Toshiba BDX3200, regionfree DVD and multiregion BD

Thanks very much Roj. I'm presuming they must bitstream, the specs seem to suggest they do just not many reviews of this player out there.

Makes sense on the firmware. Seems the whole firmware thing is slowing down for a lot of players, thinks the kinks apart from the occasional disc have been ironed out so presuming safe to get the latest firmware and then put the region free on. Or at least I'll soon find out!

Regards 3D, yeah, maybe should have been more specific there. Not so much the 3D region locking that concerns me but just being able to have one player that does the lot so to speak. Have the Technika at the moment and it's a cracking piece of kit but just so darn ugly so seeing I can "upgrade" to region free, and 3D is a tad tempting.

1. My bdx1200 does so sure this will
2. Just put aussie f/w do not update it with UK first, aussie f/w will replace whatever you update.
3. True i have UK 3d panny and bdx1200 for other regions, so one player doing it all would be nice, (3200 was too expensive when i got 1200), and of course you will be ale to play region A 3D discs in the future.
 
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Superb. Cheers Roj.
 
This works great, thanks!

I bought one of these players last week just to have a region free BD player, but mine tends to make a whining noise when the disc is spinning. Sometimes the whining noise seems louder than others, and it changes in tone when I switch chapters. Also, sometimes the player makes a really loud noise when I first insert a disc. Not quite grinding, but close, and only for a second. Is this normal with this player, or is mine defective? :confused:
 
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This works great, thanks!

I bought one of these players last week just to have a region free BD player, but mine tends to make a whining noise when the disc is spinning. Sometimes the whining noise seems louder than others, and it changes in tone when I switch chapters. Also, sometimes the player makes a really loud noise when I first insert a disc. Not quite grinding, but close, and only for a second. Is this normal with this player, or is mine defective? :confused:

Sounds defective, mine is quiet looks good and is more compatible than a noisy Sharp that got sent back under guarantee, happily the supplier exchanged it FOC.
This toshiba is all you need if your 3D tv already has smart functions which most of them do.
 
I have a question that's slightly off-topic but still related to making the Toshiba BDX3200 region-free/multi-region.

I'm on the verge of buying a BDX3200 in France but am confused by one of the specs listed on Toshiba's French website: "PAL Progressive Scan." What impact will this have on playing my American DVDs and BDs from Region 1/Region A? Will they still play, just without progressive scan?

I have been trying to research this but haven't found any definitive answers, so I'm hoping someone can clarify this point for me.

Thanks.
 
I have a question that's slightly off-topic but still related to making the Toshiba BDX3200 region-free/multi-region.

I'm on the verge of buying a BDX3200 in France but am confused by one of the specs listed on Toshiba's French website: "PAL Progressive Scan." What impact will this have on playing my American DVDs and BDs from Region 1/Region A? Will they still play, just without progressive scan?

I have been trying to research this but haven't found any definitive answers, so I'm hoping someone can clarify this point for me.

Thanks.
1080i - An HD presentation format consisting of 1,080 vertical lines of display resolution in an interlaced scan. Most HD programming in the U.S. (terrestrial & satellite) is transmitted in the 1080i format.1080p- An HD presentation format consisting of 1,080 vertical lines of display resolution in a progressive scan. While a growing number of HDTV monitors are capable of displaying 1080p content, 1080p sources are relatively limited.
If your television supports 1080p progressive scan It will take advantage of the BDX3200's 1080p output to produce a clearer smoother picture for Ntsc recorded video, if not it will still work as most modern Plasma and LCD flat-panel TVs convert an interlaced source to a progressive scan for display.

What you shoud be more concerned about is the ability of your intended disc player to support pc recordable BD-R discs as not all being sold will be compatible, the BDX3200 seems to play them well.

This is one of the cheapest 3D blu-ray players on the market that actually works with a lot of recorded standards especially as it can now be easily upgraded to multi-region with the ops instructions.
 
Thanks for the explanation. My question was badly worded; I have no doubt my NTSC DVDs will "still play," but my concern was whether the BDX3200 would provide progressive scan output when it played them. Bu I’m reassured by your statement that most modern plasma TVs convert an interlaced source to progressive scan (and I’ve seen as much implied on other forums). I have a Panasonic TX-PF42G20S, which definitely supports 1080p, so I think all will be well.

As for BD-Rs recorded on PCs, I’m not sure why I should be concerned (even if the BDX3200 didn’t support them). My interest is just the standard, run-of-the-mill BDs and DVDs that can be purchased commercially, not ones that someone burns on their computer.
 
Have any of you 3200 owners had any disc juddering problems like some of us 1200 owners have? A few known problem discs so far are

A Prophet
Kill List
Drive
Melancholia
Tinker Tailor...

Anyone tried any of these?
 
Just had this delivered by Electrical experience. Ordered wednesday, delivered friday so dont worry about upgrading delivery options as when I placed it I was told I would not get it until next tuesday.

D/L the file now to make region free.
 
Burned the disk and upgraded perfectly, had to stand close to the player for it to acknowledge the 8520 code but after that very easy.

Does not seem to be an owners thread, anyone share their thoughts on any settings they have found best for the video processing?

Cheers
 
Have any of you 3200 owners had any disc juddering problems like some of us 1200 owners have? A few known problem discs so far are

A Prophet
Kill List
Drive
Melancholia
Tinker Tailor...

Anyone tried any of these?

