First region free Blu-ray players available

Look no further for the follow-up to last year's multi-region Blu-ray players, with Bluraymods.com advertising a completely region free Panasonic DMP-BD30, available in either pre-modified or DIY kit formats. That's all 6 DVD regions and three Blu-ray regions for those keeping count, and it claims to still work with any firmware updates. The good news for import lovers is a price of €499, considerably less than previous hardware, or €69 for a mod kit. We're still not sure how well this will play with future DRM updates, but taking the leap appears to be getting cheaper and more convenient.

[toxicpiano @ Jun 26th 2008 10:54AM]

Take that, geography!

[gabe @ Jun 26th 2008 10:55AM]

ooooh! bluray - its so awesome -

it's so great it sells like sh1t.

Give me a player that is $100 and then talk to me.

until then - just say no

[Hooterman @ Jun 26th 2008 11:01AM]

Piss off with the $100 player comments. Did you really never buy a DVD player that cost more then $100?

If not then BluRay isn't for you, and you can go ahead and stop commenting on BR posts.

[kjb434 @ Jun 26th 2008 11:32AM]

I never bough a DVD player that cost more than $150.

I don't see taking the plunge for Bluray costs the same and the discs are comparable to DVD's in price.

I think the majority of DVD owners are in this line of thinking because they either don't have the system or can't tell the different between the quality of bluray to DVD.

[LongshotX @ Jun 26th 2008 11:36AM]

Why was his post ranked low? The truth is why is Blu-Ray so expensive even after HD-DVD is dead? Bring on the cheap $150 and less players...

[X820 @ Jun 26th 2008 11:38AM]

stick to your VHS and DVD.

[Lowest Ranked @ Jun 26th 2008 12:05PM]

@LongShotx:

Thats just simple business economics.

With the only other high definition competitor out of the way, they can charge whatever they want for HD format and people will have to pay whatever they charge to get your fix.

HD-DVD was a blessing in disguise for us consumers.

[z0phi3l @ Jun 26th 2008 1:51PM]

@Hooterman


My standalone DVD burner didn't cost over $100, why pay any more for Blu? Hell even internal PC BluRay drives are still over $100 talk about ripping off the consumer

[gabe @ Jun 26th 2008 3:02PM]

The sony fanboys are strong in this thread.

How is an affordable bluray player negative? I love torrents as much as the next nerd on this forum but enough is enough - i want high quality movies at a price that is right. (Free?)

[SimbaDogg @ Jun 26th 2008 8:48PM]

@ game, and the Z dude, and the lowest ranked dude too...

i guess you guys really have a memory like a goldfish when it comes to consumer electronics. I guess you dont remember a point in time when dvd roms for comps were over 500 (yeah, i remember they started much higher than that, but thats all i remember). The first CD-ROM i ever got for my computer was 400 bucks through microtimes way back in the day when everyone was still rolling with windows 3.1 (yes, even before windows 98) I guess i by your reasoning i got super ripped off...tech takes time to come down, give it a rest.

When i bought my 50" pioneer elite 2 years ago, it was retailing for 5500...now you can almost get a 60" 1080p kuro for that price...did i get ripped off...no, tech comes down over time, seriously...give it a rest

[Pentium @ Jun 26th 2008 11:13AM]

I don't like this Region Lock thing.....why they invented it anyway?

[Penguin @ Jun 26th 2008 11:46AM]

To annoy those who legally purchased an international DVD.

[ethana2 @ Jun 26th 2008 11:54AM]

'piracy'

[jaredgood1 @ Jun 26th 2008 11:17AM]

That's pretty spiffy, but my import area is probably 80% Japan, 15% UK and 5% other. Given the US and Japan are now in the same region, it'll probably be quite a while until I look for a multi-region solution.

[LongshotX @ Jun 26th 2008 11:38AM]

Why is Blu-ray still so high even after HD-DVD is dead?

