Tweet Multi-Region Blu-Ray players

Forgive me if this has already been asked and answered - are there multi-region players around?
If so do they also play multi-region DVDs?

Forgive me if this has already been asked and answered - are there multi-region players around?
If so do they also play multi-region DVDs?

When I bought one last year, the only Blu-Ray player that could do this was the (modified by outside sources) Oppo. It's a very good machine, perhaps the best consumer player out there. There might be others since then.

[Danny Burk]

I got one of the modified Oppo players last month. It's had no problem playing anything I throw at it, including Region B blu-ray, regionless PAL DVDs, and Region 2 DVDs. Picture quality is terrific; I watched the new TEN COMMANDMENTS a few nights ago, and it's as good as all the reviews are saying. The only problem that I see is price; it was quite a bit more than I wanted to spend, but the alternative choices didn't seem very good.

... (modified by outside sources)...

Do you mean this has to be bought locked into a region and then hacked to make it region-free?

[Danny Burk]

... (modified by outside sources)...

Do you mean this has to be bought locked into a region and then hacked to make it region-free?

Yes. This can be done at home if one has the right hardware; IIRC, an internal component that replaces the existing version is made by an outfit in Denmark or one of the Scandinavian countries. Being mechanically disinclined, I chose to buy a player that already had this work performed. There are several sources for these; I chose this one:

http://www.regioncodefreedvd.com/Region ... ayers.html

Yes, I feel I also would be more inclined towards a tailor-made model.


Thanks for your help, folks.

I recently started buying Blu-Rays so that I have some to play for the day when I finally get a player and large TrueHD 1080p flat screen TV .

I only have five Blu-Rays so far (old movies 1939-1988). I've noticed that although all have jacket/copyright info printed here in Australia, there is no indication of PAL or Region 4 on any of them, so they seem to be all region free.

So I'm assuming most if not all players sold (well, in this country anyway) might already be region-free, as well as most if not all discs. Or, maybe the discs I have so far bought are region-free simply because they are old movies.

[Danny Burk]

I recently started buying Blu-Rays so that I have some to play for the day when I finally get a player and large TrueHD 1080p flat screen TV .

I only have five Blu-Rays so far (old movies 1939-1988). I've noticed that although all have jacket/copyright info printed here in Australia, there is no indication of PAL or Region 4 on any of them, so they seem to be all region free.

So I'm assuming most if not all players sold (well, in this country anyway) might already be region-free, as well as most if not all discs. Or, maybe the discs I have so far bought are region-free simply because they are old movies.

Blu-ray regions are A, B and C. You'll often find one to three of these indicated on the back cover; if there are none, chances are good that it's region-free. All WB releases to date, AFAIK, are region-free, in case that's what you have. Criterion and BFI releases usually are not RF; some, such as Fox, may go either way.

There's no PAL nor NTSC on actual Blu-ray content, but some Blu-ray discs can include non-HD content that is formatted in PAL or NTSC. That's why some Blu-rays, even though they are region-free, won't play some of their content. For example, I recently got a region-free Blu-ray from the UK; the film itself played properly, but one of the bonus features would not, because the latter was in PAL format. The new Oppo player doesn't care and happily plays it all, regardless of coding or format.

Forgive me if this has already been asked and answered - are there multi-region players around?
If so do they also play multi-region DVDs?

I've had this for some months - £50 from Tesco - but now you may have to go elsewhere. Hack for multi-region dvd and bluray is very simple and works...though I haven't connected it to the internet in case an update removes the capability. Looks great ......
http://www.avforums.com/forums/blu-ray-dvd-player-multiregion-hacks/1383542-technika-brss10-bluray-player-hack-dvd-bluray.html

If you live in Australia or New Zealand, the only machine to get is the Kogan Blu Ray/DVD player. Current model has wireless connections etc. The price recently was A$129 but you have to pay shipping because there in no pick-up available. The DVD part is Region Free but the Blu Ray coding is changed with the remote, a special code is insert. Open the on-screen menu and get the right screen and put in A B or C as required for each screening. This may have changed on the latest machines. Most DVD players sold in Australia have been, including the majors, have been region free since day one. Either modified before sale or already done before import from China(usually generic cheapo or store named brands). The Kogan is a fast loader & appears better picture than many others.

