All-Region DVD and Blu-ray Player Advice

[James]

So, I gotta say it, as I'm curious as to what others will do: Nick's told me via email that he's tried to the best of his ability, but that it will be impossible for all upcoming Blu-ray's to be region-free. This got me to thinking about my upcoming Blu-ray player purchase: Will I attempt to get a region-free Blu-ray player? Over the last few days, I've been exploring my region-free options. The Oppo Blu-ray is far too expensive for me, especially since it's not modded without ruining the warranty, and since it's about $500 dollars, that's just too much money for me to spend for something that could possibly break and not be fixed. Then there's the Momitsu, which is fairly priced at $350, but there's also it's clones which, regardless of not being able to decode Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD without a reciever which I don't have, are about $200 dollars cheaper. But still, at that price, it can't be that great of a player and there have been mixed reviews — some say the two clones players (Sherwood BDP-5003 and VisionQuest VQM-1000) are good deals for their price with really good picture quality for both Blu-ray and DVD upscaling, and some say they're wastes of money (although the latter group doesn't really seem to care much about region-free capabilities).

I realize this seems to do less about Masters of Cinema then it does with Blu-ray region-free players, but bear with me. The main reason I would get a region-free Blu-ray player is to continually support Masters of Cinema should they release Region B Blu-rays in the future (I already want to try to pick up their Blu-ray releases barring maybe For All Mankind to this point) and I know many other users here probably feel the same way. It's just that at this point it's really difficult to me to shell out the money for what could be a potentially bad player when I could get a reliable PS3 Slim for a mere $300 and have gaming capabilities as a supplement. Thoughts?

[Donald Brown]

James, you wouldn't notice much, if any, improvement with 1080p on a 32" LCD.

[James]

James, you wouldn't notice much, if any, improvement with 1080p on a 32" LCD.

Okay, cool. I thought so, thanks. (Although, I will obviously notice an improvement from DVD to Blu-ray, right?)

In other news, it appears recent PS3 firmware has made it so that Blu-rays with menus made using the PAL standard don't work. Can anyone confirm this, or has it been fixed?

[perkizitore]

So, I gotta say it, as I'm curious as to what others will do: Nick's told me via email that he's tried to the best of his ability, but that it will be impossible for all upcoming Blu-ray's to be region-free. This got me to thinking about my upcoming Blu-ray player purchase: Will I attempt to get a region-free Blu-ray player? Over the last few days, I've been exploring my region-free options. The Oppo Blu-ray is far too expensive for me, especially since it's not modded without ruining the warranty, and since it's about $500 dollars, that's just too much money for me to spend for something that could possibly break and not be fixed. Then there's the Momitsu, which is fairly priced at $350, but there's also it's clones which, regardless of not being able to decode Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD without a reciever which I don't have, are about $200 dollars cheaper. But still, at that price, it can't be that great of a player and there have been mixed reviews — some say the two clones players (Sherwood BDP-5003 and VisionQuest VQM-1000) are good deals for their price with really good picture quality for both Blu-ray and DVD upscaling, and some say they're wastes of money (although the latter group doesn't really seem to care much about region-free capabilities).

I realize this seems to do less about Masters of Cinema then it does with Blu-ray region-free players, but bear with me. The main reason I would get a region-free Blu-ray player is to continually support Masters of Cinema should they release Region B Blu-rays in the future (I already want to try to pick up their Blu-ray releases barring maybe For All Mankind to this point) and I know many other users here probably feel the same way. It's just that at this point it's really difficult to me to shell out the money for what could be a potentially bad player when I could get a reliable PS3 Slim for a mere $300 and have gaming capabilities as a supplement. Thoughts?

Get the Panasonic BD60 for 200$ and have it modded.

[peerpee]

I've got the Panasonic BD60 with mod and it allows me to play everything, no probs. I'm in the UK and I got it from: http://www.mrmdvd.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[perkizitore]

I've got the Panasonic BD60 with mod and it allows me to play everything, no probs. I'm in the UK and I got it from: http://www.mrmdvd.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Yes, but you can have the Oppo shipped from the US for the same price if the seller agrees to mark it as a gift and low value item.

[Zazou dans le Metro]

I've got the Panasonic BD60 with mod and it allows me to play everything, no probs. I'm in the UK and I got it from: http://www.mrmdvd.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Is it good for SD DVD playback too? I've heard varying reports about standard DVD playback on Blu players. Thanks.

