Blu-ray that plays multi-region DVDs

TrixA

We need to replace most of our household electronics following a burglary.

Now that we have a new HD TV we were intending to update our old DVD player to a Blu-ray. We would like to continue to be able to play our existing DVD collection which is a mix of Zone 2 and Zone 4 discs as we used to live in New Zealand which is in DVD Zone 4. This wasn't a problem for our old DVD player which was multi-region. I know Blu-ray uses a different system of regional zoning and Europe and NZ are now in the same zone - this is one of the reasons I'd like to upgrade to Blu-ray as it means we will be able to buy NZ films that are not available in the UK. However I'm not clear how this relates to playing DVDs and whether players in the new Blu-ray Region B are also locked to Zone 2 for DVDs.

I went into our local Richer Sounds store yesterday to enquire. They indicated that until November they had been selling one of the players we were interested in (a mid-range Sony) as multi-region for DVDs, but customers had reported problems and there had been a change of policy, such that they were now only selling them as locked to zone 2. When we asked if we could test a couple of zone 4 discs that we had brought along the sales assistant flat out refused. We asked if they had any other players that were multi-region for DVDs and she said no.

What's going on? Is it really impossible to find a Blu-ray player that is multi-region for DVDs? Are we going to have to stick to a cheap multi-region DVD player so we can play our existing collection?

artbaron

Search on Amazon for multi-region players, there are hundreds.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Delectronics&field-keywords=blu+ray+multi+region+player+dvd&rh=n%3A560798%2Ck%3Ablu+ray+multi+region+player+dvd

TrixA

artbaron wrote: »

Search on Amazon for multi-region players, there are hundreds.

It's pretty confusing though, for example this one says it's multi-region and then underneath says all players purchased on Amazon play zone 2 DVDs only:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Delectronics&field-keywords=blu+ray+multi+region+player+dvd&rh=n%3A560798%2Ck%3Ablu+ray+multi+region+player+dvd

Or else they have been tampered with, invalidating the manufacturer's warranty:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/MULTIREGION-BDPS1200-Blu-ray-playback-Black/dp/B00LBA2WXQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1424087365&sr=1-1&keywords=blu+ray+multi+region+player+dvd

If these players for sale on amazon are legit, why won't mainstream electronics dealers sell them?

Nilrem

Players sold via Amazon (certainly Amazon as the seller) tend to be UK only players.
IIRC Amazon put a warning on all players regardless of if there are ways to make them region free once you get them.

Some like a lot of Phillips blu-ray and DVD players can still be made region free for DVD's (only DVD's though) by a simple remote hack, I've done it with three different models bought a couple of years ago.

IIRC some other makes can be made region free if you can find out if there is an Australian only model, as the Aussie models often have to be region free to comply with laws there, and if you can find the equivilent UK model a firmware update will do it - but you potentially lose the warranty if it goes wrong (certainly if it goes wrong and you can't flash it back to UK firmware).

artbaron

Amazon is down at the moment (!shock horror!) but I'd recommend reading the reviews, not just the blurb, and only going with one that are confirmed by purchasers to play multi-region without hacks. My previous two played multi-region without problem and I'm not sure about my current one, I'll check it later.

Not sure why you'd want to buy from a mainstream dealer, either (presuming you mean high street). More expensive and less buyer protection...