remove region codes

[igg]

I have 2 pioneer blu ray/dvd players model bdp-lx70a and model bdp-120, with both of these players originally being able to play discs from other regions, however this has now turned ugly with both players now not playing discs other than region 4 (region B)
Any clues on how to disable this and let both model players become region free blu ray players.

[october262]

have the you recently updated the firmware on both of these players??

[igg]

Yep, and I understand that no updates are available, and I have been in contact with pioneer technical support but they are about as helpfull as a sore bum on a boundry rider (australian term for cowboy) and all I got from them was that pioneer didn't support region free players

[netmask56]

Many models in Oz are region free out of the box for DVD's but not Blue ray. Internet stores like Kogan do stock models that are region free for both mediums.
Of course the rule is never update the firmware.

[hech54]

Yep, and I understand that no updates are available

So what does this mean....did you update them or not?

[igg]

Yes I did upgrade the bdp-lx70a but not the 2nd player with the latest upgrade being around 2012,however it still played discs from.all regions following the upgrade and only ceased playing these discs in the past few months, and with the 2nd player it appears to have stopped playing discs from other regions about the same time, leading me to suspect that perhaps the big guys (disc producers/suppliers) have changed the formatt in the way they put region protection into these DVD/BLU RAYS
I should also mention that it appears to only be happening to discs that I have recently purchased and the players continue to play old purchases from all regions.

[jman98]

I can't completely rule out that there's some kind of new protection on the discs that's screwing you up, but it's a lot more likely that you're leaving out critical information like both players are connected to the internet and they could have updated their own firmware as a result. One thing that you should be aware of is that in the past year or so we've become aware that now BluRay has the ability to restrict playback within its own zone. For example Criterion BluRays produced for sale only in the USA and Canada now refuse to play in other zone A countries. Nobody seems to know how this is done. We've also had reports of various anime BluRays sold in Japan that refuse to play in US zone A BluRay players. My guess is that somehow if the DVD region and BluRay region don't both match what the disc is looking for, for example zone A and DVD region 2 for Japanese BluRays, then the disc won't play. This might be your real problem with BluRays. If you are saying that DVDs are now refusing to play in your player, you're going to have provide more details like specific titles and what region they were manufactured for. Finally, is there any chance you might be buying bootleg discs from shady sellers on Ebay, for example? And are all your problem discs manufactured by Sony or Warner Brothers? That last thing might indicate a Cinavia problem, particularly with bootleg discs.

[igg]

At the risk of repeating myself as I thought I had responded but got it lost somewhere, so here we go again.
Unless Amazon have gone into copying I guess we can rule out the bootleg theory as the 3 discs that are causing grief all came from there, and were all purchased in the last few weeks.
The titles of these 3 blu rays are (1) " CAPTAIN PHILLIPS" zone A, Sony (2) "THE MONUMENTS MEN" zone A,Sony and (3) " PHILOMENA zone A, and shows as the Weinstein Company/Anchor Bay with this blu ray coming up as zone free when hooked up to a program called "Any Dvd Slyfox"
And neither player have ever been hooked up to a computer, or internet, with neither player hooked up to a smart tv,and the only upgrades that have been applied were to the bdp-lx70a and these upgrades were carried out by using a disc supplied and sent to me by Pioneer

[Noahtuck]

At the risk of repeating myself as I thought I had responded but got it lost somewhere, so here we go again.
Unless Amazon have gone into copying I guess we can rule out the bootleg theory as the 3 discs that are causing grief all came from there, and were all purchased in the last few weeks.

Even though some seasoned members here do not seem to understand the difference, even though you bought something off the "Amazon" website, it does not mean you actually bought it FROM amazon!!!!!!
Amazon's majority of sales come from outside sources and people listing things for sale on their website!!!
It is basically an open market.

You, I, or anyone else can make an account and post things for sale on amazon's website.

[igg]

Many models in Oz are region free out of the box for DVD's but not Blue ray. Internet stores like Kogan do stock models that are region free for both mediums.
f course the rule is never update the firmware.

