Is there a Crack/Hack for Blu Ray Region Coding??

Glenzo

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If not now, will there likely be one soon?

I've just bought a Blu Ray Player online (Sony BDP-300) and weighed up my options and went for a Region A (USA/Can) Player as it was much cheaper and there's more A titles available.

Okay most the European (UK) titles play on a Region A Player it seems despite the cover stating contrary.

For the occasions where you can't watch a title cos of 'The Bloody nuisance of Region Coding'. WHAT WILL WE BE ABLE TO DO:lease:

(It's 1999 all over again)

Ps. I've a HD DVD Player and I'm going for Blu Ray really for the Exclusives like Sony/Disney etc..
 
Well unitl a hack becomes available, if one ever does, a two player solution is the best option. Personally I have a standalone Region A player and a PS3 for games and Region B BDs.
 
Unlike DVD licencing, I believe region coding is built into the BDA 'contract' and that if any hack came out then the manufacturer could loose his / her ability to make Blu -ray equipment for good. I think your only 'realistic' chance is computer based. All IMHO.
 
Unlike DVD licencing, I believe region coding is built into the BDA 'contract'

Wasn't the situation almost identical with DVD - with the region coding being a mandatory part of the initial spec? (albeit that we did initially have the situation with PC drives being RPC1 and able to play any region, with software locked to specific regions (and easily changed with a number of readily available programs)

and that if any hack came out then the manufacturer could loose his / her ability to make Blu -ray equipment for good. I think your only 'realistic' chance is computer based. All IMHO.

I'd agree wholeheartedly with that - you'll probably have to wait until we're getting a variety of cheap far eastern players before multi-region blu-ray becomes more common - and I suspect Sony (as a content provider as well as platform holder) will do all they can to stop that happening...

Can anyone tell me - on PC BD-ROMS is there region coding in both the drive firmware and the players, as per (RPC2) DVD?
 
Wasn't the situation almost identical with DVD - with the region coding being a mandatory part of the initial spec? (albeit that we did initially have the situation with PC drives being RPC1 and able to play any region, with software locked to specific regions (and easily changed with a number of readily available programs)



I'd agree wholeheartedly with that - you'll probably have to wait until we're getting a variety of cheap far eastern players before multi-region blu-ray becomes more common - and I suspect Sony (as a content provider as well as platform holder) will do all they can to stop that happening...

Can anyone tell me - on PC BD-ROMS is there region coding in both the drive firmware and the players, as per (RPC2) DVD?

I don't think there is any region coding in the drive firmware (at least not yet anyway). Changing the region of PowerDVD Ultra is as simple as copying a file under Vista or modding a registry key under XP.
 
Unlike DVD licencing, I believe region coding is built into the BDA 'contract' and that if any hack came out then the manufacturer could loose his / her ability to make Blu -ray equipment for good.

I thought this was the situation with DVD too but no action was ever taken? :confused:
 
My understanding of DVD is and was always different to how they have done Blu ray.
 
I hope they unlock it, because I would enjoy buying BD players in the UK. If not it will be a pain to import them all, bit of a pain but then again, less of a pain than having to put up with second-class treatment and late releases at least!
 
The crazy thing is, if Sony really wanted to dominate the console market and boost Blu-ray sales at the same time it would probably be in their best interest to release a back door multi-region hack for the PS3. I've got in excess of 600 DVDs most of them region 1 and all original but I've pretty much stopped buying DVds as I'd rather be High Def. I think the whole region lock thing is an outdated con. They'd be far better off trashing the region coding and letting people BUY the disks they want rather than effectively encouraging downloads while people wait for the dust to settle...or is it just me :mad:
 
I tried to tell them that, actually. I told them that all it does is promote piracy (making dupes of BD discs so you can play them on a player of a different region - not easily possible with BD yet, but give it time).

I guess if the BDA were to do that, Fox especially would squeal at the thought of dirty foreigners watching their movies.
 
Sure look how many UK Blu Rays are actually Region A, B and C.

They're allowing plenty to slip throught the net contrary to this BDA agreement.

I hope it's only a matter of time before it gets scrapped, until then I'm still more for HD DVD and will only have a re-think then weighing up the two formats with a fresh perspective.

:clap:
 
Region free Blu-Rays were always supposed to be part of the BDA strategy. Region coding was only to be applied to new releases and after a year, region coding wwould be removed from those titles.

However, Sony have been good in regard to not region coding their discs, even new releases. Obviously they have HD-DVD's advantage in mind.

Buena Vista have released back catalogue as region free whilst Fox are resolutely sticking to region coding, even for back catalogue titles.

Basically......it's all a bit of a mess! :eek:
 
Every time it crosses my mind to consider buying a Blue Ray player, this issue arises. It's crazy. It would also seem to me to go against the whole idea of free trade. Why is it that huge multinational companies want laws relaxed relating to trade right up until the point where it no longer suits them.

The world is bloody nuts.
 