[schmitty338 @ Jun 26th 2008 11:41AM]

uhhh....seems to me like there is MORE reason for BR prices to be high now that there is basically no competition in the HD media realm.

[ethana2 @ Jun 26th 2008 11:46AM]

....Why not?

[schmitty338 @ Jun 26th 2008 11:39AM]

I'm confused...why is something like this required? I'm not trying to be facetious...i'm asking out of curiosity as I don't see how region-locking is a problem....is it that if I have a large collection of DVD/BR and move to say, china, they won't work in a player I buy there? Or am I not even close..?

[ethana2 @ Jun 26th 2008 11:53AM]

I think it may just be a matter of control. Because they can, you know?

Someday soon Free culture will catch up to them, and they will lose that power.

[teb @ Jun 26th 2008 12:01PM]

Many folks like to get content that is not available in the US, or is much cheaper overseas. As an example, I have a friend who is raising his kids to be bilingual (English and German), so he wants to get German-language DVDs for them to watch. For that he needs either a separate player, or at least multi-region.

The biggest "real" reason for region encoding (IMHO) is so that studios can charge different prices in different areas for the same content based on local markets (income levels, etc). Region-free players tend to level that out a bit, which is why they are not as readily available.

[blizz419 @ Jun 26th 2008 11:59AM]

exactly they wont work in a player you buy at retail there

[blizz419 @ Jun 26th 2008 12:00PM]

exactly they wont work in a player you buy at retail there

[teej @ Jun 26th 2008 12:25PM]

THIS must be the final nail in HD-DVD's coffin...

[Lopez @ Jun 26th 2008 12:26PM]

Region coding is to protect contractual arrangements with distributors in different countries. Combined with films that have different release dates in different territories, this can make headaches for the studios when their overseas packaged media distributors start to moan and complain that people are importing Film X from Region Y instead of buying the local version. That's the root of it.

Interesting about these all-region BD players. Region code checking in Blu-ray is on the DISC not in the drive like with DVD. In theory, the disc can say "is this a region A player?" Player says "yes." Then, the disc can also say, "is this a region B player?" If the player also says "yes" then the disc can say "sorry, I won't play." None of the studios have implemented the software this way yet, but I wonder if they will try it now that these players are out...

[Amerist @ Jun 26th 2008 12:33PM]

When discs start appearing which block "all region" players like this one then there will begin to appear players which have a selectable region (as if there weren't any already)

[ComradeZ @ Jun 26th 2008 9:29PM]

Read the article. The Blu-Ray switch is *manual*, which sounds like the hack works by masquerading the unit as a hardwired one-region player. Not as some kind of "all-region" beasty. The switching logic should be invisible to the disc.

[Alex` @ Jun 26th 2008 1:23PM]

Oh ffs. I thought the whole point of bluray was that it was region free anyway? Is that just the PS3 that's region free? well woop de doo!


Also, the person questioning the point of multi-region players- some videos -especially special editions- are only released in America or Japan or another specialised region, and holidaymakers can't use airport duty free shops in other contries for fear of their players being unable to use them.

Still, I see no reason to switch to bluray from DVD for the time being. the quality is almost identical to DVD if you have a nice DVD player and a normal sized TV.

[Mike @ Jul 7th 2008 5:44AM]

HD-DVD was region-free.

Sony gets to double-dip as usual with region-encodings and selling region-free players

[Sam Stone @ Jun 26th 2008 1:23PM]

And I leave from a quote from George W. Bush:

“Most imports are from outside of the country”


Well, I thought it was worth a 'lol'.

[Rick @ Jun 26th 2008 1:40PM]

Oh I get it. Since these players can be bought over seas and played in the US, we have to figure out what € means?

[Lowest Ranked @ Jun 26th 2008 1:44PM]

A Euro is roughly the equivalent of a US dollar.
A pound is roughly the equivalent of 2.3 US dollars.

[neofolklore @ Jun 26th 2008 3:15PM]

UHHH WHAT DO YOU THINK THIS IS? 2001?