Forgive me if this has already been asked and answered - are there multi-region players around?
If so do they also play multi-region DVDs?

I've had this for some months - £50 from Tesco - but now you may have to go elsewhere. Hack for multi-region dvd and bluray is very simple and works...though I haven't connected it to the internet in case an update removes the capability. Looks great ......
http://www.avforums.com/forums/blu-ray-dvd-player-multiregion-hacks/1383542-technika-brss10-bluray-player-hack-dvd-bluray.html

Excellent. Thanks. That's certainly worth looking into.

Here's a link to a good article on the topic: http://www.reviewmaze.com/2011/08/regio ... tware.html
A couple of days ago, I made a search for region free player myself and there is not much info on the net. The article makes a good summary of the possible ways for hacking the system cause it suggests 2 software and 2 hardware ways for this.

[Christopher Jacobs]

For US Blu-ray and DVD collectors, there has been some recent discussion on Blu-ray.com's discussion forum about "downgrades" available for various models of bargain-priced Insignia Blu-ray players (sold through Best Buy) that add (actually restore) a menu option to "configure player" which lets you reset the region for either DVDs, Blu-rays, or both. I happened to have an Insignia player, downloaded and installed the appropriate firmware upgrade (which actually reverted it to the October 2010 status of the players when they had really been multi-region but were never advertised that way), tried it out, and it works!

After installing the "new" firmware it immediately was able to play region 2 DVDs that it had previously ejected as soon as they loaded (including the German DVD of THE WHITE HELL OF PIZ PALU, which had troubles playing on a region-free Philips DVD player). I just got my first Region B Blu-ray disc in Saturday's mail, the BFI's release of Jack Clayton's version of "The Turn of the Screw," THE INNOCENTS (1961), under $20 including shipping from the U.K., which also includes two of his short films: the touching Oscar-winning metaphysical drama THE BESPOKE OVERCOAT (1955) and the effective WWII propaganda film NAPLES IS A BATTLEFIELD (1944). The player defaults back to regions A and 1 whenever it's turned off and on again, but as soon as I reset it to region B, the disc played just fine (and is a beautiful-looking disc except for the poorly upscaled trailer and mediocre-looking upscaled video introduction. The feature and two shorts are both gorgeously crisp and clear full-HD. I currently have a few more Region B titles on order and will look forward to seeing them.

While I'll still be buying primarily region A or region-free discs, It's great to have multi-region capability now with Blu-rays as well as with DVDs. The only mild irritation is having to reset the player to a non-A region or non-1 region each time, whereas any of the easily-hacked DVD players (various Philips models) can be reset to region 0 (all-regions) and they will stay there with no further action required.

Don't you think that locked region Blu Ray players just increase piracy????

A guy buy a BD-player, find the film he want buy wii not run, so he decide to download.

[Christopher Jacobs]

Don't you think that locked region Blu Ray players just increase piracy????

A guy buy a BD-player, find the film he want buy wii not run, so he decide to download.

It's possible, although more likely because of region-locked DVD players, since anyone who would download a movie really does not care much about picture quality, and that is the whole point of the Blu-ray format in the first place. The HD broadcast of the Academy Awards earlier tonight looked okay, certainly nicer projected six feet wide than an old SD broadcast on a little TV set, but still was only a fraction of the picture quality of most Blu-rays. There will always be people who will watch anything in any quality just to see it as soon as possible, and there will always be people who will only watch the highest available quality and will wait a certain amount of time and pay to see it that way. The increasing number of older movies available only in Region B copies, however, with no promise of any Region A versions may drive more film buffs to find multi-region players and thus dilute any sales of Region A versions that finally come out but too late to reach the fans that want them the most.

I have a relative who download films recorded with a digital camera from a cinema screen. Abominable image quality... dark, fuzzy, fadded, flicked, washed out colors...

I don't know how people can watch such things...

Don't you think that locked region Blu Ray players just increase piracy????

A guy buy a BD-player, find the film he want buy wii not run, so he decide to download.

