First multi-region Blu-ray players appearing
By Darren Murph 
posted Dec 31st 2007 12:23AM
posted Dec 31st 2007 12:23AM
We're not quite ready to believe these things function as advertised just yet, but it seems that multi-region Blu-ray players are beginning to pop up on a few overseas websites. We're seeing a region hacked Samsung BD-P1400 and Sony BDP-S300 / BDP-S500, each of which are reportedly modified to play nice with BD regions A / B as well as DVD regions 1 / 2. Aside from that, each player looks to be unchanged, but you better believe the convenience won't run you cheap. Over at Stegen Electronics, a multi-region BDP-S300 will demand €599 ($878), while the modded BDP-S500 rings up at €899 ($1,318), and until someone bites the bullet and confirms that these things actually do what they claim to, we'd recommend holding off.[Via TheImportForums, thanks Frode A.]
Read - Stegen Electronics
Read - DVD Direct
Good news for those who own super PCs, Blu-ray drives, and CyberLink's PowerDVD Ultra:
http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/05/09/reset-cyberlink-powerdvd-blu-ray-region-code-to-free-locking/
BD region coding is done at software level rather than hardware level (as is the case of DVD). The hack outlined above will either allow you to reset the # of available region changes to a ridiculously-high 65,536 or allow you to manually set the region.
Early adopters of stand-alone BD players (except Playstation 3) are screwed up because they can't update their Profile 1.0 players to 1.1 or 2.0; yet owners of PC BD drives can enjoy Profile 1.1 by simply upgrading PowerDVD Ultra with the latest patch. Now it seems owners of BD players are again screwed up because they can't easily change their players' region code without escaping from the threat of BD+, while PC BD-drive owners (like me) only need to change the registry or (for the case of WinVista users) delete a certain file to reset the region counter. Hooray, normal BD players PWNED by BD-equipped PCs!
One more thing: the link above has a comment section where a similar hack for WinDVD users is outlined. So, PowerDVD and WinDVD FTW! To hell with console BD players! (Although PS3 can rejoice about their latest firmware enabling Profile 1.1, they still can't do a thing to change their PS3's region code...)
I only live in one region at a time, the Foreign Legion!!!
Post!
cereal.
please folks, lets keep it related to the article and no blu ray sucks red is the way to go blu too expensive kinda coments please. (*no sarcasm*)
Normally I see more the future is blue rip hd dud blue folk then your example...you could have at least used an example from both.
But since you brought up price...$179 gets region free HD DVD player at Amazon...couple days ago it was under $170 but I think it is back up again.
"please folks, lets keep it related to the article and no blu ray sucks red is the way to go blu too expensive kinda coments please. (*no sarcasm*)"
OK, how about New Line sucks, Warner needs to let them know it's ok to take their heads out of the sand.
Ban sarcasm.
@ Mike
Hey now that i read it again, i guess it does seem like im defending blu huh. no thats not what i meant, its just that it gets tyiring reading the same things after a while. all you gotta do is go to afterdawn.com and you know what i mean. ok let me try again.
Please folks lets keep these posts neutral and well imformed. No need for blu ray sucks, the hell with hd dvd, blu ftw, red for life kind of stuff ok. If thats the way people that are knowledgable and supporters of the whole hi def world are then this make us all look bad. like early adopters are inmature and stuff.
well this article is about blu ray getting a region free player. There should be talk about hd-dvd and how its always region free.
Thats like an article being posted about a triple layer hd-dvd player in the wild and no1 making a comment about how blu-ray alreay has 50gb discs.
Cool for the few people that care I guess. In my experience very few people actually buy foreign movies anyway. The few people I know that do watch foreign films, myself included, generally get them after they have been subbed and released here.
I think that this player is more interesting for European people... Finally Blu users can buy US Bluray's witch is a lot cheaper.
A blue or HD platter in Norway starts at around 40$ and upwards.
Well, not everyone is like you and those you know and it isn't just subtitled films.
95% of my DVDs are in English yet about 40% are region 1, 30% region 2, 20% region 4, and the rest region 6 as the are NUMEROUS films and tv shows that never reach US shores.
It's a matter of content and access. There are huge numbers of DVDs that just never make it to region 1 or vice versa that people will want to be able to play. Just because you don't want to view content unless it's been vetted by an American distributor as profitable in the North American market, doesn't mean that others need be cut off from international material.
I love my Top Gear and John Safran vs God and won't buy Blu-ray until I can buy a device that doesn't require shutting myself off from some of the most enjoyable content out there.
Of course, if you update the player, the DRM comes back.
It's true I think that very few people do buy overseas DVD's but at this moment in time US high def DVD's (either format) are far cheaper than European ones so I'm definately looking for a multi-region player so I can buy them
It's not just people importing discs because they are cheap. I'll admit I'm in a minority here, but I'm British and live in the US at present, and will be here for another 3 years. I'm very reluctant to buy a Blu-Ray or HD-DVD player until I can play discs from the UK and the ones I'll acquire since being in the US. Whilst the HD-DVD part is region free on all players, I believe I'm correct in saying the SD DVD playback on an HD-DVD is still region coded, so no use to me. I wish the studios would just give up on region coding, with the internet and international sales the way they are, it's a pointless limitation.
Oh great... it seems that "someone" forgot that BD has BD+ in Place, which can completely disable the player if it detects a modification. (Yes, this is not yet in place, but part of the BD+ specification). And: BD Players have to be updated regularly that you can play new movies, which will disable the Region hack.
I will stick with Region and BD+ Free HD DVD!
I remember region coding! How cute!
Signed,
HD-DVD