Criterion Blu-ray

[Westwood]

The only discs I haven't tried is Criterion and Miramax. Will be able to try next week. I am not optimistic though.

[Lowry_Sam]

I have a Panasonic & it seems that more (region B) discs are starting to not work. One other thing to try is selecting a number (track #?) before the disc even loads & hitting ok. Occassionally you can get it to register before the player reads the disc.

[Bürgermeister]

I don't think you have to have a worldwide licence to make a disc region free. Some licencors insist on region locking, some do not. Often even when it's the latter, you get distributors in other territories complaining to the licencors about region free discs being available elsewhere, asking them to intervene. Unlike BFI/MoC/Arrow though, Criterion seem to have a flat Region A policy, even when it is not required. It's probably down to them wanting to keep things simple and straightforward for customers.

That said, I have not encountered a single 2012 or 2013 released Criterion disc that did not work on my Region B player using the STOP>MENU trick. They used to block this out on some of their earlier discs, off the top of my head, Gomorrah is one that I know does not work (Leon Morin might be another one) but the vast majority of discs do work, and as I said, of the 60 or so 2012/2013 Criterion discs I have, all of them work no problem on my Region B player. I'd guarantee Grey Gardens will as well.

Leon, Morin does work with the menu trick.
The period of the trick not working at all seems to go from June 2009 to June 2010. Then everything from June 2010 to now the trick works. With some early 2009 working but no longer working. At least with me.

Chungking Express you can't press stop at all it just says "invalid action". 400 Blows, Seventh Seal, Wages of Fear the trick worked with those. When I tried them the other month the trick no longer worked. :-k

[Westwood]

OMK! I'm so happy! Today I had to buy a new HDD DVD recorder (actually now it's a BR recorder as well) from Panasonic (DMR-BCT730EG), and although I am having a bit of a problem with the tuning (and actually I saw combing on the first dvd I popped in, but could be a bad DVD from Entertainment In Video), I tried to see if it would play a Region 1 DVD (The Nun's Story) and it does! I was like, wow, that's nice!
So then while trying the discs I got from amazon today, I remembered "hey, got a new BR player, let's try the tip from the Criterion forum with the stop while in error mode and press Menu" and it freaking WORKS!!!!! Yay! I am beyond happy! I can finally play EVERYTHING I want. Starting with "Lonesome" which was my first and only Criterion BluRay. Awww thanks guys, I'm so happy, really.

Correction: Plays Criterion discs but not Lionsgate. Oh well, can't have everything.

[EddieLarkin]

Happy to hear it works for you!

As I mentioned above, Lionsgate are one of the labels this doesn't work on. Olive too, and I think Synapse and Shout Factory. Criterion are basically the only Region A label that it consistently works for.

[Westwood]

Shout Factory are already doing BluRays? Ok thanks for the tip.
I still need to test Heathers (the version that is region-locked) and Showgirls.

[Bürgermeister]

Heres another trick for you to try. When you get the error message, go back to the player screen and press a number on your control then "enter" it should take you to the disc menu.

[Westwood]

Heres another trick for you to try. When you get the error message, go back to the player screen and press a number on your control then "enter" it should take you to the disc menu.

It usually doesn't work because for the discs where the Stop button doens't work, no button works at all. But I'll try anyway just in case.

I can also happily report the "Menu" trick works on my Panasonic also on Image BluRays, but definitely not on the MGM/Fox BluRays.
Is that MGM BluRays or 20th Century Fox BluRays (Showgirls XV Anniversary Edition)?