Multiregion Blu Ray Players

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Came across this today. Anyone else have any info on these multiregion Blu Ray Players. Are they legit?

Raf008;565628 said:
I just found this :Multiregion Blu-ray player. ( sony or Pioneer)

Player has been modified to play both blu-ray region A and B, as well as DVD region 1 and 2.
You can find more at dvdirect.net or stegen.com
I hope it' a perfect solution for BD fans ( and those who are really mad about regions..);)
 
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Anonymous

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So...... the rise of DVD is repeating itself. Soon there'll be companies offering to 'upgrade' your player for £50 (or probably more) and posts on here wringing their virtual hands about how this will invalidate their warranty and maybe screw up their player. Sounds great if true, but just make sure you don't connect the player to the net. All that reloading could be removed very easily by Them, whoever they are..... Paranoid? Me? Never?
 
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Anonymous

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Agreed, very good facility but I would like to bet that the next firmware upgrade wipes it out.

It would be nice to get the whole BD system finalized first and then Multi-Region the player. But then thats why the firmware system is there anyway, so BIG BROTHER SONY have control.
 

Andrew Everard

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[quote user="Oldskool"]Agreed, very good facility but I would like to bet that the next firmware upgrade wipes it out.

It would be nice to get the whole BD system finalized first and then Multi-Region the player. But then thats why the firmware system is there anyway, so BIG BROTHER SONY have control.[/quote]

Just like every other company that uses firmware upgrades to improve the facilities of products? Denon, for example? Or Naim? Or Onkyo? Or Apple? Or almost everyone? I think you're pursuing an agenda here.

And if I read the sites referenced in the OP correctly, they're claiming that the multiregion conversion will be unaffected by future firmware upgrades. How they know this I'm not sure, but maybe something in the way the modification is implemented - it seems to involve a chip change or modification, as far as I can understand from the other conversions at least one of the two sites carries out - means it is impervious to firmware changes.

I put in a call to Sany re this, and so far the only response is along the lines of 'couldn't possibly comment' .
 
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Anonymous

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Thanks for the clarification Andy. It does indeed look like these are legit. My old DVD players which are all Pioneer are factory region free. I wonder will Pioneer offer this on future BD releases.
 

Andrew Everard

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[quote user="Bullseye"]My old DVD players which are all Pioneer are factory region free.[/quote]

Not sure they'd be factory region free, but of course manufacturers do sometimes tell dealers how to change the region on players just in case a customer buys a machine and then wants to emigrate.

emotion-5.gif


And of course if they happen to find out in passing how to change the region to 0 rather than 1, 3, 4 or whatever...

I remember this being offered as a cautious response when I asked the head of one now-defunct high-profile British audio company - think silver, black and orange and things that go fast on Sunday afternoons - whether its very expensive players could be multiregioned easily. 'If a customer wishes to move country, then I am sure one of our dealers would find a way to help them'.

Then there are those players for which a firmware upgrade is offered to solve a very minor problem, but which - oops - seems to open up a menu enabling the region to be changed or - clumsy engineers - accidentally makes the player region free.

And it wasn't unknown for Chinese factories to ship thousands of budget DVD players - sometimes the entire production run - before noticing someone had forgotten to implement region coding, not to mention most of those region hack sites out there on which people suddenly 'discover' hacks. I suspect there's a spot of insider leaking involved - after all, it's in a manufacturer's interest to maximise sales of its products.

But they also have to be seen to do the right thing by the movie studios, who rather like region coding as a means of controlling the distribution of titles among different regions, either for reasons of different release dates or to maintain different pricing in different territories. After all, if the movie studios don't supply movies to play in the players, who's going to buy the machines.

But then region-coding is a very soft way of stopping unofficial sales of titles across territory borders: the real problem isn't unofficial retailers bulk-shipping Region 1 DVDs into the UK to sell, but the real pirates banging out thousands of - usually Region 0 - bootleg copies for worldwide distribution.

So it's all a bit of a game, and with companies effectively making globally available products, it makes sense for them to implement all this stuff using simply applied firmware, for ease of production. You make the same machine for the whole world, then when you flash in the firmware near the end of the production line, you do one batch set for Europe, another for the States, and so on.

Trouble is, unless you try really hard, such systems are - to varying degrees - easy to crack, simply because there's usually a back door in the code just so that those helpful dealers can keep there customers happy.

So yes, I am sure that more and more multiregion players will appear. It may not be officially sanctioned, but in the long run, it's in everyone's best interest.

Sorry for long and geeky reply.

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Anonymous

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[quote user="Andrew Everard"]
[quote user="Oldskool"]Agreed, very good facility but I would like to bet that the next firmware upgrade wipes it out.

It would be nice to get the whole BD system finalized first and then Multi-Region the player. But then thats why the firmware system is there anyway, so BIG BROTHER SONY have control.[/quote]

Just like every other company that uses firmware upgrades to improve the facilities of products? Denon, for example? Or Naim? Or Onkyo? Or Apple? Or almost everyone? I think you're pursuing an agenda here.
[/quote]

As far as I was aware, Denon, Naim, Onkyo or Apple products do not stop doing what they are supposed to do without a firmware update, you just install the firmware to improve the functionality or performance of the product. With Sony's Blu-ray system, failing to install the latest firmware, which is not necessarily available prevents the unit from functioning at all.

THAT IS TOTALLY DIFFERENT!