[manicsounds]

Here's a thread on High Def Digest suggesting that the Momitsu and the VisionQuest are the same player.

It seems so, but the clone models are missing some things like the USB port, and some other technical stuff.
Went to another store today, and saw another Momitsu clone, and yet again, can't play a lot of discs that other BD players can.

I guess it's not a big deal since I don't use or have access to BD-Rs and others.

But still, I might not even take the bite now.... BD bonus features are not "Groundbreaking" to me compared to DVD, I still have a SD-TV, and it's costly for now.

Thought "Baraka" on Region-A BD for $13 (at amazon) is incredibly tempting...

[peerpee]

I've got the Panasonic BD60 with mod and it allows me to play everything, no probs. I'm in the UK and I got it from: http://www.mrmdvd.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Is it good for SD DVD playback too? I've heard varying reports about standard DVD playback on Blu players. Thanks.

SD DVD playback is absolutely fine. I don't think you can really go wrong with a massive name like Panasonic, Sony, or Pioneer. I've had my fair share of appalling Philips equipment in the past and vowed never to buy them again, so they're the only really big name I wouldn't ever bother with.

[manicsounds]

No shipping outside the UK....

[fdm]

James, you wouldn't notice much, if any, improvement with 1080p on a 32" LCD.

Okay, cool. I thought so, thanks. (Although, I will obviously notice an improvement from DVD to Blu-ray, right?)

In other news, it appears recent PS3 firmware has made it so that Blu-rays with menus made using the PAL standard don't work. Can anyone confirm this, or has it been fixed?

Thought I'd read that the PS3 was made so it wouldn't play region free (all region) blu-rays, would just play Region A. [But, I read about that a while back, so could be mis-remembering.] I think most Region A players can't play blu-rays with PAL menus at all. (The Oppo might be the only one at this point that can do that out of the box, except obviously the region-free players that have been discussed the past few days.)

(All this talk of region-free blu-ray is really starting to wear away my resistance to getting one (trying to avoid the expense involved of yet another mostly untapped source of films), and the murderous look that will appear in the wife's eyes when another player appears on the rack.. She's gotten pretty good at spotting them. Ah well, hopefully I just talked myself out of it again.)

[MichaelB]

Thought I'd read that the PS3 was made so it wouldn't play region free (all region) blu-rays, would just play Region A. [But, I read about that a while back, so could be mis-remembering.] I think most Region A players can't play blu-rays with PAL menus at all. (The Oppo might be the only one at this point that can do that out of the box, except obviously the region-free players that have been discussed the past few days.)

But European PS3s are completely unfazed by NTSC material - and in any case we're not so much talking PAL and NTSC so much as 576i/p and 480i/p.

Now I can understand why a standard-issue US DVD player can't handle PAL as it has a higher resolution (conversely, most PAL DVD players are perfectly happy with NTSC), but this presumably isn't a problem any more when you move up to hi-def. So are US PS3s being deliberately crippled - and if so, why are European players unaffected?

[fdm]

"I don't believe it affects [US region free discs]. Now, I have not installed firmware upgrades 2.70 and 2.80 on my hardware (and will not), but I assume what is happening here is that whenever a Region-A PS3 encounters PAL content (which is not utilized in North America) you get the error message and cannot access the film/HD content. Prior to firmware upgrades 2.70 and 2.80, the PS3 would simply skip to the HD content/main menu. Once again, since North American Region-Free discs do not have PAL content, ever, this should not be an issue for them." (pro-bassoonist at blu-ray.com)

(I just happened across some active thread apparently a month or two ago, where it was mentioned; pulled the above from their 'Bound' import does not play on US PS3 thread to give an idea of what was going on back then, no idea of whether it's resolved or not. So apparently US 2.60 and earlier firmware was more tolerant of region-free discs with PAL content, 2.70 and after? not as much. [Me, I've been using Panasonic standalones all along.])

[James]

Thanks for the responses. I've found this U.S. site which mods players and apparently offers one year warranties on their products. It looks legitimate and the prices are reasonable. Does anyone here know anything about them?

[George Kaplan]

James,
I don't know anything about the company, Region Code Free DVD, but their prices seem a little high to me.
For example, the Panasonic DMP-BD60K is $200 less from Crutchfield, always a reasonable and reliable retailer in my experience.
I don't know what is required to modify the player, (with my Oppo DVD it was merely entering a code number with the remote to override the lock) but can't imagine it is worth the additional $200.
Good luck with your quest. Curious to hear the outcome as I expect to go down the same path myself at Christmastime.

