Hi There Steve Wallis ..et alia.. I have a suggestion for a solution for your Region coding of your Panny BD55. I too purchased one of these in December and like you had the frustration of being able to play only Region 2, both Blu Ray and DVDs. As you will be aware there are a number of hacks, Hex Code Entries etc to multi-regionalise the DVD side. I believe you can even "hire" a pre-programmed remote control and download the hack to your own player. However,in view of the BluRay region coding issue (which made having to purchase a dedicated R1 player from the USA a distinct possibility until the exchange rate fell through the floor)) I decided I wanted to go with the "full Monty" conversion and this involved a chip addition.
In fact I had seen a post earlier this month by "PaulB"..a senior member who has achieved the modification himself (and there was also another AVForum Devotee who had done likewise)and he used a chip that can be purchased from Holland for about £70 + P&P. However he did issue a public health warning on this process that it involved soldering 7 wires from the chip to the underside of the player PCB of which at least 2 were tiny solder points requiring a high degree of soldering skill.
I communicated with him about this (PM) and he offered sound advice. I decided that in view of the delicate nature of this solder work, I would pay for someone to do the job for me. I did some back-of-the-thumbnail calculations about the cost of buying the chip from Holland and paying for a local "electronic fixer" to do the job for me. I compared that with a professional outfit called MultiRegionMagic (run by one Paul Taylor) which not only supplies the fully converted players..and actually any number of other BD players as well.. but also offers the retro-installation service for £139 including the pick-up and return postal costs.
I decided in the end that there was so little in it that this was by far the best route to go. I phoned them up and spoke to guy there (not Paul) who had done "hundreds" of these. I was impressed with the confident belief that this was a mod that properly done would not go wrong..and thus far had never done so!
I made the "order" for modification on Line, arranged a day for collection and it was duly picked up on a Monday Morning and returned to me all done and dusted at Sparra-Fart on Thursday same week. Fantastic service and you don'ty get many like that with so little fuss and palaver, and such an incredibly quick turnaround. Whilst it has added a hundred and forty quid to the cost of the unit, when you stack it against the cost of buying, importing, paying duty etc etc on an American machine, which probably is not multi-voltage, this is indeed a cheap option.
I have tested all Regular DVDs of all regions that I have (1,2 and 3 and 6) and they work automatically every time. I don't yet have any R1 Blu Ray discs, but certainly the R2s continue to play quite normally.
Finally, MRM guarantee their work for a year,even though technically the manufacturer's warranty is breached. I don't have any doubt that this outfit will honour that arrangement should it become necessary.
10 of of 10 from me and I would highly recommend their product and service.
Thanks to PaulB for pointing me generally in the right direction and of course Paul Taylor of MRM.
Good luck you guys!
Boeingman.