Region-free Blu Ray players

[kuato_lives]

Bought my Dad a blu ray disc for his birthday (Criterion release, not available in the UK), forgetting about region encoding - tbh I’ve not bothered with physical media for yonks but my Dad is old, old school hence the purchase.

Looked about for region-free players but they seem very expensive so thought about picking up a cheap unit off eBay and getting a mod chip from Rattlebyte.

My question is, is there a better/cheaper alternative to region-free blu ray playback (still using the disc of course!)? Don’t really want to spend a load of cash when I probably should just send the disc back and look for an alternative present

 

[thegreathopper]

Amazon now sell region free players but if it’s just the 1 disk may be better to buy a region free or B disk.

A lot of my Criterion disks are region free but it’s been an age since I played any.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/2016-SONY-BDP-S1700-Multi-Region-Black/dp/B01ETLUUHS/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?keywords=multi+region+blu+ray+player&qid=1649773732&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEyMEJFVzZMV0VBWUU1JmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwNDg2NzA4R0dPNVRDNkxLRFJYJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTA3NTgxMDUxSUVHVzU5SjVIRjBWJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfYXRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==

thegreathopper2022-04-12 15:32:56

 

[kuato_lives]

Thanks man. Maybe I’ll get lucky with the Criterion disc. €49 for the mod chip and fancy some soldering so might see if I can save money on buying a brand new region-free player.

 

[Hojo Norem]

I have bought a few multi-region mods from www.rattlebyte.com over the years. They all came with printed installation instructions and I would say that they are easy enough to fit for anybody competent at soldering.

I do have one related suggestion which may or may not be relevant, and that is stay away from Panasonic players. Not because they are bad, my first BD player was a panny and it has served me well, but because the parental control is locked to UK region and UK players. This matters because there is a number of zone A discs that don't bother checking the player zone, but instead the parental control region. I have zone A discs which refuse to play on my modified panny set to zone A, but will play on a unmodified zone B Sony. Sony players, at least the UK models, allow you to set the parental control region and it comes set to 'US' by default out of the box usually. If you are considering getting a new player to mod, make sure you get one that allows parental control region switching. Looking up the player's manual should usually tell you this without having to buy it first.

 

[kuato_lives]

That’s great advice, thank you. Was thinking of going for an LG player, but if you have any specific make/model you’d go for if you were modding it, I’d be grateful for the suggestion.

 

[Steveylou]

If you haven't already it's definitely worth trying the disc in whatever player you can access.

Back in the day DVD's were nearly always region locked but it was different with Blu-ray. Studios seemed more relaxed and some didn't bother with region coding at all.

You might be in luck and have a Criterion disc that's already region free.

 

[kuato_lives]

Aye will do mate. It’s Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai, on the off chance someone on here has the criterion edition. Should have enough time before my Dad’s birthday to source a mod/rethink his gift(!) if it is region encoded

 

[thegreathopper]

Just had a look on a couple of blu ray review sites and it seems to be locked to Region A USA.

 

[kuato_lives]

Just had a look on a couple of blu ray review sites and it seems to be locked to Region A USA.

Yes that’s what I thought too. Will try it in my player and check. Aside from the cost involved I do like the idea of modding a player

 

[Brettster]

some players can be changed just with the remote it came with or with a programmable remote. might be worth checking if your dads can be changed that way

 

[neo-geo-mvs]

some players can be changed just with the remote it came with or with a programmable remote. might be worth checking if your dads can be changed that way

I got a remote on ebay for this purpose but it only made the Sony player multi regional for DVD only. Blu Ray remained region locked.

I only have US DVDs (Not blu rays) so that was good enough for me

 

[ColinD]

It's often far easier to find a suitable digital downloadable version of your legitimate blu-ray disk than to muck about with multi region mods nowadays. ;-) I appreciate that you would not get the full content and special features though.

It's been years since I have modded anything at all (and some was from handset codes). Never got as far as Blu-ray.

Using a service remote as above was a good way to go too (or the standard handset secret service menu or secret region code remote key sequence) - One chap would loan you a special remote that could only be used once and had a refundable deposit (which basically simulated the service remote sequence or just did the secret handset codes)

However, I did once convert some code running on a pic microcontroller to run on the cheaper 12c508's that was used extensively by a dvd mod chip supplier back in the day (I had to unroll some subroutines as the 12c508 only had a two level stack, so you could not call a sub routine from a sub routine from a subroutine). It's long in the past and I never had access to all the gory details, I just made the I2C communications code work for him on the lower cost device/hardware.

ColinD2022-04-13 20:29:56

 

[Venom]

Wow did not know things were now so complex !!
I used to have a region free dvd player and a later one had a remote hack.

You wonder why people download movies, when make it so difficult.

Especially when generally we dont have massive release dates that differ any more.

As soon as its on a streaming service , its a webrip.

I do tend to subscribe to netflix and amazon, so download a lot less than I did.

 

[kuato_lives]

Yes I unlocked my Dad’s old Sony blu ray player with a remote hack but it was for DVD playback only, blu rays seem locked at the hardware level. My Dad always buys Sony, seem to have the hardest region protection going!

Sounds like newer UHD players are more often region free but couldn’t work out if this was when playing newer UHD discs or if older region-locked blu rays would then also be playable on these UHD players. Either way don’t want to fork out for a new player.

I know they say it’s about protecting local markets but region protection seems a bit daft in this day and age. Also found it really annoying BITD when I used to buy DVDs that I’d have to sit through un-skippable anti-piracy adverts before I could watch the bloody film