Jaymole

Thanks!

Jeff Edwards

HDTV is not NTSC or PAL, therefore there is no PAL to get around if the Blu-ray is a typical 1080p transfer, such as most movies. Some European Blu-rays contain PAL supplemental material just as some American Blu-rays contain SD supplemental material. PAL supplemental material on those discs will typically not play on American Blu-ray players, but if it did I would suppose it would suffer from the 4% speedup.

The Oppo Blu-ray player will play Region 0 PAL DVDs. I wonder if it will play PAL supplements on Blu-ray.

bmvtoys

a region free pal blu-ray is just that. Its pal. Blu Ray Players read 11 regions. 8 Basic (DVD), yes there are 8, not 6, and 3 basic (HD). There ARE region free blu ray players but they cost a rediculous amount of money.

PAL speedup? It does not play any faster or slower, it just seems to have a quicker runtime, that's all.

I have one of the first sony blu ray players, and i have played a R0 PAL disk in it (transformers the movie, blu ray), and it plays perfectly fine.

All you have to make sure if that your playing r0 blu, unless you have a region free blu ray player.

PS3 is region free out of the box im told, but not sure about the blu ray side of it, i dont own one. Hope this helps. Anything on the woodstock bluray will play fine as long as its Code 0.

MooMooMooMoo

I am absolutely clueless when it comes to Blu-Ray. Will a Blu-Ray player play on a non HD CRT television?

Cheato

Huh?

The PAL speed-up comes from the different rates frame rates due to interlacing and the fact that power cycles at 50Hz in PAL countries and 60Hz in NTSC countries. Interlaced images require 2 images per cycle, so you get 25fps in PAL countries and 30fps in NTSC countries.

Almost all movies are filmed at 24fps. When shown in PAL format, the PAL conversion just speeds the movie up by 4%. So, you get 24 frames shown at 25fps, meaning (25/24=) 4% faster video, and a 4% higher pitch in sound. As I said before, this makes PAL unwatchable for me. I hear the higher pitch in music, for example, and it drives me crazy. On the other hand, if a movie was filmed at 25fps intentionally for PAL (like "28 Days Later,") then you get a 4% slowdown when it's converted to NTSC. Typically, British TV shows are not filmed at 24fps, so they play normally in PAL, but probably too slowly in NTSC.

On yet another hand, those 24fps movies shown in NTSC format suffer from a "pulldown" effect. The 30fps only has to show 24 frames, so there are far too many for just a speed-up solution. So some frames are (to put it simply) repeated. People used to watching PAL complain of this "judder" effect, most easily seen during panning scenes. Your NTSC-accustomed brain just tunes that out.


In any case, all of this is caused by interlacing. With hi-def, you're watching a progressive image, and there is a worldwide standard for the transfers and displays. No more judder or speed-up.



The PS3 is region-free for hi-def, but there is a PAL PS3 and an NTSC PS3, and it does have region locking for PS1 and PS2 games, as well as DVDs. My NTSC (DVD Region 1) PS3 will not play NTSC DVDs or PS2 games from Japan.

Yes, just use the regular a/v output. It won't look different than a DVD (general quality-wise, I mean), but it will play.

MooMooMooMoo

Cheato, thanks for your expnations. I was aware of the Pal speed up, but not specifically why.

Dusty Bottoms

Cheato, with all due respect, I don't think this is 100% accurate. Although many international discs don't have region coding, I'm pretty sure the PS3 is not region free for HD. The U.S. NTSC PS3 is a Region A machine. You can import many region free BDs from other regions, but if, for example, a BD from the UK is Region B, it will not play on a U.S. PS3.

Even the new Oppo BD player is not region free out of the box due to the tight restrictions on region coding for Blu-ray players. In order to make it region free, you must have the hardware modified or download a third party firmware hack which isn't supported or approved by Oppo.

Proglodite

Just watched "Black Narcissus" from the Powell/Pressburger collection. I thought it looked fantastic, though not having seen the Criterion I cannot make a direct comparison. I do have the Criterion for "Tales of Hoffman" and though the Criterion has a tad sharper image, the price for this set just can't be beat. --Peter

Cheato

I also thought (in the past) the PS3 was not region free for Hi-def. However, I searched and searched the web, and almost every post I could find from people talking about it indicated that, as bmvtoys said, it is true. I was very surprised by that.