1 Euro = 1.5738 U.S. dollars

1 British pound = 1.9875 U.S. dollars

even the australian dollar is close to a USD, I used to buy everything on ebay from australia back in 2004 when it was like 60 cents to a USD.

[Lowest Ranked @ Jun 26th 2008 7:05PM]

Check out a website such as http://www.dictionary.com and look up the words 'roughly equivalent'.

And yes, I think its 2001.

[ShadowKain @ Jun 26th 2008 2:13PM]

HA!!! Japanese bootlegs here I come!!! :D

[Dave @ Jun 26th 2008 3:02PM]

Cool!

[brianjg @ Jun 26th 2008 3:05PM]

@ lowest ranked, you are way off
1 dollar = .65 euro
1 dollar = .50 pound sterling

[BuddyBoy @ Jun 26th 2008 3:05PM]

To be honest I'm surprised on two accounts, one it took so long.

And (but) that no one has mentioned that (at least in the UK not sure of world markets) the PS3 is multi region as far as DVD matters, I have a huge collection of region 1 all play so far.

Plus many, many region A listed blue ray actually play on my region B PS3, infact out of 40 blu ray i have 3 are of the correct region for my player.

[vēer @ Jun 26th 2008 3:07PM]

Euro and US dollar are not even close to each other, google for it :)
Nice to see region freed BD, i wish they would become cheaper, both players and media as well, but it seems like both BD and DVD want to suck as much from current market as possible before making switch to new technology :/

[jay @ Jun 26th 2008 4:49PM]

im pretty sure my BH200 has firmware which makes it region free as well.... oh the wonders of the internet

[okayokay @ Jun 26th 2008 9:19PM]

Is this ethical

[Frank @ Jun 27th 2008 10:27AM]

All these comments about the price of blu-ray players being too high are sooooo short sighted. Ya ya, they are expensive right now, but do you remember how expensive DVD players were the first few years they were out? Probably not. You were probably too young to buy high-cost consumer electronics at that point.

My first DVD player was $1000 (Sony) and there wasn't even a competing format out yet. That was a LONG time ago too, with inflation what it is, a $500 blu-ray player is a helluva deal compared to that.

And that's another thing; With the dollar is in free-fall right now, - of course prices haven't dropped! Frankly i'm surprised players haven't jumped up in price.

It took YEARS before there were cheap players out there. The same is going to be true of Blu-Ray. It takes a while for the economies of scale to kick in enough that chip-makers license one-chip solutions and hardware gets cheap enough to manufacture..

And the movies are almost identical in price to what DVDs were then too. (Cheaper now actually - i almost never buy a blu-ray if it is over $20 and usually average about $15 with shipping).

If you don't have a large screen TV (like over 34"), then I grant that blu-ray is probably not a huge deal for you, but for people who own large HDTVs the difference can be incredible. Its far better than broadcast HDTV (which is better still than any of the digital streaming HD services like xbox live). Because you need a large tv, Blu-ray may never go as mainstream as DVD (i think thats going to depend on how cheap the player hardware and big-screen tvs get) but right now its by far the best HD format out there.

[hayati @ Jul 4th 2008 10:33AM]

Further to the posts up above, and I know it has been said before, but yes electronics are always expensive for early adopters.

I bought my first (and still working) Yamaha DVD player way back when. It cost me $1200 bucks and the picture was so astounding, and I have had many years joy from it, that it was worth the extra money for all the enjoyment that my friends and I have had from it.

I had a DVD player about 3 or 4 years before most of my friends. They would come round and watch movies at my house specifically because of the quality of the DVD and the dolby pro logic amp......yes before 5.1, before 6.1, 7.1, 10.1, 10.2.. dolby dts dolby digital, ...

If you enjoy it and get fun from it, then you will pay what you think it is worth to you..

Everyone jumps into the ring when the price hits their 'magic button'.

If it ain't your price yet.... then wait. If it is....jump in... nothing more to say..