Actually it isnt a matter of the uk discs slipping through, regin coding a blu-ray disc is at the releasing studios discretion. Region coding is only really significant where a different distributer is responsible for production in a different region. Region coding the discs then allows competition between the different distributers to be limited. A european distributer who pays for the rights to sell in europe doesn't want to be competing with US import discs released months in advance, if he has to then it devalues his potential profit and thus lowers what the studio can sell the distribution rights for. So if it is a global release or the same distributer in both regions or an old film where the import competion is not likely to be significant, no coding.

I think the studios still officially deny this being the reason for region coding on any disc format but Australia and New Zealand disagreed to the point where they made dvd region coding an illegal barrier to free trade. I keep looking to see if the same thing would happen with blu-ray forcing the production of region free blu-ray hardware but so far I haven't heard anything.
 
i think region coding will become apparent as we get closer to xmas..sony REALLY need to address this as hddvd is regionless and now the chinese players are coming..shout!! CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP.any advantage blueray has/or had will wittle away as a HDDVD/BLUERAY OWNER im surprised sonys media machine hasnt worked and now toshiba are pulling all the punches..if you carnt get region coding right the new adopters will notice and hdvd will be the preferd option..silly sony/movie studios.
:(
 
Actually it isnt a matter of the uk discs slipping through, regin coding a blu-ray disc is at the releasing studios discretion. Region coding is only really significant where a different distributer is responsible for production in a different region. Region coding the discs then allows competition between the different distributers to be limited. A european distributer who pays for the rights to sell in europe doesn't want to be competing with US import discs released months in advance, if he has to then it devalues his potential profit and thus lowers what the studio can sell the distribution rights for. So if it is a global release or the same distributer in both regions or an old film where the import competion is not likely to be significant, no coding.

I think the studios still officially deny this being the reason for region coding on any disc format but Australia and New Zealand disagreed to the point where they made dvd region coding an illegal barrier to free trade. I keep looking to see if the same thing would happen with blu-ray forcing the production of region free blu-ray hardware but so far I haven't heard anything.

So basically it's about price fixing, then. Thought as much.

Maybe we should all boycott Blue Ray until 1) they drop this ridiculous nonsense and 2) sort out the hardware and software so that punters know their machines won't be out of date next year.

Don't you just love Sony?
 
price fixing?? where do you guys get this stuff.

take for instance the fact that Newline will be delaying its HD-DVD releases because of no region encoding on the format, as they have split rights and different release dates.
They have to consider other profits for there partners in different regions, or else one market gets all the ££s and other regions lose out. not much point being a partner to that.
 
That is one side of it Gandley, but New Line themselves pointed out that this situation is very much the exception. Most of the majors handle international distribution themselves.
 
That is one side of it Gandley, but New Line themselves pointed out that this situation is very much the exception. Most of the majors handle international distribution themselves.

It was an example, nothing more. newline stated, where there is not international partners, HD-DVD will be day and date with BD and DVD.
 
The only company that I find to be really annoying on Blu-ray is actually FOX. They region lock ALL titles.. even the old back catalogue ones on the format. Sony lock most of there titles but once they're over a year old then they've said they'll remove region coding on they're titles which is fair enough up to a point.

It's not just Distributors that have to be taken into consideration either.. don't forget that Retailers themselves have they're own agenda in wanting titles to be region locked. Why should HMV/ etc get a title 3 months after the US have had there's to find that the local punters have already paid they're money to a company from the other side of the world..

Not sayin I give a monkeys.. as Movietyme will tell ya :D... :smashin:
 
It's not just Distributors that have to be taken into consideration either.. don't forget that Retailers themselves have they're own agenda in wanting titles to be region locked. Why should HMV/ etc get a title 3 months after the US have had there's to find that the local punters have already paid they're money to a company from the other side of the world..

:

It's all part of the same issue isn't it? If we had simultaneous release dates in all regions, and no region coding, the punters could just buy the product based on their own personal preferences.

And if retailers etc overcharged in one region people would just buy the product elswhere.

It's called competition.
 
It's all part of the same issue isn't it? If we had simultaneous release dates in all regions, and no region coding, the punters could just buy the product based on their own personal preferences.

And if retailers etc overcharged in one region people would just buy the product elswhere.

It's called competition.

My answer would be completely political and I don't want to derail the thread mate so I'll leave it but at least think of the fact that to "compete" would mean lowering job salaries, cutting jobs, relocating abroad..we all moan about those crappy call centres abroad but thats "competiton" in action..

I won't post anything else on this here even in reply.. don't think it's right to go that far off topic on something as basic as this.
 
Getting back to the basics.

Surely some techno wizard can come up with a hack/code to unlock a player.

Has gotta be a matter of time just that it becomes common, as with DVD.
 
and what happens if BD + detects a 'hack'?
 
I've not read the BD+ spec but I believe "doorstop" is one of the potential scenarios.
 

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