What's the latest on inexpensive bluray region free dvd players

[baily]

Every region free BD player I've seen lets you choose the DVD and BD regions separately. You don't choose countries, you choose regions for DVD and zones for BD. You can change the region at any time you aren't playing a disc and go through whatever menu process exists on your player to change regions/zones. As I don't care for anime I don't have any of these problem discs to test so my guess is only a guess and I have no way to know if setting the DVD region for 2 and the BD zone for A will work on those Japanese anime BD discs or not. If you're not buying anime but other Japanese BD discs, I wouldn't expect you to have a problem. For example if you bought a BD of some Japanese drama film, I would be really surprised if they would go to the trouble to restrict playback beyond requiring you to be in zone A. Like I said earlier, there are licensing issues involved in these restrictions and anime has a world wide fan base with specific licensing required in various countries.

Hm, interesting, thank you for clarifying! I wasn't aware this is mainly an issue with anime. I actually am not a big anime fan, but I do occasionally import from other countries for un-released (in the US) movies, extras, better transfers, or unique packaging. Never on anime, only on films, and for the most part only blu-ray and not DVD. I placed an order for a Seiki player a few days ago and have just been reading up on its capabilities, while I wait for it to arrive. Sounds like it won't be a concern. Again, thanks!

[DJ_ValBec]

Google it:

How to access the secret menu to make the BR player zone free selectable for BR's & region free selectable for DVD’s.

What I think is happening is:
BR license agreements do not allow BR player manufactures to offer a zone/region selectable menu.
Saying so:
When a firmware update is required to play the latest BR new releases the manufacture of the BR player is forced to issue a firmware update to remove the secret region free menu.
This happen before with company’s that have shipped BR players with firmware that offers a secret code to access the region selectable menu.
When the time a firmware update is need to play the latest new Blu-ray releases the secret region free menu just disappear & the BR player defaults to zone "A" & region "1" for "X" country models and no longer be able to play BR/DVD form other zones/regions.
So we have to do it manually again & again.

Just my $0.02

[mazinz]

Interesting part about this is that in the normal setup section it now allows you to change country codes as well. Though I cannot verify it, I am assuming this is present because certain blus from Japan that in addition to being region B also contained a check to make sure your machine was from Japan. So trying it on a US region free machine would result in you still not being able to play the disc. This country code switching may stop that from happening

Where'd you hear about this country check? Japan is Region A.

It's been reported by anime fans in the USA who bought Japanese anime BluRay discs and people outside of the USA/Canada who bought Criterion BluRays. Both groups have people trying to play a BluRay not sold in their country on a player that should allow this because the play can play zone A discs. We've had reports of the BluRays refusing to play. Apparently in addition to the BluRay zone checking, the disc is doing some kind of additional check and refusing the play the disc if it thinks you aren't in the correct country. For example, Criterion's license specifies that they are ONLY allowed to sell their releases in the USA and Canada. There are more countries than that in zone A. As best I can tell, nobody seems to know exactly what this additional country check is. My guess is that it's a DVD region check, but that is only a guess.

With the Seiki, is it then important to choose a certain country at the setup screen, in order to ensure any of these country checks are fulfilled? Or can you simply enter the region menu and change the blu-ray region at any time? I am mainly looking to play EU/region B discs in the USA, but if I come across a Japan disc, I wonder if this still poses an issue for the Seiki player.

Not important. It was not until I really got into the decks settings that I noticed this option (which they have with the parental control section if memory serves correct). Their previous decks did not offer that country switch. I am in the US and set the country code to all over the world but my menus and video were still in english and ntsc. Again as I mentioned in my post, I am assuming the country code switch option is there to deal with issues like some of those Japanese anime blus have, however I cannot verify that since I do not have one of those titles handy.

Likewise the hidden menu allows you to change the blu and dvd regions separately. Also this seems to be random with the machines- whenever I changed a region code- and shut the machine (and after being unplugged) it still kept the region codes I set the next time I turned it on. A number of others reported (with their previous decks) the opposite that after they turned off the machine or unplugged it, the codes reset and they had to do it over again (and in my case with the same previous deck, that too like this new one, kept the codes in place).

Also keep in mind to never update the firmware

[Brad]

I am in the US and set the country code to all over the world but my menus and video were still in english and ntsc.

If you're curious to see a change, a bunch of Warner Blu-rays have a specialized setup for Japan with the appropriate country code. In JP mode, the menu is Japanese and the playlist hides most of the languages and subtitles on disc (and vice versa).

I can sort of understand hiding the assortment of European languages from uninterested Japanese audiences, but the decision to hide Japanese from the western modes confuses me. I suppose they don't want the Japanese to find out they can import the same discs for cheaper than the domestic prices?

http://www.avsforum.com/forum/114-hdtv-software-media-discussion/1344731-unavailable-subtitles.html

[mazinz]

I am in the US and set the country code to all over the world but my menus and video were still in english and ntsc.

If you're curious to see a change, a bunch of Warner Blu-rays have a specialized setup for Japan with the appropriate country code. In JP mode, the menu is Japanese and the playlist hides most of the languages and subtitles on disc (and vice versa).

I can sort of understand hiding the assortment of European languages from uninterested Japanese audiences, but the decision to hide Japanese from the western modes confuses me. I suppose they don't want the Japanese to find out they can import the same discs for cheaper than the domestic prices?

http://www.avsforum.com/forum/114-hdtv-software-media-discussion/1344731-unavailable-subtitles.html

Interesting. Even better that I do have the US WB Inception blu (though I only ever watched the dvd disc). Will give it a try later tonight and see what happens.

[mazinz]

ok tried out the Inception blu that was mentioned- maybe they are not referring to the US disc?

On my blu you can select English, French, Spanish and Portuguese for audio and subtitle options. Had this disc offered a Japanese audio, no reason why it would hidden if these others are not. I did change the menus.subs.audio/osd and country code to Japanese but it was still the same menu and audio options listed on the back that the disc menu showed. The US disc does not list Japanese as an option. It seems if it is something it actually list on the box but you cannot select, then you would have to do the menu trick, but it was worth a try anyway

[oldfart13]

If you are in Canada, get one of these:

http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/seiki-blu-ray-4k-upconvert-0452111p.html#.Vmb_G7grJhE

[loninappleton]

The design should be available in US as well. I saw a review from when it was released in 2014.

It is elegant, moving the start/ stop so that you are not pushing the unit across the surface to operate.

I'd also like to see one with no distracting LEDs in low light environment. The viewpoints do not show enough of the unit to determine how it behaves in use.

[mazinz]

The design should be available in US as well. I saw a review from when it was released in 2014.

It is elegant, moving the start/ stop so that you are not pushing the unit across the surface to operate.

I'd also like to see one with no distracting LEDs in low light environment. The viewpoints do not show enough of the unit to determine how it behaves in use.

it was mentioned by me in post #17 of this thread back in Nov 2014