h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

How does it all work?

I've recently moved from a DVD Region 1 country (UK) to a DVD Region 4 country (New Zealand).

However, for Blu-Ray discs, both countries are in the same region, B/2.

I'm looking to buy a Blu-Ray player. Will it be able to play my old Region 1 DVDs as well? I can't seem to find any region information on any of the product descriptions for the model I'm interested in - does this mean it plays all regions?

Does anyone know the answer to any of these questions? Please help!

RF

not a clue i'm afraid

I know you cannot play blu-ray discs on a DVD player but I'm not sure about DVD's on a blu-ray players. And I know nothing about regions.

I think Blu-ray players are effectively region-free for DVDs, but I'm not certain.

I have played DVDs on my Bluray player (the PS3) and I think some might have been another region but can't be sure.

You can play DVD's on a blue-ray, not sure about the other way round.

I know it'll play DVDs Lil, I'm trying to figure out whether the region of the DVD is going to prevent it from working!

RF

Phone Fatso. They rent bluray and have some non-region4 imported dvds so should be able to give you some advice. Maybe tell them you're thinking of joining

http://www.fatso.co.nz


Aro are in your neck of the woods and can probably help too.

http://www.arovideo.co.nz

D'oh... Well what would you expect from me?

Thanks Kea. I'm more than thinking of joining Fatso, it's kinda a dead cert really! I'll give them a call.

All my* UK region 1 DVDs are on their way here, I'm hoping that I'll be able to watch them on the Blu-Ray player I've selected. If not, I'll have to find another player.

RF

* "My" DVDs total about 10...HI's DVD collection is rather more substantial!

you can phone me if you like??? but i object to being called Fatso in a public forum!!!

Ok, skinnymalink.

Leaving aside the bluray issue for a minute, there is something funny here about the dvd players and regions. I rang round retailers recently to find out about this and many of them were spouting some crap about how they're not allowed to sell region free dvd players. It's a policy thing I think rather than a law thing, and doesn't apply to all brands. For quite some time most dvd players here would play any region dvd. This may have changed but it's not clear why or how. I definitely wouldn't be taking the word of the retailers on this but would be going either to the manufacturer or their NZ agent.

Fatso are great btw Have you found anything to watch on TV yet? It's actually pretty good at the moment, the best it's been in ages for decent TV. You have to find something else to do in the summer though, because the networks still think we don't watch tv then so there's several months when it's all Vicar of Dibley repeats.

Yeah, I didn't want to take the word of anyone in a shop, as I reckon they'll just say yes to get me to buy the damn thing! I tried Fatso, but they couldn't help. I've spoken to Sony New Zealand and they reckon they don't have a Blu-Ray player that will play UK (region 1) DVDs.

Looks like I either need to hack the player, or get a multi-region player. Sony tell me that they don't sell such a beast, which I find hard to believe.

Does anyone know how to hack a DVD player so that it will play all regions?

RF

p.s. Currently enjoying This Is Not My Life.

RF, try this site: http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks/ I found a hack for my last machine there. Three cheers for all those obsessive geeks who work these things out for fun...

Cheers Ian, I'll give them a go.

RF

*Ivan*

Purview is my fiend!

RF

You can buy multi-region players here. I've got a Pioneer dvd recorder that plays dvds from anywhere. It's just some of the companies that say they 'can't' sell them.

I'm assuming that the hack voids the warranty

That is a possibility, yes.

I also have a Pioneer multi-region player. It's labelled as Region 4, but it came from the shop pre-hacked, which was very good of them.

From my researches around the interwebs, there seem to be two kinds of hack: the hardware hack (involves doing something to the chips, not entirely sure what) and the software hack, which seems to operate through the player's own remote. Only the hardware hack will invalidate the warranty.

The problem I'm finding is that I'm after a blu-ray player, and there seem to be fewer of those generally available than DVD players. But it looks like I've found one that is software-hackable...all I need now is to save up the .

RF

Which brand? I'll be after a software-hackable blu-ray player one of these days...