[peerpee]

The mod on these Panasonics is a physical mod, it requires (I think) soldering. They are more expensive, but they are solid. The price at that US site roughly mirrors the UK place I got mine (which means that it's probably about $50 too expensive, because everything is dearer in the UK).

[James]

James,
I don't know anything about the company, Region Code Free DVD, but their prices seem a little high to me.
For example, the Panasonic DMP-BD60K is $200 less from Crutchfield, always a reasonable and reliable retailer in my experience.
I don't know what is required to modify the player, (with my Oppo DVD it was merely entering a code number with the remote to override the lock) but can't imagine it is worth the additional $200.
Good luck with your quest. Curious to hear the outcome as I expect to go down the same path myself at Christmastime.

Thanks! Yep, the player I'm looking at is about $250 cheaper on Amazon, but on Amazon, it isn't region-free modded, so I would have to buy the chip and then solder it in myself, and I'm not really comfortable doing that.

[George Kaplan]

James, Nick, thank you both for the info. Yes, soldering a chip into a player is not something I would want to do myself either.

[perkizitore]

Thanks for the responses. I've found this U.S. site which mods players and apparently offers one year warranties on their products. It looks legitimate and the prices are reasonable. Does anyone here know anything about them?

Reasonable prices? The charge 450$ for the Panasonic bd30!!! ](*,)
I know the Oppo is expensive if you want to stick to Region 1 only, but you can make it region-free using free firmware.

[James]

Thanks for the responses. I've found this U.S. site which mods players and apparently offers one year warranties on their products. It looks legitimate and the prices are reasonable. Does anyone here know anything about them?

Reasonable prices? The charge 450$ for the Panasonic bd30!!! ](*,)
I know the Oppo is expensive if you want to stick to Region 1 only, but you can make it region-free using free firmware.

And that firmware will probably void after software updates. (And no, getting someone to solder the machine isn't an option, that would put me at about $600, which is way past my price range.)

[perkizitore]

Thanks for the responses. I've found this U.S. site which mods players and apparently offers one year warranties on their products. It looks legitimate and the prices are reasonable. Does anyone here know anything about them?

Reasonable prices? The charge 450$ for the Panasonic bd30!!! ](*,)
I know the Oppo is expensive if you want to stick to Region 1 only, but you can make it region-free using free firmware.

And that firmware will probably void after software updates. (And no, getting someone to solder the machine isn't an option, that would put me at about $600, which is way past my price range.)

You don't need soldiering skills to apply the mod And until a jaw dropping firmware update appears, you will probably can afford 80$ to buy it.
I think we should keep this thread where it belongs.

[fdm]

New PS3 3.0 firmware... among the relevant updates:

PAL error corrected: with firmware versions 2.70 through 2.80, if during BD playback a North American PS3 encountered a section of video encoded in a PAL refresh rate (576i50, 576p50 or 1080i50), it stopped playback, displayed an error message and reverted to the XMB, even if the BD in question was region-free. Now it just skips forward, as it used to do with previous firmware versions.

[Sanjuro]

For fun I did that with your post:

Can I play too?
English-Japanese-English:

Between the capital city where in them the blue light ray is released next before, and with the length which is gone it was supposed because there is everything which appears. Therefore they' The blue light ray for a while between ve which is expected. I' m misunderstanding what kind of you' Re-proverb. Although it translates that again in Czechoslovakia and in English, your post like you because Babelfish which is used is read.

Oh, Blu-Ray discussion? Um...I got one of them Oppo region free jobs. Very nice.

So anyway, the hype on Blu-ray keeps mentioning 'downloadable content' including subtitles. Which for those of us in countries which don't bother with English subs on their DVDs sounds pretty good. I've had to double-dip plenty of times for one version with English subs and another with Japanese - very annoying (and expensive). But has anyone actually tried this? Is it an actuality or is it just "Imagine what we could do if we weren't just focussed on crippling you with DRM" sort of pipedream? And if it is possible but companies don't want to implement it is there a way to exploit it and download 'unofficial content' (like subtitles)?

[manicsounds]

Um...I got one of them Oppo region free jobs. Very nice.

Did you buy the Oppo in Japan or have it imported

[Sanjuro]

Imported. Couldn't find one in Japan.

Seen any about?