Problems with Region 1 DVDs on multiregion Panasonic S97

[expat]

I've had my S97 for around a week now and am generally quite happy with the player (bought from a German Internet dealer). I was disappointed, however, to see that it won't play all my region 1 DVDs. I don't have so many, actually (7 to be exact), but it refuses to play two of these:

"Waking Life" (20th Century Fox) is rejected with a screen with the studio's logo saying "This movie will not play due to the current parental level setting of the player".

"Wit" (HBO) is rejected with a blue screen and the message "This player is incompatible with the region marking of this disc."

The player's ratings level is set to 8, meaning no limit, i.e. discs with adult content will be played. This works fine for region 2 discs. So it can't be the content of "Waking Life" (rated R) that's causing the problem.

I suspect that "Waking Life" has RCE, but does anyone know of a way to find out for sure?

Amazon.co.uk says the following about RCE:

Regional Coding Enhancement (RCE) has been added by some film studios (specifically Warner and Columbia) to selected Region 1 DVDs, with the intention of preventing these discs from playing on some multi-region DVD players. We are therefore unable to guarantee that all Region 1 discs will be compatible with all multi-region players.

Have people had similar problems with the S97 or other multiregion players? I visit the U.S. around once a year and had been planning to buy more region 1 DVDs on every trip, but now I'm not so sure...

My S97 has firmware version 86H360; does anyone know if a FW upgrade might eliminate this problem?

My old player (Toshiba SD 230E) had no problems with either of these discs. I'm tempted to return the S97, but I assume it's a better match for my plasma.

[Mark_a]

My S97 plays RCE discs no problem at all. And as the firmware seems to have no effect on being multi-region then it's highly unlikely that a firmware upgrade will have any effect. Sounds to me that the folks who hacked your machine sadly didn't do a very good job of it.

Regards

Mark

[georgek]

It seems that I am experiencing the same problem as expat - plays some Region 1 DVDs and others not. My player was bought in Liechtenstein and was labeled "Code Free." I am also sending it back - hopefully it will return as advertised. Mark_a, did you buy your s97 in the UK or elsewhere? Also, what firmware version did it have when you received it?

Regards,

George

[expat]

Hi Georgek,

I ended up returning my "code-free" S97, but after about a month with my old Toshiba player and my new plasma I ended up buying the S97 again, this time not code-free. Multiregion players are basically not available anymore in Germany, and I didn't want to risk ordering a player from the UK (because of warranty issues).

So I use the S97 for region 2 and the old player for the few region 1 DVD's I have. I might order a chipped remote someday for the S97, but I would probably wait till the 2-yr. warranty period is over.

[Mep]

I ordered a chipped remote for my E55 and it worked a treat, never had any problems with any disc