Blu Ray Region Advice

[Gregbert]

Hello,

I live in the US and would like a Blu Ray player that I can view Blue ray discs from the US and mainly from the UK. Are there any options for me?

What has everyone else been doing?

[rhegedus]

Either watch region B disks that are region free http://bluray.liesinc.net/index.php?region=b or buy a Blu-Ray burner and rip the disks using AnyDVDHD to remove the region code and burn back to a 50GB BD-RE disk for viewing in your player.

[OzzyDownunder]

Hello,
Have a look at this Link. There are a lot of Blue Ray which are Region Free. You can purchase the Blue Ray without ripping and reburn as the blank disc cost nearly the same as the original.

http://www.blurayregioncodes.com/index.php?region=b

______________________
Hope this helps?
OzzyDownunder

[jman98]

The ONLY currently sold BluRay player that is known to be able to play BluRay discs from all regions is the Momitsu BDP-899.
http://www.hkflix.com
sells it as do a few other places. It is also an all region DVD player.

Many foreign BluRay discs are released region free, but region B only BluRay discs have been reported. It's a little harder to get information on region C only discs, but they may also exist. Note that some region B discs are mastered as 1080i 25 fps video and such discs may not play correctly on the Momitsu player. Supplemental material in PAL resolution (720x576) on BluRay discs may not play at all on the Momitsu. The manual warns about this. Caveat emptor if you want to buy region B BluRay discs.

[NicholasB]

jman98,

There is a review on dvdbeaver( http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/hardwarereviews/momitsu_bdp-899.htm ) that suggests that the player was modified by HKFlix if you look next to the HKFlix logo a little bit down. So the manual says that it can't play PAL disc's because that is probably how it was manufactured. If you scroll down to "INPUT" toward the bottom of the link you will see that it has been confirmed to play PAL extras fine. The only question that remains is PAL blu ray's that are at 1080i at 50 fps. These are rare at this point, but there may be many many more in a couple of years.

I'm still debating what to do about a region free blu ray player. Have you had any bugs, quirks or issues from the Momitsu since you last posted a couple months ago?

- Nick

[NicholasB]

There are two options at this point to get into region free blu ray.

1. As mentioned above, the Momitsu for $350 will play any blu ray or region free dvd (except maybe a 1080i50 blu ray?). It is reported and having okay blu-ray video ( some issues with a 1080i source, cartoonish colors a slightly less detail that the Panasonic http://www.blu-raydefinition.com/hardware/momitsu-bdp-899-region-free-blu-ray-player-review.html) and quite good dvd upconversion.

2. The Oppo blu ray player for $500. The Oppo is region 1 for dvd and region a for blu-ray only, but will do PAL conversion (it was confirmed to do any PAL conversion, even 1080i50 blu-ray's). There are two options to get around this:

(a) You would have to remove the region encoding and burn a new dvd or blu ray. This would require a blu-ray burner and some software which would run around $250 to $300 total.

(b) I'm guessing that companies like HKFlix will modify the Oppo to make it region free. This will run at probably a $300 premium if you look at the price of the modified Panasonic DMP-BD35 ( http://www.hkflix.com/hardware/xq/asp/pid.168/qx/details.htm ). This puts the player at around $800. This is expensive, but a bargain considering that it can go head to head with $2000 and $3000 players in all aspects.



I'm still waiting to see if HKFlix will be able to make the Oppo player region free and cheaper than $800. Closer to $600 or $700 total would be nice but I think that I am dreaming. The Oppo is a perfect player except that it is region a/1 locked. I need a nice dvd upconverter as well which is why I want the Oppo to work out so badly. Since the Oppo blu-ray is now arriving for those that signed up to get the first arrivals, we should know how this will all become clear in a month or so.

If the price of a modified Oppo won't be reasonable I can always just get the Momitsu blu ray for $350 and later get a refurbished Oppo 983 for $300. But, then I will have two different players, which I am trying to avoid.

