Pikey cheap region free Blu and DVD...

[juansolo]

This appears to work. Just waiting for some region A Blu's to turn up for verification. Players can be had for £60-70 from Amazon and the like.

http://www.avforums.com/forums/blu-ray-dvd-player-multiregion-hacks/1520775-toshiba-bdx3200-regionfree-dvd-multiregion-bd.html

I was getting annoyed with stuff being released region A locked and not here. RoadRacers is on the way ;) Which I highly recommend.

[Roobubba]

I can't believe they still do this region locking. It always struck me as a rather disgusting and blatant ploy to make as much cash off people as possible: bleeding the punters.

That's why I've always gone for region-free "workarounds" where appropriate, and just bought the disc from wherever was cheapest at the time. I'm not interested in pirating anything, but f*** you if you want to stop me buying a couple of films when I'm over in the states!

[Philly Q]

That's cool.  I already have a multi-region Oppo player, but it's good to see more "fixes" becoming available.

To be fair, the vast majority of Blu-rays, even from the big studios like Warner, Fox, Universal and Sony, aren't region locked.  It's actually some of the smaller (or more localised) distributors like Lionsgate, StudioCanal and Criterion who use region locking.

[blue]

i got a plug in circuit board for my Cambridge Audio Blu-ray player that makes it region free for both DVD and Blu-Ray.  but i have yet to actually get any region A coded discs! :)

i agree, the whole region coding thing is a bit of a disgrace.  they use piracy as an excuse, but it is all about profiteering.

i've noticed that too, Philly.  i was quite annoyed to find that all the Criterion Blu-Rays were region coded, especially when their DVDs were always region free.

[Toe-Knee]

This is why i love my launch PS3.

No Blu ray region locks or games.

[Philly Q]

i've noticed that too, Philly.  i was quite annoyed to find that all the Criterion Blu-Rays were region coded, especially when their DVDs were always region free.

Yeah, I don't understand that.  It's one of the main reasons I got a multi-region player. 

Of course, Criterion isn't a film distributor in its own right, everything it releases on home video is licensed from someone else, and presumably only for the US market.   So maybe there's some requirement for them to use region coding - but why for Blu-ray and not for DVD?

Then you have the smaller labels who handle cult movies, e.g. Synapse and Blue Underground.  Some of their titles are region coded, others aren't.  Again, I've no idea why.

[juansolo]

Yeah, they're a couple of reasons why I've done it. I've managed to get along until now by just getting non-region coded stuff and RB discs. But there are more and more RA locked disks that I'd like to get my mitts on.

The biggest annoyance on that now is the lowering of the import limit to £15 and if you go over, for the privilege of charging you £3 VAT, the post office charge you an additional £8...

[Muttley]

I never actually use blu-ray or dvd discs for actually watching films anymore.  Once they're bought I just rip the main film with MakeMKV and copy it onto my media server which is running XBMC and connected to the TV.

That way I don't have to put up with the region nonsense, forced trailers and irritating anti-piracy videos which means it takes 5 minutes to actually start a film.

[Philly Q]

The biggest annoyance on that now is the lowering of the import limit to £15 and if you go over, for the privilege of charging you £3 VAT, the post office charge you an additional £8...

Oh yes indeed, the £8 is a killer when the thing you've ordered was only £16 (plus shipping). 

Most of the time I try to stick under the £15, although that means cumulatively you're paying more for shipping.  But if it's unavoidable I "go big", so at least there's only one £8 charge to contend with.

[dgg3jab]

Don't be a pikey.