Unlockable Region-Locked Blu-rays

[chrisron]

I own a Region B Samsung C5900 and of the around 50 region A locked BDs i own it can play about 90% of them if I press stop and then disc menu.

[avpjunkie]

Originally Posted by avpjunkie

I tested all my region B locked blus on my Panasonic DMP-BD601 using the wait until can't play disc screen, stop, then top menu x 2 and they all worked!!!

The titles I tested are:
Rob Zombie's Halloween II UK Blu-ray (B locked)
Solomon Kane UK Blu-ray (B locked)
Bubba Ho-tep UK Blu-ray (B locked)
The Legend of the Lone Ranger German Blu-ray (B locked)

Thank you OP for giving me the heads up

Edit:
I just remembered that I have two more Region B blus that I will try at a later date
Army of Darkness (Director's Cut) German Blu-ray (B locked)
The Shadow German Blu-ray (B locked)

I will post my findings when I get the chance to test them

to follow up my last post, I tested:
Army of Darkness (Director's Cut) German Blu-ray (B locked)
The Shadow German Blu-ray (B locked)

and they work with the same steps I had outlined in my previous quote above, i'm sooo happy.

[Cortiz]

C'mon guys don't let this thread die! Keep the info coming

Anyone knows any tricks for a Sony player? My region A S790 did not work with the Top menu trick.

[zbinks]

Originally Posted by Cortiz

C'mon guys don't let this thread die! Keep the info coming

Anyone knows any tricks for a Sony player? My region A S790 did not work with the Top menu trick.

Which disc(s) did you try?

I'm waiting on copies of Zombie Flesh Eaters and Black Sabbath to see if they can be unlocked on my Sony BDP-S370 or not.

[Cortiz]

Originally Posted by zbinks

Which disc(s) did you try?

I'm waiting on copies of Zombie Flesh Eaters and Black Sabbath to see if they can be unlocked on my Sony BDP-S370 or not.

All my Arrow Region B locked:

Invasion of the Body Snatchers
The Car
The Last American Virgin

No go on my Sony S790

By the way, I do have a region free player but would preffer to watch them on my S790

[zbinks]

Originally Posted by Cortiz

All my Arrow Region B locked:

Invasion of the Body Snatchers
The Car
The Last American Virgin

No go on my Sony S790

By the way, I do have a region free player but would preffer to watch them on my S790

Does that player have Wi-Fi by any chance? I found this post on another forum, and thought it might apply to your situation.

Just to follow up, the menu trick does work to bypass the region coding. I watched Runaway Train last night. When the screen comes up that says "This disc is not playable in your region", just press STOP, then POP-UP MENU / TOP MENU. It'll take you right to the blu-ray's main menu. Watched the movie, all extras, everything worked perfectly. I haven't watched the Spider Baby disc yet, but it supposedly works on that one too.

The only catch is that it would not work on my Sony player with Wi-Fi. Since it's connected to the internet, when you press stop it brings up all these options for NetFlix, YouTube, Hulu, etc, so it isn't focused solely on the disc. But if you have a player where you press STOP and it just brings up the company logo or a blu-ray logo, then it should work.

[NoirFan]

I should be receiving Sullivan's Travels on Monday, so I'll test it upon arrival.

[Clark Kent]

Originally Posted by Cortiz

C'mon guys don't let this thread die! Keep the info coming

Anyone knows any tricks for a Sony player? My region A S790 did not work with the Top menu trick.

Sony has been pretty stringent when it comes to locking down their hardware.

[avpjunkie]

I have a feeling that it's not that the particular blu-rays are unlockable, it just depends on the blu-ray player being able to play region locked discs.

I say this because I think that my region A Panasonic can play all/most region locked discs now (I can't test any more than what I own) using the "top menu" trick.

To zbinks, if what I suspect about my player is true, then you'll be listing every region disk outside of A, so you probably want to just list the Blu-ray players that the trick is working with instead of the individual films.

Just a thought.

[Lacenaire]

I have an old Samsung player and was able to watch Return of the Living Dead and Spider Baby on it by using the Menu trick (this was last year). A screen came up when the disc loaded saying "Region B only" or something along those lines, then you just hit Menu to bring you to the disc menu.

However, I now have a Sony player and tried to play Hellgate on it, and the player starts reading the disc, then returns you to the Home Screen (I have Hell Comes to Frogtown as well but didn't bother testing it since I assume the same thing will happen).