[jman98]

I have had no issues with the Momitsu BluRay player and now use it as my primary DVD player as well. Upconversion has been fine on it. I have very few BluRay discs at present and none are outside of region A, but I'm pleased with the player.

[NicholasB]

jman98,

Does the Momitsu player do PAL conversion if you set it it outputting 1080i? I was reading a review ( http://www.blu-raydefinition.com/hardware/momitsu-bdp-899-region-free-blu-ray-player-review.html ) that said it fails all of the 1080i to 1080p upconversion tests. So you are only passing 540 lines of resolution rather than 1080 which should be quite noticeable. He mentions a work-around for this problem but not when playing a PAL disc, so I'm trying to see if there is one for PAL discs.

Here is an excerpt:

"When the unit is set to “HDMI Auto” and “Film Mode” is set to “On,” the player will output 1080i material at 1080i/60 and 1080p/24 material at 1080p/24. It will not, however, output DVDs at their native 480i. In this mode DVDs will still be upscaled, but only to 1080i/60. It is also important to note that PAL-to-NTSC conversion will not work if the player is set to “HDMI Auto.”"

So it seems that if you leave the player on "HDMI Auto" and "Film Mode - On" then you will be okay most of the time as long as your TV or receiver does a good job with 1080i (it can't to worse than the Momitsu). When you want to play a PAL disc (being dvd or blu ray 1080i50) then you need to turn off "HDMI Auto" so that it will do PAL conversion and set it to output 1080i. This way you should get the best picture as the Momitsu will do the PAL conversion in this way. Does the Momitsu player do PAL conversion if you set it it outputting 1080i?

- Nick

[jman98]

My TV is 1080p, so it would be pointless to set the Momitsu to output 1080i. I have not tested this and have zero plans to do so.

I cannot use HDMI Auto on this player as it causes my HDTV (Samsung) to have fits. PAL conversion failed 100% of the time for me (failed as in "did not display anything") until I turned this option off. I don't remember if I am using Film Mode or not. I think not, but I don't remember and I can't check right now.

[NicholasB]

jman98,

I cannot use HDMI Auto on this player as it causes my HDTV (Samsung) to have fits. PAL conversion failed 100% of the time for me (failed as in "did not display anything") until I turned this option off.

This is because when you use "HDMI Auto" it ouputs PAL as PAL and your TV can't display a PAL signal.



I got an answer back from the reviewer on the link that I had above. What I suggested does work and he said will give you the best possible picture. The Momitsu does a really good job at upconverting to 1080i, but runs into problems upconverting from 1080i to 1080p (the last step of upconverting). A work around (if your tv does the 1080i to 1080p upconverting correctly) is the following.

1. For a PAL disc you would want to set the player to output 1080i.

2. The rest of the time you want to set the player to “HDMI Auto” and “Film Mode - On”.



Using the player in this way will output any 1080p24 blu ray just as it is, but anything 1080i and below will be outputted as 1080i. If your display does a good job with 1080i to 1080p upconversion then you will notice a difference doing the above with any content 1080i and below. So any DVD or 1080i blu ray would look better. If you don't notice any difference on this type of material (then your tv has the same problem) then don't bother with this and just go back to your previous setup. Sorry if this was confusing, but I thought you might be interested in getting a better picture, just by changing a setting now and then.


- Nick

[NicholasB]

I think that I am probably going to get Momitsu player soon. I was worried about the 1080i upconversion issue, but my Pioneer tv does this correctly so I'm all set. I'll just tape brief instructions on a note card a put it under the player to say something like "PAL -> set to 1080i" "rest of time -> hdmi auto - on, film mode -on" and also put the remote codes for changing to different regions. It's a little annoying to have to do this but with my Jaton DVD player I have to change it back to being region free every couple of weeks since it will "forget" that it is region free and not play anything. So I have to remember the few steps to do this.

- Nick