The problem with that is the purpose of the upgrades that were applied to my player was to enable the newest films to be watched, as prior to the upgrades some blu rays would not play on the player.
With regard to Kogan players I guess you would agree that there is a fair difference in quality between a Pioneer BDP-LX70 A which sold for above $1200 and a Kogan model?

[igg]

At the risk of repeating myself as I thought I had responded but got it lost somewhere, so here we go again.
Unless Amazon have gone into copying I guess we can rule out the bootleg theory as the 3 discs that are causing grief all came from there, and were all purchased in the last few weeks.

Even though some seasoned members here do not seem to understand the difference, even though you bought something off the "Amazon" website, it does not mean you actually bought it FROM amazon!!!!!!
Amazon's majority of sales come from outside sources and people listing things for sale on their website!!!
It is basically an open market.

You, I, or anyone else can make an account and post things for sale on amazon's website.

Hang on all purchases I make from Amazon ARE SALES BY AMAZON and shipped and sold by Amazon from their warehouses

[Noahtuck]

Well when I do a search on Amazon for anything and a bunch of results come up, most of them are NOT from some Amazon warehouse!!!
People just do not pay attention and think when they see 20 different results from amazon with different prices it is from amazon......
Ummm.... think about it.....

Maybe the rest of the world see's a different amazon than I have for years.....
LOL!!

[igg]

Well when I do a search on Amazon for anything and a bunch of results come up, most of them are NOT from some Amazon warehouse!!!
People just do not pay attention and think when they see 20 different results from amazon with different prices it is from amazon......
Ummm.... think about it.....

Maybe the rest of the world see's a different amazon than I have for years.....

LOL!!

I guess I must be one of those that see Amazon in a different world as I have made many many buys from them over the past few years, and have absolutely not had a single problem in the way they conduct their business, in fact I would go as far as to say that without doubt the are the most trusted online shop that I deal with.
And I always buy products from them that are sold and shipped by Amazon even when their price may be marginally higher than other Amazon sellers.
But this is a video help forum and not a shopping forum so lets stick to what this forum is designed for.

[igg]

I can't completely rule out that there's some kind of new protection on the discs that's screwing you up, but it's a lot more likely that you're leaving out critical information like both players are connected to the internet and they could have updated their own firmware as a result. One thing that you should be aware of is that in the past year or so we've become aware that now BluRay has the ability to restrict playback within its own zone. For example Criterion BluRays produced for sale only in the USA and Canada now refuse to play in other zone A countries. Nobody seems to know how this is done. We've also had reports of various anime BluRays sold in Japan that refuse to play in US zone A BluRay players. My guess is that somehow if the DVD region and BluRay region don't both match what the disc is looking for, for example zone A and DVD region 2 for Japanese BluRays, then the disc won't play. This might be your real problem with BluRays. If you are saying that DVDs are now refusing to play in your player, you're going to have provide more details like specific titles and what region they were manufactured for. Finally, is there any chance you might be buying bootleg discs from shady sellers on Ebay, for example? And are all your problem discs manufactured by Sony or Warner Brothers? That last thing might indicate a Cinavia problem, particularly with bootleg discs.

Just a further thought in regard to bootleg copies, I was under the impression (impression gathered from experience in using a program called "anydvd") that a copied disc automatically has the region zone removed in the encryption process, which would result in bootleg copies being able to be played on players from any zone?

[netmask56]

I have heard that some discs "expect" to see a particular region so that in the presence of a no region code disc it won't play, but I'm not sure if this is an urban myth. I have a Pioneer BDP-150 and a Soniq BD player, neither have been updated and they play everything as far as DVD's and BD's, both are connected to my network and therefor to the Internet. In the case of the Soniq you can manually switch Zones whilst the DVD side is region free.

Check with JBHiFi where I bought my Pioneer; even years ago I had a Samsung BD player direct from the Samsung shops they had back then and they gave me the region free code on a printed form for DVD's. Remember in Australia the ACCC brought down a ruling that region coding was uncompetitive and therefore in breach of the competition law, whilst at the same time federal law allows it...

Last year I bought another Pioneer for a friend BDP 160 and asked the salesperson that I wanted it to be DVD region free "out of the box" and she obliged.

