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toblix

Blu-ray region fucking shit

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I'm so used to region-free DVDs by now, I was looking at the three-disc Blu-ray release of Wall-E to play on my new PS3. Then I see that it's region locked, and that the European release is only two discs. And the old region anger rises up in my like in the good old days. Why are they still doing this fucking shit? Why can I only buy a copy of a film that has less extras than the one they sell in another country? That is the kind of bullshit that makes me not buy their stupid discs.

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That's why I bought a Blu-ray drive for PC and obtained a copy of AnyDVD HD. No more regions or copy protections for me!

Why would you want the 3-disc edition, anyway? The third disc just contains a shitty "digital copy" of the movie for playback on computers.

By the way, a lot of discs aren't region encoded. I think there are lists somewhere, saying which is which. I know axelmusic.com tends to say whether or not a disc is region encoded.

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Yeah, I know that I probably wouldn't miss any of the stuff that's not on the European two-disc edition. They're probably padding the third disc with the crap they discarded when making the two-disc edition. It's the principle, though. Why can't all releases me similar?

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Actually there's no such thing as region free DVDs - DVD players became all region, but the software itself (i.e. the discs) was always and remains region locked. In that sense, Blu-Ray is actually better since both the software and hardware itself is not entirely locked as a rule. While some region locking has been implemented by a few studios/distributors on some of their releases, on the whole Blu-Rays are more accessible across regions than the DVD format, with a majority of releases being region free.

Edited by Ben

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Oh, there are region free DVDs. I think a few of the older Criterions are, but on the whole they're not normally from any big Hollywood studio.

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Yeah Criterions are Region 0 (Blu-Ray Criterions will similarly be region free btw); but they are exceptions that prove the rule in this case.

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Yeah Criterions are Region 0 (Blu-Ray Criterions will similarly be region free btw); but they are exceptions that prove the rule in this case.

My Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas: Criterion is region locked.

This has always made me sad. :sad:

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Actually there's no such thing as region free DVDs - DVD players became all region, but the software itself (i.e. the discs) was always and remains region locked.
Yeah, so when I had this experience again that I had the first time I was buying DVDs, and region free players were more exotic, some requiring special remotes, etc., that primal rage rose in me.

I actually appreciate that there's more leniency in the new format, although I expect them to be more horrible to use. I've never used a Blu-ray before, but I wouldn't be surprised to find them more riddled with delays, forced ads, warnings and disclaimers than the most horrible of DVDs.

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They used to say that about the DVD editions too; as I said before while some Criterions were indeed region encoded, many were not.

Also of the currently planned Blu-Ray releases they have, in the past as DVD editions the following were region locked:

The Third Man

The Man Who Fell to Earth

Chungking Express

The Last Emperor

And these were all region:

The 400 Blows

Contempt

For All Mankind

Walkabout

So it's possible this will be the case with the Blu-Ray releases too despite what they officially say. Time will tell.

Edited by Ben

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I've never used a Blu-ray before, but I wouldn't be surprised to find them more riddled with delays, forced ads, warnings and disclaimers than the most horrible of DVDs.
Oh, you get all that. Don't forget that several also use Java for their interactivity which means the disc has to load a bunch of shit you'll never use before you can watch the movie. There was a problem with one disc (forgot title) which froze if it couldn't download an update from the interwebs.

The only improvement I've seen over DVDs is the new menu system that you can open in an overlay over the movie. Oh, and the improved video quality. Rest is pure gimmickry which is more likely to anger than impress.

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DVD playback is region locked. Blu-Ray playback is not. As I said, some studios have chosen to implement software region locking on their Blu-Ray discs but the actual hardware (i.e. the PS3's Blu-Ray player) is not region locked. I have a US PS3 and have been able to play all the UK Blu-Rays i've purchased so far.

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Err, how is that different to how it works with DVDs? Just because you can play UK Blu-ray discs, doesn't meant your player is region free. It just means those discs aren't locked to a specific region.

http://bluray.liesinc.net/ - here's a nice list of which discs are region free.

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You're right it doesn't mean that. As you say it could simply be that all the Blu-Ray software i've tried happens to be region free. But as far as I'm aware from my experience the player, at least the players in early PS3s, are not region locked. It would be an amazing coincidence if it was, particularly given that i've successfully played a couple of those dics listed as locked on my machine.

Either way we return to the original point, which is that Blu-Ray as a format is no less accessible than DVD (i definitely see more green than red in that useful link/list you've provided), despite what toblix was asserting in his original post.

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It's still a nuisance if one encounters a title that's region locked though with the wrong hardware. :)

Going through the list it seems like Fox is the one studio that likes region coding the most while Sony (and their MGM), Lionsgate, and Disney are more random. Then on the other side are Paramount, Universal that release all their movies region free. Warner is a bit of an odd one in that they release their own movies region free, but their New Line movies are randomly locked.

So the conclusion must be that toblix is most likely fucked if he wants to play the US release of Wall-E on his PS3.

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But as far as I'm aware from my experience the player, at least the players in early PS3s, are not region locked.

I think it seems pretty likely that the early PS3 are not region locked and the 40gb are.

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Yep. The only region free players are dodgy ones from China and computers.

No, no, no!!! Wrong, wrong, wrong!!! You can buy ANY DVD player region free from companies that mod them for you. It's easily the best way to watch Blu-Ray DVDs. No hassles, high quality, nuff said.

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Oh, that. And then you get a firmware update that changes the region coding on the player itself and you're fucked. Or they go all MS on you and ban your player from downloading updates.

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Ok, when was the last time your player automatically updated its firmware? If you're happy then there's no reason to update. Even Profile 2.0 players don't update automatically.

Secondly, many places offer lifetime guarantees on their hacked players. Why? Because mods today can have their firmware updated, too, making them futureproof.

So to sum up: You're completely safe buying a multi-region Blu-Ray player. (If you already own one then you can even buy the kits to unlock them, too.)

Edited by ThunderPeel2001

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Yes, but what if you need it to play a new disc? Several people have had problems playing the new Bond BDs, for example, because of a lack of updates (which Sony has promised within a week). With all the Java and shit that's required to just watch a movie, I have a feeling there'll be tons of updates to fix future bugs.

Secondly, many places offer lifetime guarantees on their hacked players. Why? Because mods today can have their firmware updated, too, making them futureproof.
Sounds like a lot of hassle, but hey, if that's your thing. :)

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Seems a lot like hacked cable boxes. A few people I know still have hacked boxes, but have to send them away and pay money to "some bloke" every so often because they don't know/can't be arsed to learn how to reflash them themselves. A few other people I know used to pirate the fuck out of cable TV but now pay for it because they find it less hassle.

If it's your thing though :)

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Still, I want to try to chip something again. Last time was with my PS2, back in the old days where you needed to solder 23 wires to misc. chips with tiny, tiny legs for everything to work. And if your hand wasn't as precise as a robot's, some tin solder would end up between the legs and you were fucked.

Good times.

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