Bluray players

multiweb (Marc) · #1 28-11-2010, 07:03 PM

Just a quick note that might help you when you purchase a bluray player.
I got a Samsung BD-C5900. Those players are quite popular. Australia is region 4 for DVD playback and Zone B for BD playback.

Most players will support a firmware switch to play DVD from regions 1,2,3,4,5 & 6 making the player region free. This will not work for BD playback. Zone free BD playback is a hardware change. It will cost more or less depending on the brand and model of the player to be moded.

There are also a couple of companies selling zone free BD players (A+B+C), mostly US and some will ship to Oz or advertise on eBay in Australia with free shipping. The manufacturers will obviously not provide zone free players or they will lose their bluray licence.

Just something to be aware off. I bought a set last month of zone A BD on amazon and I could not play them.

supernova1965 (Warren) · #2 28-11-2010, 07:08 PM

Of course you could always get a Playstation 3 and have fun as well

multiweb (Marc) · #3 28-11-2010, 07:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by supernova1965

Of course you could always get a Playstation 3 and have fun as well

It's locked to region B wich is Australia so you won't play US title either region A. tried that first

tlgerdes (Trevor) · #4 28-11-2010, 09:42 PM

And they wonder why people download illegally from the Internet

multiweb (Marc) · #5 28-11-2010, 09:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tlgerdes

And they wonder why people download illegally from the Internet

Well I got pretty peed off when I couldn't play this BD set yeah. Not sure what the zoning is meant to achieve. Money revenue?.. I mean does it matter where you download paid content from? If they sell A BD titles on amazon and accept shipping to Australia it'd be fair to assume you can play it in some way no? All those restrictions on legit stuff is what prompts consumers to circumvent the rules in the end.

acropolite (Phil) · #6 28-11-2010, 10:04 PM

Quote:

Not sure what the zoning is meant to achieve.

You're on the money when you mention money, with regionalised players they effectively prevent you from buying overseas at cheaper prices. I seem to remember that the ACCC had something to say about the practice, deeming it "anti-competative".

I'm not sure whether it is still the case but Pioneer always supplied their DVD players to Australia with multi region capability, not sure if the same applies to their Blu-Ray Players.

multiweb (Marc) · #7 28-11-2010, 10:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by acropolite

You're on the money when you mention money, with regionalised players they effectively prevent you from buying overseas at cheaper prices. I seem to remember that the ACCC had something to say about the practice, deeming it "anti-competative".

I'm not sure whether it is still the case but Pioneer always supplied their DVD players to Australia with multi region capability, not sure if the same applies to their Blu-Ray Players.

Yes. I've never had any problem in the past with DVD regions. It is quite easy to make any kind of player zone free be it standalone or PC based. The bluray zoning is another beast apparently. I bought the Avatar Collectors Edition on Amazon. They had a sale 20 odd bucks + shipping. Got them delivered, played the main feature no problem. Disc 2 and 3 (the making off) poped up as "You are trying to play a type A BD on a Type B player". Same message on the PS3. So... mixed regions in the set?

Yeah right - methinks something's fishy.

When I told amazon on live chat they kept on saying to contact the manufacturer

...funny (not!)

multiweb (Marc) · #8 10-12-2010, 12:17 PM

Got my Bluray player yesterday. Multiregion for DVD and multizone for BD. Works a treat. The Zone switch is triggered with the player power off by clicking 1 for A or 2 for B&C on the remote control, then power as usual. The hardware was heavily modified. Looks more like two players in one but it works a treat... and still can get firmware updates online. Last night I was able to keep watching the making of avatar set. Very cool.

BLiTZWiNG (Trent) · #9 10-12-2010, 12:25 PM

You'll probably find it comes down to licensing of some part of the movie. From my experience in programming software and games, you get quite specific licenses for regions, and a region free license can be hugely expensive, so to save money they opt to only release in specific areas. Having their product sold outside that region could incur legal battles.

Personally I think it sucks, but some greedy people like to sell their licenses this way. Ascender corp is the one I have personal experience with. They make all the fonts used by Microsoft in Windows. I wanted to license a font from them and to do that region free would have cost me close to an entire years wage. I could significantly reduce that cost if I limited myself to a 1 year, single region license, but it was still costly. I just got a free font after that.

Barrykgerdes · #10 10-12-2010, 12:27 PM

I see JB Hifi has Blueray players fo $99 (Sonic)

I don't know if they are any good or not but I might get one to try out.

Also Aldi has 60 cm (23 inch) LCD TV's full Hd 1920 x 1080 with DVD player for $299 from 16/12/2010

Barry

multiweb (Marc) · #11 11-12-2010, 01:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Barrykgerdes

I see JB Hifi has Blueray players fo $99 (Sonic)

I don't if they are any good or not but I might get one to try out.