I routinely copy all of my DVD's and Blu ray discs to my network player (Popcorn C200) and haven't had any problems I really can't cope with watching upteen warnings about copyright and trailers for movies I will never watch before it gets to the main movie.

I use MakeMKV

[igg]

I have heard that some discs "expect" to see a particular region so that in the presence of a no region code disc it won't play, but I'm not sure if this is an urban myth. I have a Pioneer BDP-150 and a Soniq BD player, neither have been updated and they play everything as far as DVD's and BD's, both are connected to my network and therefor to the Internet. In the case of the Soniq you can manually switch Zones whilst the DVD side is region free.

Check with JBHiFi where I bought my Pioneer; even years ago I had a Samsung BD player direct from the Samsung shops they had back then and they gave me the region free code on a printed form for DVD's. Remember in Australia the ACCC brought down a ruling that region coding was uncompetitive and therefore in breach of the competition law, whilst at the same time federal law allows it...

Last year I bought another Pioneer for a friend BDP 160 and asked the salesperson that I wanted it to be DVD region free "out of the box" and she obliged.

I routinely copy all of my DVD's and Blu ray discs to my network player (Popcorn C200) and haven't had any problems I really can't cope with watching upteen warnings about copyright and trailers for movies I will never watch before it gets to the main movie.

I use MakeMKV

Thanks for that, I know a guy at harvey norman (hardly normal) so I'll sus him out other wise I'll try jb hi fi.
I feel the same about watching trailors and whats coming on discs so I rip them to a harddrive using slyfox and then watch them via a W.D media player with the video quality being as good as watching a blu ray disc played back on a ultra expensive pioneer player, but with one drawback and that is that the media player for some reason doesn't playback dts quality on the surround sound, however the sound is still pretty amazing.

[october262]

I can't completely rule out that there's some kind of new protection on the discs that's screwing you up, but it's a lot more likely that you're leaving out critical information like both players are connected to the internet and they could have updated their own firmware as a result. One thing that you should be aware of is that in the past year or so we've become aware that now BluRay has the ability to restrict playback within its own zone. For example Criterion BluRays produced for sale only in the USA and Canada now refuse to play in other zone A countries. Nobody seems to know how this is done. We've also had reports of various anime BluRays sold in Japan that refuse to play in US zone A BluRay players. My guess is that somehow if the DVD region and BluRay region don't both match what the disc is looking for, for example zone A and DVD region 2 for Japanese BluRays, then the disc won't play. This might be your real problem with BluRays. If you are saying that DVDs are now refusing to play in your player, you're going to have provide more details like specific titles and what region they were manufactured for. Finally, is there any chance you might be buying bootleg discs from shady sellers on Ebay, for example? And are all your problem discs manufactured by Sony or Warner Brothers? That last thing might indicate a Cinavia problem, particularly with bootleg discs.

Just a further thought in regard to bootleg copies, I was under the impression (impression gathered from experience in using a program called "anydvd") that a copied disc automatically has the region zone removed in the encryption process, which would result in bootleg copies being able to be played on players from any zone?

the disc might be region free but it could be a pal / ntsc issue and weather your tv and or player
can play and display the image properly.

[netmask56]

I doubt if there would be a TV left in Australia that is not NTSC/PAL compatible except for maybe a few old crt 4:3 that might be around. The uptake of flat screens has been very high and especially with the end of analog broadcasts. Even my last CRT a Nordmende was NTSC/SECAM/PAL compatible and every DVD player I've ever had was compatible.

I think the easiest way for the OP to play the contents of these disc is to transfer them to MKV using MakeMKV https://www.videohelp.com/tools/MakeMKV whilst he searches for a solution for his player. MakeMKV doesn't re-encode or shrink just puts the contents of the main movie if that's what you select in a MKV container

[igg]

I doubt if there would be a TV left in Australia that is not NTSC/PAL compatible except for maybe a few old crt 4:3 that might be around. The uptake of flat screens has been very high and especially with the end of analog broadcasts. Even my last CRT a Nordmende was NTSC/SECAM/PAL compatible and every DVD player I've ever had was compatible.

