Quoting Stephan.klose:

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It's true. It's the studios fault. With HD-DVD there was no problem. All discs were code-free. Sadly with blu ray all fox, buena vista and all new sony titles are encoded with region zones.
Can anyone think of a sensible way to get studios to stop encoding them?

The HD DVD region code plan was approved the same week that Toshiba pulled the plug. It was to be the same as DVD with R2 Europe updated.

The real push for region code is Europe...
- it's hard to licence a Hollywood move and release it six months later with half the extras and double the price if people can just import the US version
and Japan...
- they worry about reverse imports, a cheap Japanese move disc is $50, most are $70-100 but if they licence it to the US it's going to be selling at Amazon.com for $25. Some Japanese companies are worried that they are in region A same as the US.

If European distributors released their discs within a week of the US version at about the same cost as importing the US release they would not need region code, but as long as they release it later at a higher price they are going to push for the US disc to be region coded.

I have not yet stopped buying SD. Certain films will still only get the DVD treatment from me and I'll try to spend the bigger bucks for now on films where I feel they are worth it (I am sure I'll be failing here and there.

I have been seen doing a few double-dips just this week, ordering a few of my favorite horror films on Blu-ray. I held out on Terminator 2; too few extras and likely more releases down the line...

I own a PS3 which I bought in Taiwan. We are luckily region A here, so I can purchase in Taiwan, Hong Kong and the USA. For titles from Region B I'll check the net first if they are encoded region free or not.

Quoting paulb_99:

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Quoting Stephan.klose:

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I would get the Samsung BD 1400 as it is the only one currently able to play DTS HD Master.  Which my already ordered Amplifier (Onkyo 605) is able to play.

Maybe you already know, but April 15th the PS3 gets a new firmware update enabling DTS: MA (see: http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/Firmware_Upgrades/PlayStation_3/PS3_Gets_DTS-HD_Master_Audio_Upgrade/1641)

Now i'll just have to get a new reciever, i was thinking the Onkyo TX-SR 805 or 875

Paul

The PS3 does the decoding all internally and outputs it as PCM. The Onkyo is perfectly capable of decoding DTS HD Master and TrueHD, so in my opinion you might be better off buying a Blu-Ray player capable of outputting those audio-formats in bitstream.

I found this link in another thread a while ago. It has a list of all blu-ray players and their capabilities.

I am very happy with my Panasonic DMP-BD30.

Regards,
Chris

I found the site, here is the link to the Sony BDP-S 300 which actually only costs 490€ there:
http://www.dvdplayer.de/wbc.php?sid=4467399afe5&tpl=detailvarianten.html&pid=405&rid=32

If they ever sell any good players that are codefree.. like the Samsung 1400 or the Panasonic 30 I might buy one there, even if they are a hell of a lot more expensive.

Thanks for the info. I did buy a region-coded Player in the meantime. The Samsung BD-P 1400. I noticed that most titles can be played anyway. Only those damn US Releases by Fox. Which is sad, because they have a lot of good stuff!

Maybe someday a hack of the firmware for my Samsung BD-P 1400 will be released. I am not sure if I would dare to use it though.

Would be great if there was a company that wasn't located so far away.

Being in North America Fox's affinity for region locking doesn't impact me much, but I'm definitely crossing my fingers that European publishers (of European movies) will leave all their releases unlocked. Since their movies rarely have a theatrical release in other regions, I can't see what they could possibly have to gain from region locking.

Then again, that hasn't stopped them from locking DVDs.

KM