Also Aldi has 60 cm (23 inch) LCD TV's full Hd 1920 x 1080 with DVD player for $299 from 16/12/2010

Barry

In my case the player had to be 3D. True you can pick very cheap bluray players now, they're fairly common.

ZeroID (Brent) · #12 12-12-2010, 05:42 AM

Got a PS3 and we've ordered stuff from Amazon UK and played it ok. Nice thing about PS3 is it's firmware upgradeable so it will do 3D without any hardware changes required. But not had any regional issues as yet and haven't got a 3D TV either so it's untested.

Have you also noticed that the 3D TV marketing hype seems to have died down ? I think a lack of 3D titles and some standards problems ( remember VHS vs Beta ? ) is slowing uptake by the consumer.

multiweb (Marc) · #13 12-12-2010, 09:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZeroID

Got a PS3 and we've ordered stuff from Amazon UK and played it ok. Nice thing about PS3 is it's firmware upgradeable so it will do 3D without any hardware changes required. But not had any regional issues as yet and haven't got a 3D TV either so it's untested.

Have you also noticed that the 3D TV marketing hype seems to have died down ? I think a lack of 3D titles and some standards problems ( remember VHS vs Beta ? ) is slowing uptake by the consumer.

PS3 bought in Oz is locked to zone B which is the same as UK that's why you can play european titles. US is zone A. I couldn't play my Avatar set on the PS3 either.

I haven't watched any true 3D titles yet. I'm supposed to get 4 coming very soon now with the promo redemption so I'll report then but the 2D->3D conversion is pretty cool as it is. PS3 in 3D gaming mode is awesome though. Especialy one person shoot up games. Real depth to it.

jenchris (Jennifer) · #14 12-12-2010, 10:12 AM

I use DVD Fab to dezone my foreign DVDs - and make them into div x -mpeg4 or whatever
I'm sure they have a prog to make bluray disks zone free too, but the blank media is pricey ATM - However if you play from a PC as I do, then it doesn't matter.
It's shakey ground to zone stuff and I doubt it will be long before it is disallowed.

RickS (Rick) · #15 12-12-2010, 12:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jenchris

It's shakey ground to zone stuff and I doubt it will be long before it is disallowed.

That'd be nice, but in a world where they change copyright law at the behest of Disney it seems unlikely.

mill (Martin) · #16 12-12-2010, 01:45 PM

Just buy a Soniq QPB302b with the 5B/C firmware and you can change the zones.
Look at JB hifi on the box and get one that is P36TF5Bxxxx or 5C not one that is P36TF5Axxxx.
Then after switching the unit on press setup button
press 8520
in the DVD code window
select region 0 (This will make it a region free DVD player)
in the blu code window
enter a 1. (This will allow it to play region A blu's. 1=A, 2=B, 3=C.)

These players can also be used as an media player and are approx $98.00

Hope this helps

PS: Do not upgrade the firmware because the new firmware will lock the zones in BD (but not for normal DVD's).

Jen · #17 12-12-2010, 03:12 PM

I have had a blueray DVD player for two years now and i still havnt played a blueray DVD on it yet I just use normal DVD's

multiweb (Marc) · #18 12-12-2010, 04:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jenchris

I use DVD Fab to dezone my foreign DVDs - and make them into div x -mpeg4 or whatever

PC based bluray is easy but I don't feel like spending 45min to rip a BD and another hour to encode it back and burn it. DVDs were easy: 30min tops then 5-10min to burn 4.5GB or so. BD are way too big.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mill

Do not upgrade the firmware because the new firmware will lock the zones in BD (but not for normal DVD's).

That's a show stopper here IMHO. The BD Zoning is hardware based from my understanding. Firmware hacks will give you region free for DVD very easily for any player. BD not so. Not at this stage anyway but they always come up with something down the road.

mill (Martin) · #19 12-12-2010, 07:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by multiweb

That's a show stopper here IMHO. The BD Zoning is hardware based from my understanding. Firmware hacks will give you region free for DVD very easily for any player. BD not so. Not at this stage anyway but they always come up with something down the road.

There is not any hacked firmware in these players, they have the original firmware in the player.
I am only warning to not upgrade the firmware, because it will take the BD zone swapping out.
The DVD region can be changed with the original firmware and also with the newer firmware (both from Soniq).

multiweb (Marc) · #20 13-12-2010, 08:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mill

There is not any hacked firmware in these players, they have the original firmware in the player.
I am only warning to not upgrade the firmware, because it will take the BD zone swapping out.
The DVD region can be changed with the original firmware and also with the newer firmware (both from Soniq).

When I said 'hacked' it was a poor choice of word. The firmware is still the original but by entering a series of key strokes via the hand controller you can change the regions. I wasn't aware Soniq could do the BD zones as well via firmware only. My new bluray player has an extra chip inside to swap the zoning and it has two separate firmwares so I had to update twice (A then B&C).