MY AGENDA: Damn right I have an agenda. I still have a £1000 Blu-ray player that doesn't play Blu-ray discs. Remember? You were going to look into it? Well now it's been 6 months and the unit is STILL not compatable with any 20th Century Fox Blu-ray discs and some others, and has been in the manufacturers possession for 90% of the time I've owned it. The unit is still under warranty too. I Hav'nt heard back from you though!

Sounds like a bit of Sony support from WHFSV then. Lets see how popular that stance is when other peoples players start bugging out, unable to be updated to play new discs.
 

Andrew Everard

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I was referring to your comment that

[quote user="Oldskool"]I would like to
bet that the next firmware upgrade wipes it out... But then thats why the firmware system is
there anyway, so BIG BROTHER SONY have control.[/quote]

and making the point that many companies do firmware upgrades. Apple, for example, have managed to control whether or not people can unlock their iPhones for use on other networks by using firmware upgrades as a weapon.

[quote user="Oldskool"]With Sony's Blu-ray system, failing to install the latest firmware,
which is not necessarily available prevents the unit from functioning
at all.[/quote]

It's not 'Sony's Blu-ray system' - Blu-ray is a system developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association, of which Sony is a member.

[quote user="Oldskool"]

Sounds like a bit of Sony support from WHFSV then. Lets see how popular that stance is when other peoples players start bugging out, unable to be updated to play new discs.[/quote]

Ah, banging that old 'Sony support' drum, huh? I don't quite see why you take this anti-Sony stance - surely your player is an LG?
 
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Anonymous

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[quote user="Andrew Everard"]
I was referring to your comment that

[quote user="Oldskool"]I would like to
bet that the next firmware upgrade wipes it out... But then thats why the firmware system is
there anyway, so BIG BROTHER SONY have control.[/quote]

and making the point that many companies do firmware upgrades. Apple, for example, have managed to control whether or not people can unlock their iPhones for use on other networks by using firmware upgrades as a weapon.

[quote user="Oldskool"]With Sony's Blu-ray system, failing to install the latest firmware,
which is not necessarily available prevents the unit from functioning
at all.[/quote]

It's not 'Sony's Blu-ray system' - Blu-ray is a system developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association, of which Sony is a member.

[quote user="Oldskool"]

Sounds like a bit of Sony support from WHFSV then. Lets see how popular that stance is when other peoples players start bugging out, unable to be updated to play new discs.[/quote]

Ah, banging that old 'Sony support' drum, huh? I don't quite see why you take this anti-Sony stance - surely your player is an LG?
[/quote]

Sorry Andrew, I don't know how to do seperate replies to sections of a post like that so here it is all in one.

So we ARE in agreement then that the firmware is as useful as a controlling weapon as it is for an upgrade route.!

Yes, I know about the BDA but Sony are surely the major controlling force within this and funny how the Sony players and especially PS3 get the updates first, or in the case of the PS3 have them already installed. Insider information?

I do not have an anti-Sony "product" stance, note I earlier today praised the Sony projector in a comment on the latest news board, I am anti Sony "rip off the consumer" philosophy. Correct, my player, or rather non-player is an LG and it worked perfectly well until the studios started messing with the coding.

SO, banging "that old drum" yet again, as many threads seem to recently, who is to blame? LG for a faulty player, the BD assn for failing to finalise the format or the studios for changing the coding?

I AM A COMPLETE COMPUTER NOVICE AND IT REALLY SOUNDS LIKE THAT OLD CHESTNUT

"It's not your computer sir, it's the software", followed by "It's not the software sir, it's the computer", following which you never get anywhere but poorer. WHO IS GOING TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE FARCE - NOBODY.
 
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Anonymous

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[quote user="Andrew Everard"]Apple, for example, have managed to control whether or not people can unlock their iPhones for use on other networks by using firmware upgrades as a weapon.[/quote]

Only too true I'm afraid. Apple have got firmware 'control' well covered. Just to get past the iPhone contract will cost £100 and you would lose internet access(although not WiFi) plus any Apple guarantee or back-up. You have to pay £12.99 just to have your new ipod Touch upgraded with features that should have been on it in the first place.

Sony on the other hand have been upgrading my PS3 at regular intervals at zero cost to me. Thank goodness Blu-ray was not the brainchild of a certain Steven Paul Jobs.
 
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Anonymous

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Like everything else - it's all about CONTROL.
Remember Sony are both hardware and software suppliers and to them it's important to CONTROL the rollout and methodology of both their movies and the kit that plays them.
All the Studios want to CONTROL their release pattern, charge more in some markets (like the UK and South Africa), and justify their substantial staff numbers. The studios created the concept of territory years ago, it's made them very rich and they're now finding themselves in a kind of limbo where the legal definition either no longer applies or is technically unworkable. They are losing CONTROL and they don't like it.
Any new hardware/software product will therefore be seen as a potential medium to regain CONTROL.
Any studio (or rights holder - remember some movies are handled by multiple distributors around the world who have an upfront financial investment based on geography) will do all they can to protect their investment and the status quo.
Therefore a studio that can leverage even more CONTROL through hardware may well seem a trifle more aggressive.
It would have been interesting to have seen what would have happened in the HD disc wars if AOL/Time Warner had bought Pioneer, for example.
 
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Anonymous

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Isn't region coding important for cinemas as not all films are released simultaneously worldwide. Its also important for retailers in each country as without it everyone would be buying their movies from the US. If you are interesting in importing movies they i see no problem in investing in a Region A player. Thats what I am doing.
 

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