Would also be interested in knowing. With the price coming down that much, I'd almost be tempted to give my 1200 to my brother and pick one of these up if they're less problematic :)
 
I'm amazed there isn't a users thread on this. Very tempted to pick this player up so would love to hear peoples thoughts on it.
 
Straight out the box blu's look great no doubt.

DVD's looked terrible on my Toshiba 1080p TV. Lots of noise and generally a very dirty pciture. The noise reduction is in 3 parts: 1: 3D Noise Reduction which generally cleans the picture up a lot but tends to look a little processed. 2. MPEG noise reduction which targets mosquito noise 3. Combination of the 2 which makes the picture so soft its like watching through water. I use option 1 which tends to clean the picture up and then try the sharpness settings which are the usual Low, Middle and High. Stuck to Middle which seems the right balance. Now the more interesting picture tweeks you have Video Processing Mode: Standard, Vivid, Movie and Custom. Standard looked fine but the custom allows alot more tweaking and another sharpness setting to change seems like double handling.

I've not quited a perfected this yet as more often than not I watch more DVD's so getting this right is important to me. IF you set the sharpness setting to high you get quite a bit of ringing which is why I selected middle and the used custom to tweak it but I think I am almost there and overall for £70 its a steal if you want a pure disk player because it is aimed at the cheapo end of the market.
 
Just ordered myself a 3200. not bothered about the 3D, but I really wanted an easily unlockable multi-zone blu ray player. After a good bit of research looking at things like the Limit m100 and whatnot, what turns out to be probably the best option for the price?? A Toshiba! :-D Ever since my HD-DVD players (still have mine hooked up for a wide selection of HD-DVDs) I've found toshiba are the best for customer service, so I'm pleased to be going back to them for my Blu Ray player, which will replace my BDP-S360, and sit nicely on top of my Toshiba XE1! :-D (Won't it be happy!)

I've just got tired of ending up with region locked Blu Rays. When it comes to releases I can't get over here (UK). I usually check the sites that list what's locked and what isn't, but occasionally there are films that I can't find any region info on, then you think "Ahh, what the hell, I'll take a chance. Most aren't locked anyway." And then sod's law, you get a BD and discover it is... grrr... so now I'll be able to enjoy them, rather than using the roundabout and annoying method of plugging my laptop into the TV to play them with AnyDVD HD. ;-)

I'll come back when I get it, and let you know how the firmware upgrade goes!!
 
Hey guys, I'm having a bit of a problem getting this to work. I can get the hidden menu up fine, but I dont know what to do from there. I cant navigate to where it says the region codes, and pressing the other buttons just results in it saying 'failed'.


EDIT: Actually, never mind. I had assumed that since I bought an Australian version of the player that I didn't have to worry about downloading and installing the firmware since it would already have it. Tried that for troubleshooting purposes and its working fine now.
 
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Just tried the USB upgrade. It comes up with something saying "Binary encrypt info fail" or words to that effect (Should have written it down). Will try the disk route tomorrow.

*EDIT - While slapping forehead* D'oh! What an idiot! Just realised it's because I right-clicked and saved the file, rather than just clicking to go to rapidshare, so of course I didn't actually have the file... should've looked at the file size!!!! I'll check again, and let you know how it goes... ;-)

*EDIT 2* Superb!! Works a treat off the USB stick. No problems whatsoever, though there's some great Engrish from the machine during the upgrade. ;) I also love that the ffwd and rwnd are faster on this than my SONY S360, and I can pause and move back and forth frame by frame!! (Something I really missed on the S360) Trust Toshiba lol! I wonder if this easy hack was left in as a bit of a snub to BD after the format war? (I noticed in the menu, there's even something about switching the BluRay logo off, presumably the lit one on the front) Either way, hoorah! The remote's a bit cheap and nasty, but whatya gonna do... It's the functionality that matters more. :) It's also got a few other better options than the S360, and I'm 3D-proof if I ever choose to be bothered, all for a really low price. I'm well chuffed!
 
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I may be in the market for a Toshiba (see here) and I fancied a multi zone bluray so this fits the bill.

Any more info on the stuttering disks on the other Toshiba model and the poor(ish) DVD playback? If I can't find one of these in a shop to try would someone mind testing a Japanese BD-RE disk for me on it?

Thanks.

EDIT: Just been down to PC World and the BD-RE plays fine. Ordering.
 
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Just so no one makes the same mistake I did the firmware from the Australian site is 2KB smaller than the 1 listed here. Whether it's a hacked firmware or an older official one I don't know but the one linked to in this thread works fine and enables multi region - the official one on the site doesn't. Might save someone 20 minutes messing :-(
 
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Does the firmware affect playing of 3D dvds?
Just bought a 3D tv, but when I try to play the 3D on the DBX3200 I get the message that I have to use a 3D enabled player. I use region 2 format. I have not tried playing a 3D before the upgrade as I didnt have a 3d tv then.

Would appreciate any help on this.
 
Not using 3D myself and it may be a daft question but is 3D option switched on in menu?
 
Thanks for your response,

The only 3D option in the setting menu is the HDMI 3D under the display options, which is already set on AUTO.
 
The problem was not in the bluray player, it was in the Bose receiver (Lifestyle V25).
After a software update on the V25, 3D DVDs are playing beautifully. :clap:
 
Have any of you 3200 owners had any disc juddering problems like some of us 1200 owners have? A few known problem discs so far are

A Prophet
Kill List
Drive
Melancholia
Tinker Tailor...

Anyone tried any of these?
Can anyone comment here?
 

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