I think the easiest way for the OP to play the contents of these disc is to transfer them to MKV using MakeMKV https://www.videohelp.com/tools/MakeMKV whilst he searches for a solution for his player. MakeMKV doesn't re-encode or shrink just puts the contents of the main movie if that's what you select in a MKV container

I'm not that into needing to stuff around with altering the original format the disc came in but just interested in a method of making my players able to play discs from whatever regions from wherever I get them from, and that is a way of telling Sony or whoever the rip off's are to be honest in the way they market their goods

[jman98]

This is a bit complicated. The reason I asked about bootlegs is NOT at all because they might have region codes. It's because if you bought Sony discs, and you did in 2 of the 3 cases, they probably have Cinavia. Bootlegs will not be able to remove Cinavia. No offense, but you're new here and newbies sometimes do a very poor job of describing their problems in a good way. I can't rule out that your real problem is Cinavia related. Nothing can remove Cinavia at this time.

I'd also look into the possibility that, as I mentioned already, these discs are using that crazy copy protection thing where they only play for certain countries within a zone. Changing your players to be region 1 for DVD and zone A at the same time may enable these discs to play, but as this type of playback restriction is not well known at present, I don't know exactly how it works or if it can be removed at all via ripping. I am just making an educated guess on what might work on your players to get them to play the discs.

Sony is pretty consumer hostile and the only sure way to play their stuff is to buy official releases in your zone/region and play those.

[october262]

also what brand of recordable discs do you use?? you might have a bad batch.

[igg]

This is a bit complicated. The reason I asked about bootlegs is NOT at all because they might have region codes. It's because if you bought Sony discs, and you did in 2 of the 3 cases, they probably have Cinavia. Bootlegs will not be able to remove Cinavia. No offense, but you're new here and newbies sometimes do a very poor job of describing their problems in a good way. I can't rule out that your real problem is Cinavia related. Nothing can remove Cinavia at this time.

I'd also look into the possibility that, as I mentioned already, these discs are using that crazy copy protection thing where they only play for certain countries within a zone. Changing your players to be region 1 for DVD and zone A at the same time may enable these discs to play, but as this type of playback restriction is not well known at present, I don't know exactly how it works or if it can be removed at all via ripping. I am just making an educated guess on what might work on your players to get them to play the discs.

Sony is pretty consumer hostile and the only sure way to play their stuff is to buy official releases in your zone/region and play those.

No offence taken, however even for a newbie or indeed someone with far more experience I'm giving all the facts without much positive stuff coming back, as every query that has been presented to me has been put to rest.
With regard to bootlegs of Cinavia positive discs, I put your theory to the test and ripped a copy to a hard drive of one of these no play sony discs using "slyfox h.d" then burnt it to a Verbatin BD-R DL 50GB disc using "ImgBurn", I was then able to play this copy on both of my pioneer players (I haven't yet played them right through)so perhaps that further throws the cat in amongst the canaries with regard to Cinavia discs not allowing fegion zones to be removed or perhaps we are barking up the wrong tree with the whole issue and need to step outside the circle in solving my problem

[netmask56]

In my next order to Amazon I will include Philomena which is one of yours that has difficulties and see if I have the same problem - always going to get it so it will be an interesting exercise. As I mentioned I rarely use my standalone players much prefer a media player convenience. It means I can play a DVD in the living room/home theatre or from the comfort of my bed... I might be ancient but I love new technology

[igg]

In my next order to Amazon I will include Philomena which is one of yours that has difficulties and see if I have the same problem - always going to get it so it will be an interesting exercise. As I mentioned I rarely use my standalone players much prefer a media player convenience. It means I can play a DVD in the living room/home theatre or from the comfort of my bed... I might be ancient but I love new technology

I've already ripped mine to hard drive and it plays back as expected, so even if it wont play on your players you will have the ability to watch it on your media player and if you then buy some blank blu ray discs (I get mine from Japan at half the cost of local rip offs) and download a program called Imgburn you could then burn your ripped image to disc, and that way your doing away with all the ads and trailors etc and what you get on disc is the same as you have ripped to watch on your media player with one advantage in that you get dts full surround sound.
And I too am an ancient but love knew technology, and like to serve it right up to the young smart axxsxs