Region free blu ray

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Ultimate Geek

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#1206961 1-Jan-2015 19:33

LesF:
Glassboy:
I have a Sony that I made the DVD region free via maintenance codes sent via a smart remote. Google is your friend.

I followed some googled instructions on multi-zoning a samsung dvd player, it must have thrown the heads out of alignment cos it stopped recognizing any dvd or cd shortly after that. I re-googled to see if I had done it wrong and THEN found a warning that the process may mess up calibration or something, so I'm losing confidence in this process.

So you're saying that you some how stumbled across a code on the Internet that allowed you to physically alter the configuration of the laser in your DVD player. Sort of like assisted telekinesis.

Can you please post the links about the calibration issues, because I can't find any by googling.

LesF

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Master Geek

#1206976 1-Jan-2015 20:38

Glassboy:

So you're saying that you some how stumbled across a code on the Internet that allowed you to physically alter the configuration of the laser in your DVD player. Sort of like assisted telekinesis.

Can you please post the links about the calibration issues, because I can't find any by googling.

I can't remember if they referred to calibration or something to do with how the device recognizes a disk from the NZ region as opposed to disks from other regions. It just started to take a really long time scanning a disk before accepting it, and for many disks it never recognized them at all. Trying to find the original tech tips site I got it from but it was a while ago.

I guess the reason I posted at all is, you should try to find some discussions where somebody confirms having applied the change to your particular model, with no complications. If you instead find people using words like "bricked" in reference to said tweaks, then proceed with caution ; )

Glassboy

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#1207015 1-Jan-2015 22:20

LesF:

I can't remember if they referred to calibration or something to do with how the device recognizes a disk from the NZ region as opposed to disks from other regions. It just started to take a really long time scanning a disk before accepting it, and for many disks it never recognized them at all. Trying to find the original tech tips site I got it from but it was a while ago.

Sounds like a dodgy laser, or someone dropped. Or find yourself a good old fashioned drive cleaner disk.

nzbsgfan

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#1207094 2-Jan-2015 10:18

I brought a Toshiba BDX3200 BluRay player from JB HiFi some time ago.

Its a reasonably simple exercise to flash that unit with a Firmware that allows you to change both the BluRay and DVD Zone.
You do need to burn a firmware iso (available on the internet) to a disc first to do this.

I achieved this with no problems - and can now easily change the region code when required.

Have a look online and see if you can pick this model up in New Zealand. I originally found it as an online order item for JB HiFi but I didn't see it in any of their stores (or at least the ones I visited).

Good luck.

Cheers

Mark.

sultanoswing

814 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1207097 2-Jan-2015 10:24

nzbsgfan: I brought a Toshiba BDX3200 BluRay player from JB HiFi some time ago.

Its a reasonably simple exercise to flash that unit with a Firmware that allows you to change both the BluRay and DVD Zone.
You do need to burn a firmware iso (available on the internet) to a disc first to do this.

I achieved this with no problems - and can now easily change the region code when required.

Have a look online and see if you can pick this model up in New Zealand. I originally found it as an online order item for JB HiFi but I didn't see it in any of their stores (or at least the ones I visited).

Good luck.

Cheers

Mark.

Those bad boys haven't been available for a couple of years. Sad really, but all of the chain stores seem to have the Sony bdp-s1200 as their cheap entry level player, and despite the (unsubstantiated) boasts by the poster above, Sony players are not readily modible for blu ray region free.

The veon and laser players are the two that do seem to be still available here in Godzone.

nzbsgfan

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#1207101 2-Jan-2015 10:40

I have to agree with you about Sony products.

Sadly they rigidly adhere to their policies while other manufacturers make devices people can work around.

They are so short sighted - that's why we still use the much larger old format Audio CD instead of the smaller (better protected from the elements) MiniDisc. They should have given away some of their intellectual property around that system - Instead, the format is now dead.

When it comes to DVD/BluRay players - I would never buy a Sony, although the PS3 is a good player in itself :)

Glassboy

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#1207120 2-Jan-2015 12:18

sultanoswing:

Those bad boys haven't been available for a couple of years. Sad really, but all of the chain stores seem to have the Sony bdp-s1200 as their cheap entry level player, and despite the (unsubstantiated) boasts by the poster above, Sony players are not readily modible for blu ray region free.

So just to clarify some things for you and nzbsgfan.

I have a working Sony BD that not only plays my collection of DVDs and BDs from NZ, US and the UK, and plays pretty much any video file on any USB device I attach. My current player is the first of four Sony DVD or BD players I've owned that has had any restriction. The first a DVD HD recorder is at my father's still working after 10+ years. The second a home theatre system is in the games room still working. My previous BD is being used by the kids. All the previous non-Sony DVD players I owned had the lasers fail after a couple of years.

I may be incredibly lucky in that all of the blurays I have bought are multi-region, but do you know what, I don't feel like looking through them to check for some obnoxious guy on an Internet forum, or inviting said guy around to see, or fixing his problem for him. And to be honest the burden of proof doesn't lie with me. If there's a particular Bluray that you think my Sony won't play, send it to me to test, otherwise shut up and own your own problem like a grown up. I don't owe you anything, the other denizens of Geekzone don't owe you anything and the world doesn't owe you anything.

