Phillyrich wrote:I will soon buy my first blu ray player. I don't understand the compatibility issues.
I would like to get a basic blu ray player, that will also (1) upconvert my standard dvds, and (2) play standard dvds from other countries, such as "region 2" discs from Britian. (Love to get that "Buster Keaton" A Hard Act To Follow" PBS 3-part docu in region 2, from Britian.)
Do blu ray players have all-region compatibility for all standard dvds? Or do I have to buy another old fashioned dvd player that is all region capable?
Well, the "blur ray" discs are only those that have excessive digital noise reduction that erases the grain and degrades the picture, sometimes to the point that standard DVDs actually look better. Reviews on Blu-ray.com and other websites can usually alert you to these inferior Blu-ray releases that really should be called "Blur-ray" editions. A proper Blu-ray will look pretty much like a mint 16mm film printdown from a 35mm original negative or a typical 35mm release print from a 35mm dupe negative. And though they'll look impressive on a good 1080p HDTV, they can still never approach the quality possible on a good 70mm film print or genuine film IMAX. Don't forget that you MUST have a 1080p HDTV, preferably with a screen 40" or larger (and more preferably, a projector and large wall screen), in order to notice a difference between a good Blu-ray and any DVD.
But to answer your questions...
1) All Blu-ray players will play standard DVDs and will simultaneously upconvert them to a simulated HD 1080p output, which can often look astoundingly good (if the DVD was properly transferred, encoded, and mastered). Nevertheless, a proper Blu-ray mastered from a good HD transfer from original film elements will still look better than even the best DVDs (although if no camera negative or finegrain positive survives and a dupe preservation copy must be scanned, the quality difference between DVD and Blu-ray may be somewhat less obvious). Although most DVDs will look better played on a Blu-ray player through an HDTV, you should be aware that certain DVDs are mastered/encoded in such a way that they actually look WORSE on a Blu-ray player and HDTV than they do on a standard DVD player and standard-def or medium-def (720p) TV set.
2) Blu-rays are encoded for one or more of three regions: A (North America), B (Europe), and C (Asia). A "region-free" Blu-ray is really just set to play for all three regions and usually has the logo code ABC on the back of the box. There are many Region A-B discs, but also quite a few locked to Region A only or Region B only. The region-locked discs require a player that can have its region changed. Some players support this function with a few button-presses on the remote and others require a firmware change, and others don't support more than one region. The best way to find an all-region player is to do a google search on your player name and "region free hack" and see what comes up. User forums at Blu-ray.com and other websites often have hints and instructions and links for various models that can be changed. The multi-region players for DVDs can usually be set once to "0" and then will play DVDs from any region. The multi-region Blu-ray players, on the other hand, usually default back to their native region and must be reset to a non-native region every time the power is shut off as well as every time you want to switch regions back and forth without shutting off the power. This applies to both Blu-ray discs and DVDs from different regions. If you already have a region-free DVD player, you should probably hang onto it, even if it doesn't upscale the image to 1080p.
Some Blu-ray players will actually play both NTSC and PAL video content on DVDs or Blu-rays as long as they are not region-locked. These players are likely to have hacks that might also change the region code. If your player will not play a region-free PAL DVD, then it probably won't have any region-changing codes available for it.
Tue May 29, 2012 7:50 am
