kenbuzz

Farscape.

The R2 DVDs were years ahead of their R1 counterparts.. I mean literally, you could get Season 1 about 3 years earlier from the UK than from the US. Also, the R1 disc were all issued as "Starburst" editions (or some such nonesense) which were little more than "best-of" collections. The R2 DVDs were released in 4-5 episode sets, the episodes were sequential, each set in a pair of Amarays that themselves came in a beautiful box, and the backside artwork for the 5 boxes that comprised a season made a single image.

Here's S1:


Oh, and they were much less expensive as well.

divemaster

I don't think it was any one particular title. I got into Korean films in a big way right at about the same time I switched from VHS to DVD (around 2002). I had already rented through the meager selection at my local Blockbuster and through the few Korean titles on Netflix. I knew that many Korean DVDs were R3 and that, along with my love of HK film, meant region free was the only practical option for me to see all those films I was hearing good things about. My first DVD player was a Sampo.

Having said that, it is possible that my very first R3 DVD was Battle Royale.

AMERICAN

..it was hammer's release of dracula (1958) 3 disc release on blu-ray...outstanding

SterlingBen

I am still bitter about Farscape and ADV.

Toy answer the question at hand probably Kill Bill.

Trevor

I rarely use my region free player, but my reason for getting one was a promo DVD about The Office that I picked up in a magazine when I visited London.

hanshotfirst1138

The Masters of Cinema line, basically.

Mikael79

I believe that my first one was Father Ted: Series 3. I bought the first two domestically, and Series 3 was taking too long to come out here, so I imported that bad boy.

XKalino

Kim Ki-Duk's Bin-jip which got fired me up about Korean movies.

leahcim

Dallas the complete Series at Amazon UK for $80, had to grab a player for my mom, she loves the show.

I have "other" routes of watching my int. DVD's and do not need any dvd player

toddly6666

Oshii's AVALON on Japanese DVD

DWilson

As I recall, it was Canadian "Brotherhood of the Wolf" DVD. I'm also very happy with my British "Russ Meyer Collection".

E Unit

Region 2 Snatch

Why So Blu?

My first Region B locked title that made me go region-free was the first REC film:



I own the entire franchise and they're all imports, too.


REC (Spain)
REC 2 (Japan)
REC 3 (UK)
REC 4 (UK)

bsmith

What finally got me to get a region free blu-ray player was "Streets of Fire" and the 1960's UK TV show "The Avengers".

TerryW

The Tenebrae release from Sazuma and the Rabid Dogs release from Lucertola.

ytrez

For me it was the UK Hong Kong Legends series, particularly their Jackie Chan releases.

slybone

Glad to see that someone mentioned Sazuma! I loved that short-lived label. In fact, my reason for getting a region-free player was Sazuma's release of "La Settima Donna" aka "Last House on the Beach". Still love that movie and that release!

morriscroy

I didn't really buy many dvds back in the day. Though the ex-wife did, where many of the titles were from Hong Kong (or China). (She grew up in Hong Kong among the locals). Every time she went to hong kong or taiwan for business trips, she came home with several dvds purchased there.


My primary interest in non-region1 dvd titles, are Sony titles released in late-2004 and into 2005. Apparently Sony started widespread using their extra basketcase arccos drm on their region2 uk dvd titles, before it became common in their american region1 dvd versions. (For their american region1 dvd titles, Sony only really started using arccos widespread in mid-late 2005).

So I keep an eye out for Sony's region2 uk dvd releases from late-2004 and 2005, whenever I go through thrift shops or charity rummage type events.

(I have an unhealthy fascination with figuring out how these extra basketcase drm dvd schemes functioned).