It's possible, although more likely because of region-locked DVD players, since anyone who would download a movie really does not care much about picture quality, and that is the whole point of the Blu-ray format in the first place. The HD broadcast of the Academy Awards earlier tonight looked okay, certainly nicer projected six feet wide than an old SD broadcast on a little TV set, but still was only a fraction of the picture quality of most Blu-rays. There will always be people who will watch anything in any quality just to see it as soon as possible, and there will always be people who will only watch the highest available quality and will wait a certain amount of time and pay to see it that way. The increasing number of older movies available only in Region B copies, however, with no promise of any Region A versions may drive more film buffs to find multi-region players and thus dilute any sales of Region A versions that finally come out but too late to reach the fans that want them the most.

Since this thread was recently linked in the "classic movies in HD" thread, I thought I'd throw in a mention of my region-free blu-ray player, the Seiki BD660, which is available at Canadian Wal-Marts. I don't know if you can buy them in the U.S. or not, but I've had the player for three years and have had no problems with it. I haven't done a firmware upgrade on it, in case the ability to play discs from any region is removed, but I'm not sure why I'd want to anyway at this point. The hack is easy to perform and you can set the machine so it will play DVDs from any region, and manually switch between regions for blu-ray. There is no region "0" setting for BD, but since this machine was so cheap ($88 or less), it's my auxillary unit for playing Region B BDs, while my Samsung remains my primary BD player.

Unlike my Samsung, the USB port on the Seiki will play all kinds of media files (.avi, .mkv, etc.) while my Samsung can only show photos or play music via the USB.

Apparently Seikis have also been seen at Future Shop in Canada (which is owned by Best Buy) so they may turn up at Wal-Mart or Best Buy in the U.S.

Don't you think that locked region Blu Ray players just increase piracy????

A guy buy a BD-player, find the film he want buy wii not run, so he decide to download.

It's possible, although more likely because of region-locked DVD players, since anyone who would download a movie really does not care much about picture quality, and that is the whole point of the Blu-ray format in the first place.

This is not very correct actually. If a movie is ripped right (and I think most pirates should have learned by now how to do it) you can download a 2GB version of a Blu-ray disc with almost the same quality (as of the ripped BD) and it would be far superior to DVD quality. Practically, pirates can have (almost) the same quality as that of a Blu-ray disc so it's probably not proper to claim pirates do not care about quality.

[Christopher Jacobs]

Don't you think that locked region Blu Ray players just increase piracy????

A guy buy a BD-player, find the film he want buy wii not run, so he decide to download.

It's possible, although more likely because of region-locked DVD players, since anyone who would download a movie really does not care much about picture quality, and that is the whole point of the Blu-ray format in the first place.

This is not very correct actually. If a movie is ripped right (and I think most pirates should have learned by now how to do it) you can download a 2GB version of a Blu-ray disc with almost the same quality (as of the ripped BD) and it would be far superior to DVD quality. Practically, pirates can have (almost) the same quality as that of a Blu-ray disc so it's probably not proper to claim pirates do not care about quality.

Well, a highly compressed 2 GB version of a file that is 20-40 GB on a Blu-ray disc definitely will not display the same quality for people who buy Blu-rays specifically because of their high quality (even if the potential quality is not always reached on many releases). Projecting them on a big screen displays the very obvious quality differences. Some people are satisfied with streaming video and HDTV broadcasts, which might be equivalent to one of the recompressed Blu-ray files.

Well, a highly compressed 2 GB version of a file that is 20-40 GB on a Blu-ray disc definitely will not display the same quality for people who buy Blu-rays specifically because of their high quality (even if the potential quality is not always reached on many releases). Projecting them on a big screen displays the very obvious quality differences. Some people are satisfied with streaming video and HDTV broadcasts, which might be equivalent to one of the recompressed Blu-ray files.

I agree with that. My idea was that on HDTV displays a highly compressed version (often even just 700MB) of a Blu-ray disc will look far closer to the quality of the BD compared to the quality of a DVD. Blu-ray discs' quality is so superior to the quality of DVDs that it results in superior quality of the highly compressed Blu-ray version over the DVD version of a movie.