Buying DVD Movies - More Choice - Save Money

R_._Tatac

The 75p discount at cdwow.com is all well and good but to really get the best value and be a true money saver you need to be able to beat the region restrictions when buying dvds.

Take "The Day After To Tomorrow" for example , if you remove the unfair barrier to free trade imposed by the film studios when they decided to add region coding to dvds then you can make even bigger savings.

DVD Region 1 The Day After Tomorrow: Widescreen Edition £13.24

DVD Region 3 The Day After Tomorrow: 2 Disc Edition £10.24

DVD Region 2 The Day After Tomorrow: Special Edition £15.24

If your dvd player is fixed to region 2 only as is the case with all players sold in europe then you have to pay £15.24 but remove this restriction and you only pay £10.24 for the Region 3 version saving £5.00 or approx 30% !!


Many ( most ) dvd players can be made "Multiregion" for FREE so you can potentially make these savings for FREE. Search for your DVD player on the link below to see if you have a player that can be made multiregion for free.

http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks

If however you have bought a branded dvd player such as a Sony , Panasonic / Technic , Pioneer or JVC then you are very unlikely to be able to hack these for free unless you have access to a Palm PDA or Pronto or One For All type remote in which case you may be able to use these type of hacks from the link above.

If your player cannot be hacked from it's existing remote and you dont have access to a PALM , Pronto or One For All to use the appropriate Palm / Pronto / One for all hack from the link above then you may have to think about ( shock horror ) spending some money on renting or buying a device to remove this restriction ( or buy a new dvd player that can be hacked for around £30 ).

http://www.dvdchips.co.uk rent out special tools and "chipped remotes" specifically to remove region restrictions. They typically charge around 20 quid so you would have to be a regular buyer of dvds for this to be worthwhile.

( http://www.multiregion.co.uk offer a similar service , slightly more expensive but a more professional look to the website )

There is a dvdchips discount code available which is supposed to be for members of http//www.thedvdforums.com ( you can register for free if you care that much ) and this can be found at http://www.dvdchips.co.uk/thedvdforums but it's currently a pathetic 10% off but this tends to change each month.

At the end of the day if you can hack your dvd player for FREE then you have nothing to loose and everything to gain but if you have to pay for it then you have to consider whether it's worth it or not based on how many dvds you buy and what you can save.

It's also important to ask yourself if you really NEED to buy DVDs at all ... if you only watch the DVD you have bought once , twice or even three times it might have been cheaper to rent it an save on storage space too !

Happy money saving

R.T

MarkyMarkD

If your dvd player is fixed to region 2 only as is the case with all players sold in europe then you have to pay £15.24 but remove this restriction and you only pay £10.24 for the Region 3 version saving £5.00 or approx 30% !!


Many ( most ) dvd players can be made "Multiregion" for FREE so you can potentially make these savings for FREE. Search for your DVD player on the link below to see if you have a player that can be made multiregion for free.

Interesting point, but not true.

There are many multi-region players available in the shops. Only the "big name" manufacturers are complying with the ludicrous free trade restricting requirements of the film industry.

It's far less hassle to buy a multi-region player in the first place than to faff about recoding a specific region coded player IMHO.

GlennTheBaker

It's far less hassle to buy a multi-region player in the first place than to faff about recoding a specific region coded player IMHO.

If you check out a site like https://www.dvd.reviewer.co.uk you can usually find info on which DVD players are either multi-region out of the box or can very easily be made multi-region by pressing a couple of buttons on the remote

R_._Tatac

Interesting point, but not true.

There are many multi-region players available in the shops.  Only the "big name" manufacturers are complying with the ludicrous free trade restricting requirements of the film industry.

It's far less hassle to buy a multi-region player in the first place than to faff about recoding a specific region coded player IMHO.

Agreed , it's far less hassle to buy a Multiregion player in the first place and there are many online retailers selling dvd players that have already been converted.

However if you've already bought your DVD player from Currys , Dixons or Comet type outlets where they are all region locked the above information still stands.

R_._Tatac

If you check out a site like https://www.dvd.reviewer.co.uk you can usually find info on which DVD players are either multi-region out of the box or can very easily be made multi-region by pressing a couple of buttons on the remote  :D

Yes they are another useful source of region hacks , this is a direct link to their hack pages

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

and they also have a forum where you can ask about region hacks

http://www.dvd.reviewer.co.uk/forums/default.asp?Forum=176

However as the link I gave

http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks

is updated live by users it can be more up to date than the hack pages at dvd reviewer but it can also contain lots of unverified nonsense so you have filter the good information from the rubbish.

I suppose a good order would be to visit dvd reviewer's hack pages first , video help second and then post on the dvd reveiwer hack help forum if all else fails.

Woby_Tide

Interesting point, but not true.

There are many multi-region players available in the shops.  Only the "big name" manufacturers are complying with the ludicrous free trade restricting requirements of the film industry.

It's far less hassle to buy a multi-region player in the first place than to faff about recoding a specific region coded player IMHO.

Disagree in some respects, given the money saving nature of the site the fact that a lot of retailers charge c.£20 premium for a multi region player(including normally good retailers like Richer Sounds for example), if it can be region hacked for free by remote or firmware the £20 saving is a very good deal for the minor inconvenience of finding a hack

bigjonnyauk

agreed on the side of cheaper dvds due to region coding but i hink you also have to look at the other aspect regardless of multiregion

most people who are serious into dvd would also look at the following and this would seriously influence their choice of buying regardless of region


REGION 1 transfer usually very good with spot on sound but incorrect veiwing (ntsc) sometimes more extras with r1

REGION 3 these discs are usually the cheapest to buy and to be honest a lot of them have the worst transfer i have the r3 harry potter and it is awful

REGION 2 transfer usually very good correct ratio (pal) but sound speeded up by 4 per cent not a lot you might think but this actually put off quite a few people when buying the star wars boxset hence they bought the region 1

anyways thats all i have to say on that lol

robnye

agreed on the side of cheaper dvds due to region coding  but i hink you also have to look at the other aspect  regardless of multiregion

most people who are serious into dvd would also look at the following and this would seriously influence their choice of buying regardless of region


REGION  1  transfer usually very good with spot on sound   but incorrect veiwing (ntsc)  sometimes more extras with r1

REGION 3  these discs are usually the cheapest to buy  and to be honest a lot of them have the worst transfer  i have the r3 harry potter and it is awful  

REGION 2  transfer usually very good correct ratio (pal) but sound speeded up by 4 per cent not a lot you might think but this actually put off quite a few people when buying the star wars boxset hence they bought the region 1

anyways thats all i have to say on that     lol

silly question..... are talking oabout the syncing of sound with the picture.....

I have a sanyo dvd, that needs a firmware update, tried it myself, it didnt work.

I now have a multi region player and was thinking of buying R1 or R3..... in which case which is the best?

Swattie

I bought my DVD from a very reputable National AV specialist retailer and they supplied it with details of how to convert it to multi-region.

They provided advice and were happy to recommend even within a limited budget.

It worked a treat.

And their prices are very competitive.

There is a lot to be said for specialist retailers rather than the "pile 'em high, sell 'em cheap (or not so cheap)" chains such as Dixons Currys and Comet.