Region-free Blu-Ray — Page 2

Jay said:

Mike O said:

What's a good home theater-based forum?

http://www.avsforum.com/

Went there, but when I posted, I evidently came across as an idiot because my reception was a bit chilly :P.

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/hardwarereviews/momitsu_bdp-899.htm

This is what DVDbeaver used but it looks like it had a firmware upgrade that removed the region free option. There was a US clone player but that's out of stock as well.

digitalfreaknyc said:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olstemplatemapper.jsp?id=pcat17080&type=page&qp=cabcat0100000%23%230%23%23wv~~cabcat0102000%23%230%23%2322~~q466173746c696d69747067735f3936~~nf398%7C%7C496e7369676e696126233135333b&list=y&nrp=15&sc=TVVideoSP&sp=%2Bbrand+skuid&usc=abcat0100000

I believe any of those will do. Definitely DVD2/DVD4

Maybe, and those are great deals, but I'm looking to be able to put any damn thing in the player and run it. So far my Phillips does that for DVD and VCD, but obviously not BR.

digitalfreaknyc said:

 

Mike O said:

digitalfreaknyc said:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olstemplatemapper.jsp?id=pcat17080&type=page&qp=cabcat0100000%23%230%23%23wv~~cabcat0102000%23%230%23%2322~~q466173746c696d69747067735f3936~~nf398%7C%7C496e7369676e696126233135333b&list=y&nrp=15&sc=TVVideoSP&sp=%2Bbrand+skuid&usc=abcat0100000" target="_blank" title="www.bestbuy.com/site/olstemplatemapper.jsp?id=pcat17080&type=page&qp=cabcat0100000%23%230%23%23wv~~cabcat0102000%23%230%23%2322~~q466173746c696d69747067735f3936~~nf398%7C%7C496e7369676e696126233135333b&list=y&nrp=15&sc=TVVideoSP&sp=%2Bbrand+skuid&usc=abcat0100000">http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olstemplatemapper.jsp?id=pcat17080&type=page&qp=cabcat0100000%23%230%23%23wv~~cabcat0102000%23%230%23%2322~~q466173746c696d69747067735f3936~~nf398%7C%7C496e7369676e696126233135333b&list=y&nrp=15&sc=TVVideoSP&sp=%2Bbrand+skuid&usc=abcat0100000

I believe any of those will do. Definitely DVD2/DVD4

Maybe, and those are great deals, but I'm looking to be able to put any damn thing in the player and run it. So far my Phillips does that for DVD and VCD, but obviously not BR.

I doubt you're going to find ONE player that will play EVERYTHING, as well as being region-free.

 

Well, I think that the Oppo obviously will, but this looks like a tricky thing to navigate. I've found some reasonably priced ABC Region-Free Blu-Ray players on eBay, but whether they'll play VCDs, etc., I doubt and they probably wouldn't stream either, meaning I'd had to buy a Roku box or something, which means that when all is said and done, I'd have to spend a fair bit anyway. This is obviously a very complex thing, apparently after how easy making a DVD player go free was, they've made it so. There's evidently no easy answer. Sigh. 

Okay, so I've thought that buying that Oppo and the mod would most likely be pointless at this juncture (I would kind of like to build a quality inexpensive home theater for myself, but my guess would be a contradiction of terms). So I gave eBay a look and came across a few things, but what stuck out to me was this. It looks way too good to be true; 200 bucks for a play-all machine with 1080p, but the 99.6 approval rating rings bells for me. I'd really like to have streaming and be able to play my VCDs, so that naturally means I'd have to pay more....

My wonderful Phillips DVP-5982 has just died on me. I've tried getting a cleaner, and still no luck. I think it's permanently dead. As pretty much all noteworthy special features have moved to Blu-Ray, I've been dragging my feet about the changeover, but now I'm apparently going to have no choice but to switch over.

Unfortunately, there's a rather significant stumbling block in the form of region-coding. Whereas my wonderful little Phillips player could be unlocked with a few keystrokes, evidently the manufacturers of Blu-Ray caught onto this and have made it considerably more difficult to unlock BR players. Apparently, it requires some actual physical modding which generally has to be done by a third party. I'd rather do it myself, but apparently that is quite difficult. Thinking of looking at eBay, but there're so many choices, I don't know where to start! There is, of course, the famed Oppo BDP-93, but it's a $500 player with $150+ mod!