Here's an example:

http://forums.maxconsole.net/showthread.php?t=60132


On the other hand, I just did some more searches, and now I am finding many threads that say it isn't. Here's one:

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_do_you...er_region_free


So, I believe you are right, and maybe I shouldn't have said that, since I don't have personal experience with it. I guess just because a Blu-ray case says something is Region A, B, whatever, doesn't make it true, which then leads to all the confused posts out there on various forums from people who are led to believe the PS3 is, in fact, region-free.

bmvtoys

Its my understanding that PS3 is region free for dvd, but not blu, i have asked my customers and nobody is sure because alot of RB (uk) blu-rays are really R0, but the box says they are code B, hence alot of issues, nobody is completely sure anymore.

A few of the UK companies (Metrodome esp) put stuff out marked code b, but its really code 0. Helps them with sales.

sulfhydryl

I can confirm that at least my US PS3 is not region free for neither DVD nor blu-ray. When trying to play the region B version of "Wall-E", a screen pops up stating it's the wrong region. Also, neither region 2 PAL nor region 3 NTSC DVDs will work. The region information on the back of blu-ray cases is often incorrect. I own a couple of region-free blu-ray titles that say "region B" on the case.

Easy

I can also confirm that my US PS3 is not region free for dvd. I don't own any BDs from outside the US so I cannot test.

emachine12

The US and Canadian PS3s are Region A for Blu-ray Disc Playback and Region 1 for DVD playback. So far, this can not be modified for all-region playback.

Blu-ray Discs are also capable of up to 1080p resolution but there can be 1080i/50hz discs which are only compatible with PAL output. A BD can also be region-free but have 576i/p or 1080/50hz content before the disc which can prevent playback on some players.

1080/50hz is used for PAL output and 1080/60hz is used for NTSC output. These are both 1080i.

1080/24f is compatible with any HD capable output. Also known as 1080p or Full HD 1080p.

Special features on BDs can be 480i/p (NTSC), 576i/p (PAL), 720i/p (HD), or 1080i/p (HD).

The major studios will include 480i/p and 1080i/p extras 99.9% of the time whie local distributors (Dutch Filmworks, Icon, etc.) may choose to include 576i/p extras.

Dusty Bottoms

No problem. I just wanted to point it out in case someone reading this thread decided to order a few BDs from other regions.

cine

Are you referring to the BD edition on sale at Amazon-UK?
It doesn't make sense that its extras are in NTSC.

bmvtoys

for region free blu-ray it really doesnt matter that much PAL/NTSC, unless you have incredibly accute vision, the refresh rate on your tv shouldnt show too much issue-

b

JoeySeven

Not boxsets ,bu t blu-rays.
I'm out right now so I will post this over in the Hd forum latter,unless someone else wants to.

Amazon.co.uk: Up to 70% off Blu-ray hits

Some blu-rays under 10 pounds,

Dirty Dancing: The Ultimate Girls' Night In Collector's Edition looks like a good deal.

crs1247

Amazon UK has the Monk Season 1-6 collection for £28.88. The comments say the packaging is cheap, but this is a great deal for all 6 seasons with 25 discs.

Proglodite

The 16-disc Michael Palin travel collection just dropped about $10 or $15 - $57.xx with shipping to the US; that's 50% off list price and works out to $3.75 per disc. --Peter

John Hodson

The Paul Newman Collection : Harper / The Drowning Pool / The Left Handed Gun / The Mackintosh Man / Somebody Up There Likes Me (5 Disc Box Set) - £10.99

Paul Newman Collection Vol.2: The Silver Chalice, The Helen Morgan Story, The Outrage, When Time Ran Out , Rachel Rachel - £9.93

dino88

^You should have waited 1 more day before posting that.

Shuman

"James Bond Ultimate Sean Connery", i.e. all the Connery Bonds in one box, down to 9.88.

jwstl

The Powell and Pressburger Collection is at 16.49 before VAT, 14.03 after.

abyss

Hi guys

Do you know what is the differences between this 2 Star-Trek-Animated-DVD set on Amazon UK? Sorry I'm not allowed to post URL yet.
Both sets look quite similar except for the packaging:

1 set is going for 12.70 while the other is going for 39.99

Thought of getting the cheaper one but not sure if it lacks anything other than the box.

Thanks!

manicsounds

Just the special box is now a regular case it seems.