WillieTheShakes

So, I've been doing some research and it seems that I'm able to play non-region locked UK blu-rays on North American blu-ray players.

A couple of questions for the experts, though.

I have an older (read: non-HD) tv - will this be an issue?

Are there any brands of blu-ray player that are better at playing non-region locked UK blu-rays?

Can you think of any other issues I may face?

Thanks much for all your help!

clckworang

If the discs aren't region locked, the movie should play just like any other disc you would buy. There are some issues you can run into, though. There are some titles that are encoded in 1080i/50, which some U.S. players, like the PS3, aren't able to play. From what I hear, music titles are very frequently encoded in this way, but there are quite a few movies and TV shows as well.

You otherwise won't have any problems with HD content, but you can run into issues with extras that are in SD and not HD. Sometimes those extras will be in PAL, and again, some U.S. players (as well as some U.S. TVs) aren't able to play PAL content.

I'm sure some others can better clarify some of that or add some other thoughts.

Solid Snake

If you're thinking about get a non US BD. Read up on the disc. That's the best advice I can give.

The UK BD of Let The Right One In for example plays fine and is a great BD too, commentary by the director and the writer for the book and the film..which I enjoyed very much so. It has a Pic Gallery that's in PAL so my PS3 is a no go on that one..but everything else is fine I believe on it.

Like I said. Read up on the BD or simply ask one of us here. Many of us here get certain NON US BDs for various reasons (different cut, etc etc).

Superdaddy

clckworang pretty much nailed it. Just beware of PAL extras (if you care about extras) and the 1080i/50 titles.

Going the overseas route is great and quite eye-opening. You can find some great things that aren't available on BD in the US at this time, as well as better or cheaper versions of content that is available here.

EDIT: I am in the habit of checking disc specs for foreign releases at blu-ray.com. Their listings haven't failed me yet.

Spottedfeather

LTROI is region B. What do you play it in ? Also, where on blu-ray.com do you check regions ? I only ever see region 1 stuff.

Solid Snake

Plays fine on my PS3.

flansered

You might have to make sure that the search bar at the top of the page is set for "all countries" or whichever country you are searching for. Then on each titles review page there is a tab for region coding. There are also some threads on the forums for locked and region free discs in each countries area.

Superdaddy

Yes, set the seacrh bar for all countries and then search. All versions in their database should come up. You can then select the ones you want to check and pull up the main listings to see if they have information about region coding. If they have an actual review of the disc, the review will usually specify if there is 1080i/50 content or PAL content on that title.

Jay G.

The UK BD also has the correct theatrical English subtitles for the film. The US BD originally had only simplified English subtitles that many people hated. Then they added the theatrical subtitles to the BD, but didn't recall the original discs, and the new disc still defaults to the simplified subtitles.

I bought the UK BD before they had fixed the US BD. It's all region and plays the movie fine.

Don't trust the back of the packaging, or what Amazon.co.uk lists (they just list what the back of the box says).

In addition to blu-ray.com region info, this site has info on region coding for Blu-rays:
http://bluray.liesinc.net/

I like that site because it also warns about 1080i/50 encoded movies (which it refers to as 50hz).