Will a US player work in the uk?

[hank_marvin]

I mean could I import one and get some sort of voltage adapter or something or is it more complex?...

[vick vega]

not sure you might be able to but, I don't know if they have the pal/ntsc deal w/ br discs I don't think they are region encoded. if noone replies back try and e-mail sonystyle.com they might have the answer.

[Applefiend]

Well, mines working in New Zealand.

You need a step down converter, 240V to 110V, if you plug it into UK electricity it'll go off like a firework, and there goes 999 dollars.

I use a nice giant power transformer I bought at a UK electronics chain years ago. This is the kind of beasty you're after.

http://www.lik-sang.com/info.php?cat...ducts_id=8377& That's a big beefy 300Watt one, that's the kind of thing you need. Little 30W ones will burn out.

Just be warned you'll be Region A, so you need to buy disks from USA/Canada/Japan, UK Blu Rays won't work. Also the Samsung is a very decent upconverting player for the old DVDs, you'll be stuck to the old DVD Region 1.

But you can get US Blu Rays from amazon.com, dvdboxoffice, and the rest. And you'll get movies before they're out in the UK, and cheaper too.

But yeah it's just like a standard DVD player. You'll need a TV that can do 720p and above or your Blu Rays won't play, other than that.

But my Samsung P1000 arrived last week, I really like being in the first wave of new technology... With all that entails It's groovy, now where's my 50GB H264s at.

[Psiweaver]

Its unclear how the region encoding will work out in the future though.

[JTK]

Not sure why anyone would want/need to do this...

[Applefiend]

The selection of DVD titles in New Zealand is really terrible, also movies often are out on DVD in the USA before they're in the cinema in the UK. Lot of good reasons to have a US DVD/Blu Ray player.

Also UK fellas get ripped off for DVDs, very expensive. Blu Rays too no doubt.

[JTK]

Originally Posted by Applefiend

The selection of DVD titles in New Zealand is really terrible, also movies often are out on DVD in the USA before they're in the cinema in the UK. Lot of good reasons to have a US DVD/Blu Ray player.

Also UK fellas get ripped off for DVDs, very expensive. Blu Rays too no doubt.

The import costs on hardware and software would certainly add up quick and be abominable, I would imagine.

[Applefiend]

Going rate for new DVDs (Haven't been back to blighty for a few years but) is around 14.99 to 19.99 uk pounds(28 US dollar to 37).

I'm paying $19.99 for my Blu Rays at the moment. New US DVDs would be less than that. Postage is around $7. If you're a DVD collector, that'll soon pile up. So 3x19.99 Blu Rays in an package, postage $7, $67 vs $112, presuming UK Blu Rays are 20 quid each. I wouldn't be suprised if they are 25 quid.

There's a similar markup for CDs in the UK.

As for import, if you get your DVDs sent to you in a plain airmailed package customs don't care, no duty. They tend not to care about the fiddly small items, but it's a lottery.

In New Zealand the price is great, but the selection is terrible. So if I waited for a Kiwi Blu Ray player, I'd probably be importing my Blu Rays from the UK at shocking markup. Very glad I went Region A.

[Psiweaver]

yeah the whole thing is silly really in my opinion.

[zombie]

Originally Posted by JTK

Not sure why anyone would want/need to do this...

Besides the reasons already listed, Europe is a bit behind the U.S. when it comes to HD content. I'd imagine there are a lot of Europeans who are craving this stuff just as much as we are.

[Psiweaver]

yeah but getting the content has got to be such a pain at that point

[hank_marvin]

Originally Posted by JTK

Not sure why anyone would want/need to do this...

Because the Panasonic DMP-BD10 is $1300 in the US and £1300 ($2,489.36) in the UK.
I have imported probably around half of my DVD collection from the US, and have never had any problems with customs, so I don't expect any with Blu-Ray.

Thanks for the information Applefiend it was exactly what I needed to know.

[JTK]

Originally Posted by hank_marvin

Because the Panasonic DMP-BD10 is $1300 in the US and £1300 ($2,489.36) in the UK.
I have imported probably around half of my DVD collection from the US, and have never had any problems with customs, so I don't expect any with Blu-Ray.

So even with tariffs and all the rest of it it's still somewhat cheaper for you to import it yourself, huh?

Wow.

[hank_marvin]

Originally Posted by JTK

So even with tariffs and all the rest of it it's still somewhat cheaper for you to import it yourself, huh?

Wow.

Yep, by a long shot, I'd obviously like to just walk into my local shop and pick one up now, but I really think that I will have to import one.

[Knight-Errant]

I'm importing a Sony.

I like watching region 1 films as there is no speed-up conversion so the films play at the correct speed, and the BBFC doesn't cut them to ribbons either

[WriteSimply]

Importing a Sony eh? Which one? The dedicated player or PS3?

I think importing the PS3 is a better option. You get a Region 1 DVD player, a Region A BD player, it plays games and all your friends will be flocking over to see what the fuss is all about.

Then when the PS3 is released in Kiwi, you can get that as a Region 4/B player.

Go wild!


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[Knight-Errant]

It's the dedicated player.

[hank_marvin]

I tried to order the Panasonic from Amazon.com last night and was told that they couldn't ship it to me because of "geographical restrictions". I don't know if all retailers are the same, I doubt it.

[vick vega]

what about www.amazon.co.uk ?

Their selection seems to be very limited though.

[WriteSimply]

Originally Posted by hank_marvin

I tried to order the Panasonic from Amazon.com last night and was told that they couldn't ship it to me because of "geographical restrictions". I don't know if all retailers are the same, I doubt it.

There are services you can use where you pay the company a service charge to buy whatever you want off a US retail/website and have them ship it to you.


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