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Did you just make a reference to Shadow Raiders of all things?

FYI: There has been at least one jet (707 cargo) ending up in water still intact that I can think of off the top of my head

Bah. 707. Here's an accounting of a 747 landing completely intact in the water. Jack Lemmon would never lie.

Most set-top DVD players have some hack or other to make them multiregion; a quick Google on "dvd multiregion hack" gives me this as the first hit. Good luck :)

This is another good picture of the Martian atmosphere.

Actually, I'm not. I've been importing DVDs for personal use ever since the format came out. I was one of the early adopters, who had trouble with the limited selection of Region 2 disks in the early days. What disks there were had little or no special features, or cost much more than the region 1 alternative.

You are arguing with an AV/hi-fi autophile. I'm speaking from personal experience and research on all counts.

A Region 1 DVD and a Region 2 DVD are identical, save for the region code.

Nope. A Region 1 DVD has a frame rate of ~30 fps (60 Hz scan rate), a Region 2 DVD has ~25 (50 Hz). It's another thing that can go wrong in playing foreign media, but I never mentioned that because most TVs made in the last 5-8 years can handle either. On old ones, you could adjust the V-HOLD dial to compensate. Have a problem here, you'll get a rolling screen with no option to fix other than a new TV.

Thus, if you have an NTSC region free DVD player hooked to an NTSC television and you stick a Region 2 DVD into it, it will display perfectly.

Nope. Try it. You need component video, or a PAL supporting television. The DVD player still has to encode the colour information into either PAL or NTSC, if you want to feed it through composite or S-Video. That's the way those hook-ups work. It does this based on the original format of the disk; put in PAL disk, you'll get a PAL signal.

Component video doesn't require PAL/NTSC encoding because the colour information doesn't need to be encoded. I'm cool on both counts, my TV has RGB inputs as well as being capable of displaying either PAL/NTSC.

If you don't believe me, try a google groups search for "DVD black white region free", or take a look at this FAQ.

Sony slaps PS2 chippers

that doesnt read like they are somebody who "allows mod chips"

• Cheaper DVDs.
• Released 3-6 months before the rest of the world.
• Less censorship (UK has a habit both for theatrical and DVD releases of censoring movies to lower their rating and hence sell to a wider audience).
• Often more/better features than other DVD regions.

Luckily, thanks to the Internet and most DVD player manufacturers, savvy UK customers can:

• Unlock a particular region (or make it "any" region) via a remote control hack - see somewhere like DVD Reviewer.
• Buy US or Canadian DVDs on the Internet. I recommend DVD Pricecheck - select regions 1 and 2 [sometimes it is actually cheaper to buy region 2 !], type in the title and search for it. CD WOW! has most new DVDs at 14.99 pounds or less and play.com has a wider selection, although prices aren't quite as good as CD WOW!
• Boycott UK stores that sell new releases for 18-20 pounds...

One thing that's interesting is that UK stores such as HMV, W.H Smith, Virgin etc. do not stock Region 1 disks in their UK outlets. No doubt it's because they would be released earlier, cost less, have better content. etc. etc.

BTW, I've never been charged VAT or import duty on any Region 1 DVDs I've bought online and had shipped to the UK - heck, I've just pre-ordered Monsters Inc. 2-disc set from Canada via DVD Soon at a silly price of something around 11 pounds (including postage) - any bets that will be retailing at 20-22 pounds in UK stores ?

As far as I can tell, Malata is the king of codefree DVD players. The N996 is completely region-free, is progressive scan, has a built-in PAL-NTSC converter (and vice-versa), built in Dolby Digital decoder, and is tweakable beyond belief. On the other hand, I recently bought a Philips 712 that is remotely hackable (like the legendary Apex) for $179, and am quite happy with it. Check out www.dvd.reviewer.co.uk for lots of good info.

As far as I can tell, Malata is the king of codefree DVD players. The N996 is completely region-free, is progressive scan, has a built-in PAL-NTSC converter (and vice-versa), built in Dolby Digital decoder, and is tweakable beyond belief. On the other hand, I recently bought a Philips 712 that is remotely hackable (like the legendary Apex) for $179, and am quite happy with it. Check out www.dvd.reviewer.co.uk for lots of good info.

Look for Afreey LD-2020 instead. It's the same player.

According to this page, the firmware on the latest versions of this player are no longer hackable. Caveat Emptor.

This page has lots of hacks for lots of players, including detail about other kinds of hacks (e.g. DeCSS) and required firmware versions.

This page on DVD Reviewer has a list of DVD players, and how to multi-region hack them! :-)

This page on DVD Reviewer has a list of DVD players, and how to multi-region hack them! :-)

For specifically UK DVDs you could try this site I stumbled across a while back (BBS).

