would want to do more business in the UK. Isnt that what Nintendo did?

[Lee Christie]

Originally Posted by jwbbud

oh, figured with the euro worth more than the dollar they would want to do more business in the UK. Isnt that what Nintendo did?

We use Pounds not Euros, but anyway your point still stands because Pounds are worth more than Dollars too. Yes I'm sure if they can get more profit out of us Brits than they can in the US, then I'm sure region coding is great for those selfish jerks but I'm saying it sucks for us consumers, not the distributors.

[WickyWoo]

Maybe in 5 years or so Blu-ray will be like that.

Highly unlikely. The controls placed on manufacturers of decks, not even taking into account the massive countermeasures built into the format will make sure remote hacking is a thing of the past.

You're going to be paying hundreds of dollars for a modchip, which may lock it out of future discs if they come up with countermeasures

If you want to be sure you can play a region's discs, use an HTPC set to that region or buy a player/PS3 from that region

[TenEightyP]

I too am a UK resident that has in the past purchased DVD's from the US. The main reason I did it was because some films here in the UK were cut compared to the US or other territories. The same is also true in reverse.

I have now owned two region free DVD players, and as has been said, they are so easy to purchase in the UK. My latest DVD player was a Denon 1940, which my retailer said he would modify for me, just requires a CD ROM and two minutes of my time.

So far I have seen no Blu region free players here in the UK. I was going to buy a BD ROM and let the software take care of the region coding.

._.

[Mobe1969]

In Australia, even Sony DVD players are region free from Sony Australia. My last two DVD players were Sony and both Region Free.

I really want the PS3 to get region freed. It would be an all in one masterpiece if it was. As it is, I had to buy another upscaling DVD player (sony region free) to play my non region 4 DVDs. And I still don't have a solution for Region A Blu Ray. The best option I can see at the moment is a Region A PS3... So I need three units. Rather than just one.

[Raf008]

You can find a few models (SONY, Samsung, Pioneer, Panasonic...) on the market :they're region free ( for BD) and multizone for dvd's. They're pretty expensive too . Some retailers sell them via Internet.

[Zyclone]

the modded units that the mentioned website sells are $700-$800 in euro's it would be cheaper to just buy a region A or B player instead.

[Kirsty_Mc]

You are probably correct. What with the £:$ exchange rate you could pick up a reasonably priced player from amazon and get it shipped over.

CAUTION: You would also be responsible for Customs.

You would probably also need to invest in a 230V to 120V transformer from somewhere like Maplins.

[FilmView]

http://www.multiregionupgrades.com/bluray.htm

[syncguy]

Originally Posted by Mobe1969

In Australia, even Sony DVD players are region free from Sony Australia. My last two DVD players were Sony and both Region Free.

I really want the PS3 to get region freed. It would be an all in one masterpiece if it was. As it is, I had to buy another upscaling DVD player (sony region free) to play my non region 4 DVDs. And I still don't have a solution for Region A Blu Ray. The best option I can see at the moment is a Region A PS3... So I need three units. Rather than just one.

The view of the Australian Consumer and Competition Council (ACCC) is that the region coding is an anti competitive concept and assist maintaining higher artificial prices in some regions. And the copyright laws that are used to justify region coding were not intended to be used in this manner. I hope this view will be adopted by other governments like US and someday region coding will be removed by regulation.

The region coding can be easily defeated just by purchasing hardware from some other region.

[richieb1971]

Just buy a region A PS3 either from Japan or USA. You will be surprised just how many movies in the B territory are region free.

Since I went region A, I had 44 titles. I only have to sell 5 of them (Die hard vengeance, Sunshine, Fantastic four, Ratatouille) and I can get more for them than the A region version costs.

A region A PS3 runs on 220V nicely with a kettle lead, it still plays all PS3 games from the UK. The only problem being is that DVD would be region 1 (good for you).

Waiting for some mod to come out is pointless, firmware will probably stop it working after 1 month on most machines. There is some players where you can keep changing firmware from US and Euro version as it changes the territory also, but again seems rather pointless when you can just get a US PS3 and still play 90% of all B titles on it.

[Lee Christie]

As a PC fan I'd say if you're going to have two separate devices for region A and region B, one (or both) should be an HTPC, there's no need to import a UK and a US PC are exactly the same thing (the power packs even support both voltages) and it asks you "what's my region" when you set it up and gives you 5 chances to change your mind.

Of course, as I mentioned no real need for two separate devices if you do have an HTPC, because workarounds are far easier on PCs than on hardware so you'd only need one. Even if later updates to PowerDVD, or whatever you use make it more difficult, there's always a way - and PCs don't require modchips.

BTW regarding the importing of hardware, I had an imported GAMECUBE once, it was cool because I could play games before they were out here, but in the end it got a pain to import all my games, luckily now there's a boot disc you can buy to play any region games so at last I could play my OWN country's games. The more annoying thing was that my TV didn't support the NTSC signal, so I needed an NTSC>PAL converter box for that, as well as the voltage stepdown.

Originally Posted by syncguy

The view of the Australian Consumer and Competition Council (ACCC) is that the region coding is an anti competitive concept and assist maintaining higher artificial prices in some regions. And the copyright laws that are used to justify region coding were not intended to be used in this manner. I hope this view will be adopted by other governments like US and someday region coding will be removed by regulation.

The region coding can be easily defeated just by purchasing hardware from some other region.

Yes I'd heard about this Australian judgement a while ago, we all hope that other governments take this view, however, it's not likely since governments rarely seem to side with the consumer.

[syncguy]

If the PC is used for blu-ray, it is easy to have two disk drives for two regions (in the worst case) and share the rest of PC hardware (video etc.) to keep the cost down. The issue is that HTPC blu-ray is not mass market and I am not sure whether it would ever be mass market for this purpose.

[Lee Christie]

Originally Posted by syncguy

If the PC is used for blu-ray, it is easy to have two disk drives for two regions (in the worst case) and share the rest of PC hardware (video etc.) to keep the cost down. The issue is that HTPC blu-ray is not mass market and I am not sure whether it would ever be mass market for this purpose.

I had two DVD drives for region 1 and 2 DVDs, but with Blu-ray that's not necisarry, the region code is stored in software not hardware. As for the HTPC not being mass market, I don't know about you but I always build my own custom PC, and you can get HTPC cases and small motherboards and a Blu-ray drive, there's even I think slim drives if your HTPC case needs that.

[AikonEnt]

I wish there were some region free Blu players, I'd probably buy some fox titles from the US then because I refuse to pay the inflated prices for Fox titles in the UK

[Zyclone]

Originally Posted by Lee Christie

I had two DVD drives for region 1 and 2 DVDs, but with Blu-ray that's not necisarry, the region code is stored in software not hardware. As for the HTPC not being mass market, I don't know about you but I always build my own custom PC, and you can get HTPC cases and small motherboards and a Blu-ray drive, there's even I think slim drives if your HTPC case needs that.

not every one can build their own PC.

[syncguy]

Originally Posted by Lee Christie

I had two DVD drives for region 1 and 2 DVDs, but with Blu-ray that's not necisarry, the region code is stored in software not hardware. As for the HTPC not being mass market, I don't know about you but I always build my own custom PC, and you can get HTPC cases and small motherboards and a Blu-ray drive, there's even I think slim drives if your HTPC case needs that.

I meant that HTPC requires a certain level of technical know-how to run. In that sense it is not mass market. It is hard to imagine a granny using a blu-ray HTPC but that is not impossible if a HTPC can be made user friendly.