I've always found if you want help with a problem from people on a forum that if you're decent and respectful that people will give a lot of time. If you're a tit about it they have no motivation to.

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sultanoswing

814 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1207159 2-Jan-2015 14:10

Glassboy:
I may be incredibly lucky in that all of the blurays I have bought are multi-region, but do you know what, I don't feel like looking through them to check for some obnoxious guy on an Internet forum, or inviting said guy around to see, or fixing his problem for him. And to be honest the burden of proof doesn't lie with me. If there's a particular Bluray that you think my Sony won't play, send it to me to test, otherwise shut up and own your own problem like a grown up. I don't owe you anything, the other denizens of Geekzone don't owe you anything and the world doesn't owe you anything.

I've always found if you want help with a problem from people on a forum that if you're decent and respectful that people will give a lot of time. If you're a tit about it they have no motivation to.

OK Glassboy. I'm sorry.

My comment was out of a mix of curiosity and frustration that - despite requests for more information above - none was forthcoming. No, you are not under any obligation to post anything. Having made the statement that you have a user-modded region-free Sony blu ray player, none of us have any reason or cause to doubt you whatsoever. There is no burden of proof on either you or anyone else.

And so, in the interests of helping the original poster* as I have been trying to do for most of this thread as well as for others who may be interested: pretty please, with sugar on the top: could you kindly post some more helpful information or links as to how to blu-ray region-free a Sony player without hardware mods and/or what model(s) you have which are region-free for blu ray.

Thanks in advance for accepting my apology and for being grown up enough yourself to help out.

* OP who has the problem, not me (I have my region free player). The OP is in no way responsible for my frustrated comment

nzbsgfan

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#1207280 2-Jan-2015 19:15

Seems like I may have walked into some kind of minefield here.

I just offered some of my experience in modifying a blu-ray player.

I love my Sony kit - and am in no way a tit (I hope) :-)

Now we have that all cleared up I'll go back to trying to help.

Happy New Year guys :)

Glassboy

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#1207306 2-Jan-2015 20:50

sultanoswing:

And so, in the interests of helping the original poster* as I have been trying to do for most of this thread as well as for others who may be interested: pretty please, with sugar on the top: could you kindly post some more helpful information or links as to how to blu-ray region-free a Sony player without hardware mods and/or what model(s) you have which are region-free for blu ray.

As I said all my blurays work in my Sony Bluray (which is a year or two old) and it was the first Sony I had come across that was DVD region locked. My suggestion is someone take a bluray disc that isn't Zone B or multizone and try it in a Sony BDP-S3200 in a shop that will let you demo the units. My suspicion is that we get the same models as Australia as zoning there is considered an illegal restrain of trade.

For the DVD regions I used this basic methodology http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks/sony-bdp-s370/10827 . JB-Hifi had a one for all remote for $50, and I always though I wanted one remote to rule them all. It turned out it took me a better part of a week to work out how to drive the remote properly, and I ended up dumping Sky which meant my Sony remote.

From what I can find on the Internet the S3200s coming into places like Dubai aren't region locked. I suspect ours aren't either.

rmt38

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#1207676 3-Jan-2015 14:50

Finding out if a model has region free, dvd or blu-ray, is a minefield. It's not as simple as "just google it".

Often you will find posts by people who will assert strongly that some procedure will result in what you want. But you try it and it does not work. Sometimes it appears this is just mindlessly copied and pasted from other models, and other times the firmware has been updated removing the option, or it only applies to firmware that goes to a certain region. I would never take someone's word off the internet that a model can be made region free. I'd need to see one in the store, and to bring up the menu that allowed region toggling.

Does anyone own the laser BD1000 or BD2000 models? How do you find the interface? I looked at it a while back, and it was black and clunky. It looked frustrating and low quality, but that was from the downloaded manual, not from actual use.

rb99

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#1207681 3-Jan-2015 15:04

Maybe its on this thread already, or maybe you know, but Panasonic will apparently make a DVD player region free for free if you take it to a service centre. Also for the dvd bit of a bluray player, but don't think they can, or will, make the bluray bit region free (or switchable).

“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.” -John Kenneth Galbraith

rb99

Glassboy

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#1208208 4-Jan-2015 22:53

rmt38: Finding out if a model has region free, dvd or blu-ray, is a minefield. It's not as simple as "just google it".

That's a ridiculous statement. The Internet isn't real life. It's a very simple process. Take a non Zone B bluray and a non Region 4 DVD when you go shopping. Ask to test the store unit.

rmt38

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Ultimate Geek
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#1208282 5-Jan-2015 07:27

Glassboy:
rmt38: Finding out if a model has region free, dvd or blu-ray, is a minefield. It's not as simple as "just google it".

That's a ridiculous statement. The Internet isn't real life. It's a very simple process. Take a non Zone B bluray and a non Region 4 DVD when you go shopping. Ask to test the store unit.

Please. You're quoting out of context for some reason. Your response is exactly what I suggested at the end of my post, except I also dismissed earlier claims that just googling would do the trick.

Glassboy

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#1208303 5-Jan-2015 09:05

My apologies.

As a general practice if your first paragraph doesn't establish context then you have bigger problems than what happens when you're quoted.

Obviously I didn't take you to mean that people are killed or maimed when shopping for restriction free players, but the hyperbole didn't lend itself to groking that we had similar points.

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