A bit of an explanation, this is unbelivably long-winded, so if anyone gets to the end of this post, they deserve a medal. I mean, my initial thought was to buy a mid-range player (I work at Meijer and can get a 10% discount, but we mostly have mid-range stuff at best, sadly.), but I then discovered that unlike DVD, BR can't simply be hacked with the remote. Since I still have a CRT TV with a coax connector, so it seems like a bit of overkill, but but every special feature worth a damn seems to have moved to BR. I've thought about buying something pretty good to prepare for the future, but apparently region-free BR is pricey. Then there's the world now. I'd like to be able to do stuff like stream YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, etc. but that's not essential, plus I have my computer for it, or if need be, I can buy a Roku box or something.

I'd have to imagine that pretty much all BR players come with HDMI hookups and will upscale DVDs and have 1080p at this point. I have no interest in 3-D (though I have a sinking feel the industry will attempt to force my hand on that count), but I would like to be able to connect wireless for what are apparently nifty features. I have a few VCDs and a number of multi-region DVDs I'd like to play, and I'd like to be ready for multi-region Blu as well.

I live with my parents at the moment, though of course that could be changing soon. I've always thought of building some some small home theater, the problem is location. I tend to watch my DVDs on bed in my room, where there's no room for surround sound and such. I could always set up a proper HT in the basement and just get a nice LCD TV and stereo for my room, but any level of HT is expensive, and I'm notoriously frugal even with a significant amount of money saved up... I also have an irritating Aspergers-inflected tendency to research the living hell out things before I buy them in an attempt to balance money and quality. Anyway...

I'd consider anything over the $200 mark a bit pricey,
I'd probably go up to about $300, but I don't know if I can get anything decent enough in that range. Admittedly, now DVD players are cheap and Blu-Ray players are getting cheaper (I work at a Meier where we have DVD players at ridiculously low prices, but if you're looking for something region-free, then you can't just grab whatever.). I WAS going to buy a BR player and put my old one down in the basement when I never had one, but so much for THAT plan....

I thought the thread title was "Religion-free Blu-Ray". I was wondering how that would work.

Right now I'm just praying that I can figure this out so I can watch movies in my bedroom again :p.

Mike O said:

Right now I'm just praying that I can figure this out so I can watch movies in my bedroom again :p.

I know this is a really, REALLY stupid question, but...ummm.......

Why don't you just watch Blu-rays from your own region?

I will, but I have a number of DVDs from other regions and I'd like to be prepared if I want some BR from them as well. 

See if you can find a small cheap ($30) DVD-only player from Wal-Mart that's region free.

georgec said:

I thought the thread title was "Religion-free Blu-Ray". I was wondering how that would work.

I was just about to post that every time I see this thread, I think that for a second.

Erikstormtrooper said:

See if you can find a small cheap ($30) DVD-only player from Wal-Mart that's region free.

I can do that, but it's a short term solution, I'd like to affect a more lasting solution, plus all of the damn bonus material is on BR now.

What about a modded OPPO? Those seem to be available.

You mean OTTO? We have a thread for that.

Apparently various players upscale better than other depending on graphic chips, thus explaining why the PS3 does it well. More research :-p.

Wound up getting a Westinghouse HDTV on sale at Best Buy and a Sony BDP S 3100 modded on eBay for the region-free player. Nothing impressive, but it does the job. I got the Disney World of Wonder disc to calibrate, and I'm apparently such a Luddite that I can't even use that, my eyes aren't quite sharp enough to discern many of the differences. And I wanted an Oppo and Panasonic.

I'd have like to get the Oppo BD player, a Panasonic plasma (an option now closed, maybe I could get a Samsung, but good lord are they expensive), and whatever badass speakers and receivers are available. I was thinking Bose, by I'm told they aren't worth the asking price. Apparently there other more worthy choices. This is all idle speculation though because of the money issues. My life is such a mess, but this thread is about Blu-Ray, not therapy :p.