For specifically UK DVDs you could try this site I stumbled across a while back (BBS).

A list of DVD players that are multi-region hackable (with hacks), for those of us that can't wait for country specific releases :-)

Check this link for multi-region hacks for loads of different DVD players.

Enjoy :-)

That's the excuse they use. But I think the developers of these things hate region codes as much as anyone else around here, and do this on purpose. After all, how does disabling Macrovision help in testing?

This page has information on disabling region codes. How could so many players have these "accidental" features, all with different button sequences to enable them, and why are they mostly region 2 players? The demand for imported movies is probably highest in region 2 (Europe often gets movies after the US), so the manufacturers add multi-region features to help sell players. How well would a single-region player sell when all the competition is multi-region?

Hey, want to disable region-encoding limitations on your DVD player? Check out Multi-Region Hacks for Domestic DvD Players.

Jealousy is an emotion for the weak. If you have something useful to contribute, then do. Otherwise, avoid hitting the Submit button. We don't need anymore trolling around here.

OT to Troll, On-Topic to Lord Omlette: I agree with what you are saying. We'll have to wait and see how good the movie is. I suspect it will be compelling enough that the lack of interactivity will more than be made up for by the story, theme, characters, and special effects. Plus, the movie will be fully Dolby, if not THX, sound on a giant screen with huge speakers and comfy seats (well, I guess it depends on where you see it).

Another thought, Dragon's Lair and Dragon's Lair II: TimeWarp were released again as DvD's by Digital Leisure Inc. These two discs contain the whole movie tracks from the original two games. You can play interactively from your regular DVD player hooked up to your TV using the DVD remote control as the joystick. No game machine or console necessary. It works using just your DVD player (hopefully purchased before the MPAA started getting nasty).

So the idea is that an interactive DVD version of the movie could be made (ot: hey let's create open-source versions of DVDs sans license fees called ODVs) whose action sequences the viewer controls in the comfort of their own home using the remote. Add on the NUON chip to your player & things could really get rocking. Someone want to add to this idea?

Choose your own adventure...

Choose your own fantasy...

Jealousy is an emotion for the weak. If you have something useful to contribute, then do. Otherwise, avoid hitting the Submit button. We don't need anymore trolling around here.

OT to Troll, On-Topic to Lord Omlette: I agree with what you are saying. We'll have to wait and see how good the movie is. I suspect it will be compelling enough that the lack of interactivity will more than be made up for by the story, theme, characters, and special effects. Plus, the movie will be fully Dolby, if not THX, sound on a giant screen with huge speakers and comfy seats (well, I guess it depends on where you see it).

Another thought, Dragon's Lair and Dragon's Lair II: TimeWarp were released again as DvD's by Digital Leisure Inc. These two discs contain the whole movie tracks from the original two games. You can play interactively from your regular DVD player hooked up to your TV using the DVD remote control as the joystick. No game machine or console necessary. It works using just your DVD player (hopefully purchased before the MPAA started getting nasty).

So the idea is that an interactive DVD version of the movie could be made (ot: hey let's create open-source versions of DVDs sans license fees called ODVs) whose action sequences the viewer controls in the comfort of their own home using the remote. Add on the NUON chip to your player & things could really get rocking. Someone want to add to this idea?

Choose your own adventure...

Choose your own fantasy...

How's this for security by obscurity?

http://www.dvd.reviewer.co.uk/info/multiregion/

if you dvd a little bit you gotta wonder -- why were these hacks built-in? strange, no?

Sadly, the Wharfedale DVD players sold out very quickly, so I ended up getting one from Dixons (big UK electrical goods retailer) instead. This also had a region hack on the remote where by pressing a couple of buttons you get prompted for region code... This works brilliantly!
Quite a lot of DVD players for sale here have similar hacks. There's a very good page here
If not, there are loads of places who will open the player up and tweak it...
OK - so there are other differences, such as PAL here, NTSC in the states. But most modern TV sets sold here in the last few years should cope admirably. I've got a three year old Sony and it shows NTSC perfectly.
The whole region thing is rampant protectionism - designed to stop us importing from another country where prices may be cheaper. So the UK branch of a film company charges more and tries to stop people getting the same movie from their US branch where it's cheaper and has more extras.
There's also the censorship angle - where a Region 2 DVD sold in the UK will be subject to BBFC (British Board of Film Censorship) cuts.
But it looks like some companies have got the right idea. It could be that many companies making DVD players don't give a toss about the region system and deliberately leave a back door - easily accessible through the remote - so that those of us who want to can get around the whole stupid region thing.
I can buy books from America. I can buy CDs from America. Why the heck shouldn't I be allowed to buy a DVD from America - with lots of extras (documentaries, etc) which aren't available on the Region 2 version?