The Swedish team that does these claims that the region-free capability of their players will not be affected by firmware upgrades (both SDVD playback and BR). I have a link to their store in a thread here.

Markus at Blu-Rayler.de said that in Germany the player will be around 699 Euro. I don't know if I should wait for the Sapphire to come out and then grab one or consider the Loewe just as a B-player (really, really like this piece). I also just went through three different Oppo's 981, two of them defective, and depending on the reviews my upgrade when their new 983 comes out. In any event I am going to have a third B-BR player for sure in the coming months, I just haven't decided which way to go as there is new info coming out almost every week.

Pro-B

when are the next olympics

Purple.

Why would smaller distribs welcome region coding? If you're going to push small numbers, wouldn't it make sense to have a single release instead of regional? This way you avoid having to press small numbers in multiple regions, which is a waste of money. I don't understand this position. I mean, if Region Coding was important to distributors, why are there so many Region free discs already on the market for Blu Ray? The next gen market is small as it is, the last thing small distributors need is to make that small market even smaller by eliminating regions.

I guess it is technically possible to import a region-free player from a country that allows region-free players and that MIGHT be legal (not sure). DVD players in the US must be set to R1 for legal sale by terms of the licensing.

DVD players must be set to R1 for sale in the US. Regional coding is a mandatory part of the CSS license:

http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html#1.11

For that matter, circumventing the region coding of a DVD player is a violation of the DMCA, like ripping them, according to the EFF:

http://w2.eff.org/IP/DMCA/copyrighto..._hg_062003.txt

Any region-free player you buy is either hacked, or an import. Grey market devices.

Here's a DVDtalk thread about the topic:

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/showthread.php?t=255168


This is the reason you cannot walk into a Best Buy and buy a region-free player. It is a violation of the terms/licensing of the DVD format.

I walked into Target, bought a Phillips DVD/Divx player for 49 dollars, and it was region free out of the box. You are under the illusion that all companys follow the rules to the T, that is not the case.

Sure, mistakes happen. I had a Zenith DVB318 upon release that upconverted all DVDs via component out of the box (a violation of the DVD forum rules). It was fixed in the next firmware revision shortly thereafter for newer players.

The question isn't when will region-free BD players be sold, as if they get popular enough you start getting region-free units out of the box. It is really "When will someone screw up and release a BD player region free" or "When will someone release a player that is easily hackable?". That could be never. It could be next week.

As an aside, with that upconverting Zenith, you could never update the firmware and it would likely still work just as good as any other DVD player. Who here has updated the firmware on their DVD player? Anyone?
Most likely, this will not be an option with BD since it almost becomes necessary to update firmware as new films are released (a phenomenon not at all avoided with HD DVD who IMO was worse). that said, this frequent firmware updating seems to have slowed, which is good.

99% of all DVD players sold in New Zealand are Region Unlocked out of the box.

Ive NEVER updated firmware on my DVD players. I never even knew it was possible until HD DVD/Blu-ray came along.

If you're a small distributer and you buy the rights for Region X, would you really want somebody else to come and flood your market with region-free discs?

Many indy or international films only get a single release. Look how many Hungarian films never see the light of day in the US for example. I'm not speaking on Blockbuster movies, I'm speaking on "smaller" distributors. Many films aren't licensed outside of their country, hence the reason there is a forum on DVDTALK called "International DVD". I guess they'll just make the discs region free and this will eliminate the problem, which is why I question how region coding helps smaller distributers?

In regards to 'flooding the market with region free discs', look at the Blu Ray release of "Seventh Seal". If I'm not mistaken Criterion owns the rights to this film in North America, yet there is a Region 0 Blu Ray in the UK. There isn't a shortage of DVDTALK members in North America who ordered and imported it, so it's already happening. I assume the people at Tarten were smart enough to realize that releasing a Region Coded version of Seventh Seal wasn't going to bring in the revenue they needed. That being the case, it brings up the question as to how Region Coding helps smaller distributers/titles, when I'm already seeing evidence that there are many Region 0 discs out there for Blu Ray when it comes to arthouse/international films?

I did a few.

Hacked firmware for my Zenith for region-free playback.

Hacked firmware for my Panny CP72 for region-free playback (IIRC)

Never an official one, though.

The official firmware update for my Zenith 318 fixed some issues people were getting with white crush over DVI. I never used it since I was using the player via component video and it fixed the ability to upconvert via component.

They can force updates all they want, it won't make a difference. With the ICOS modification the Blu Ray player doesn't become region free per se, but you choose your region when you boot up. The player has both firmwares. You can update your firmwares to the newest ones and still choose your region.

I'd be one of the first to jump on the blu-ray region-free. Though I'm really hoping to get a player that would play blu-ray, HD-DVD and upconvert SD-DVD. I don't see jumping on Blu-Ray until I can upconvert my old DVDs with one. Having a player for each format can get crazy.

Until then I've got plenty of import DVDs and HD-DVDs to watch. (Can't wait for the sales to pick up the HD-DVDs that I don't have for under-$10 prices.)