So my questions: On Hellgate and Hell Comes to Frogtown (or any of the other Arrows) are you supposed to see a screen come up saying "Region B only" like I described with my Samsung player.? Or is there a different trick with these titles? Does this "Region B only" screen not appear on Sony machines? Should I maybe bring out the old Samsung out of retirement?

[zbinks]

Originally Posted by Lacenaire

I have an old Samsung player and was able to watch Return of the Living Dead and Spider Baby on it by using the Menu trick (this was last year). A screen came up when the disc loaded saying "Region B only" or something along those lines, then you just hit Menu to bring you to the disc menu.

However, I now have a Sony player and tried to play Hellgate on it, and the player starts reading the disc, then returns you to the Home Screen (I have Hell Comes to Frogtown as well but didn't bother testing it since I assume the same thing will happen).

So my questions: On Hellgate and Hell Comes to Frogtown (or any of the other Arrows) are you supposed to see a screen come up saying "Region B only" like I described with my Samsung player.? Or is there a different trick with these titles? Does this "Region B only" screen not appear on Sony machines? Should I maybe bring out the old Samsung out of retirement?

The "top menu" trick for Return of the Living Dead does work on my Sony BDP-S370, but that doesn't involve the stop button or anything, just press "top menu" when the region warning comes up and the disc loads.

I'm still waiting on a couple of region-locked Arrow discs
to see if I can get beyond the region-locked screen or not. If I find that it doesn't work, I'll try to compile a list of players that may be compatible.

[Lacenaire]

I tried Hellgate now on my Samsung and no trick works on that player either. So not my Sony or Samsung.

I believe that the screens that come up on the Return of the Living Dead disc and the Spider Baby disc warning that the discs are Region B are screens that are loaded from the discs themselves. I don't think the screens are generated by the player.

I guess I'll still be buying a Region-Free player soon.

[jstxanothrxstory]

Does anyone know if Arrow's release of Texas Chainsaw Massace 2 can be viewed on a Region A player using this trick, or is is strictly a Region B release?

[BluRoo98]

Originally Posted by Clark Kent

Sony has been pretty stringent when it comes to locking down their hardware.

I have 3 different Sony model players and the only region locked titles I own are Disney UK titles. I tried all the tricks this morning on my S790 and couldnt get it to work....anyone else figure it out on Disney./sony?

[redrunner97]

Originally Posted by jstxanothrxstory

Does anyone know if Arrow's release of Texas Chainsaw Massace 2 can be viewed on a Region A player using this trick, or is is strictly a Region B release?

I don't believe so. But the US blu-ray is just as good, the packaging is the main selling point with the Arrow release.

[NoirFan]

Originally Posted by redrunner97

But the US blu-ray is just as good, the packaging is the main selling point with the Arrow release.

The Arrow disc has (as is usually the case) a superior encode though.

[rdodolak]

Originally Posted by Lacenaire

If you have discovered a Region bypass trick, could you also please update the Region Coding information in the database. For example, confirm the title is Region A in the database then add a note on how you bypassed the coding and on what player.

Someone I believe already did this for Spider Baby, which is how I learned that it was playable on Region A.

Thanks in advance, it is very useful if the database itself is updated.

Technically, these discs are still region locked so the should remain so. The correct answer would be to report the disc as region locked but to leave a not stating a possible work around.

[rdodolak]

Originally Posted by avpjunkie

I have a feeling that it's not that the particular blu-rays are unlockable, it just depends on the blu-ray player being able to play region locked discs.

I say this because I think that my region A Panasonic can play all/most region locked discs now (I can't test any more than what I own) using the "top menu" trick.

To zbinks, if what I suspect about my player is true, then you'll be listing every region disk outside of A, so you probably want to just list the Blu-ray players that the trick is working with instead of the individual films.

Just a thought.

It's not that the player can play region locked discs but rather the Panasonic players allow you to get around the region locking mechanism easier where as other brands are thouroughly designed/tested to prevent such tricks.

[fatboyslim142]

Originally Posted by theprestige85

Hmm, how about region locked A titles that can be accessed by a non region free region B blu ray player?

I own the Something Weird Video release of Blood trilogy and it works on region locked A & B players by pressing the home button. I found this out on the dvdcompare site as it was mentioned in the notes section.

[Lacenaire]

Originally Posted by rdodolak

Technically, these discs are still region locked so the should remain so. The correct answer would be to report the disc as region locked but to leave a not stating a possible work around.

I agree with you now. Originally I thought the workarounds were as easy and reliable as the UK Return of the Living Dead disc. But apparently they're not that simple.