Region A Sentai/Viz Media Blurays on Region B Players

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Mangaranga

Mangaranga

Za Warudo
Quite a lot of Sentai's newer releases are Region AB and are listed in this thread.
Newer releases from Sentai start at title 5 (Disc 1) and 4 (Disc 2)

Region A locked Sentai Blurays can be played on Region B PS3s and Bluray players. The method for doing this is very simple:
For PS3s - When the region lock screen appears, press Triangle and select the ‘Go to’ option. Then select ‘title’, and for disc 1 go to title 4, for other discs the episodes start at title 3.
For BD Players - It may be slightly different for others, but I had to press the Search button then go to Title and change it to 4 to start playing disc 1, or 3 for other discs.

The only thing you lose with this method is access to the title screen. The pop up menu can still be used to navigate between episodes/extras, however returning to the top menu results in the Region Lock screen appearing again.

Discs Tested and Confirmed to work via this method:
AKB0048
AKB0048 Next Stage
Angel Beats
Battle Girls: Time Paradox
Canaan
Clannad
Clannad After Story
Colorful
Ef: A Tale of Melodies - (Later Copies are Region AB)
Ef: A Tale of Memories - (Later Copies are Region AB)
Familiar of Zero Season 1
Fate/Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works
From The New World Part 2 (Part 1 is AB)
Garden of Words
Gatchaman
Heaven's Memo Pad
The Hentai Prince and the Stony Cat
Hidamari Sketch
Highschool of the Dead: Drifters of the Dead OVA
Infinite Stratos
K-On!! part 1
K-On!! part 2
K-On! Movie
Maria Holic
Mardock Scramble: The First Compression (Director's Cut)
Mardock Scramble: The Second Combustion
[ur=http://forums.animeuknews.net/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=16183&start=45#p418905l]Mardock Scramble: The Third Exhaust[/url]Mayo Chiki
MM!
Nakaimo ~ My Little Sister Is Among Them!
Ninja Scroll
Nyan Koi!
Pet Girl of Sakurasou Collection 1
Pet Girl of Sakurasou Collection 2
Patlabor OVA collection
Patlabor TV Collection 1
Patlabor TV Collection 2
Patlabor TV Collection 3
Patlabor TV Collection 4
Penguindrum Part 1
Problem Children Are Coming From Another World, Aren't They?
Taisho Baseball Girls
To Love Ru
Motto To Love Ru
To Love Ru Darkness
Upotte!!
The World God Only Knows
The World God Only Knows II
Un-Go

Older Titles which work just by pressing the Top Menu Button:
Needless Collections

Blue = Recently Confirmed

Some Viz Media Blurays also work simply by pressing the Menu button (or Pop-up menu button).
You only have a few seconds to do so until you are booted back to the Player Menu/PS3 XMB though.

Titles Tested:
Berserk Movie 1
Berserk Movie 2
Berserk Movie 3
Morbito: Guardian of the Spirit
Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan - Season 1 Set 1
Tiger & Bunny Set 1
Tiger & Bunny Set 2
Lagrange Collection 1
 
Oh snap, that's awesome! If my Technika ever breaks down, this will let me use my PS3. I guess they forgot or just didn't think about locking the navigation.

Now all I need is money so I can actually buy some Blu-rays.
 
Ath said:
Oh snap, that's awesome! If my Technika ever breaks down, this will let me use my PS3. I guess they forgot or just didn't think about locking the navigation.

Now all I need is money so I can actually buy some Blu-rays.
Click to expand...

I don't know if this is clear from what i wrote in the first post but as far as i know this works ONLY for Sentai Titles. I don't have a Funimation disc to test, and won't until Steins;Gate comes out.

I would also note that this could change at any time since some older releases such as Canaan would work just by selecting the top screen button whereas this has not been the case since last July ish. What i'm trying to say is they took steps towards locking before and they could do it again. If anyone shows interest, I could test Sentai discs as i get them and update this.
 
Yeah, I can't imagine the same trick working for Funimation blus. I might test it on my FMA:Brotherhood discs (Parts 3-5) anyway but I doubt it'll come to anything.

Reminds me when I imported a DVD from America (Spider-Man 2) ,put it in my region-free DVD player and it still somehow got stuck on the "The interviews and/or commentary reflect the personal views of the participant and not the company, so don't sue us" message. I messed around in the navigation menus and bypassed it eventually. It was the only Region 1 title that this player had a little trouble with...

Anywho that's going off the point! There's been a couple of Sentai titles I'd been meaning to get at some point, The World God Only Knows especially, so this is still a nice trick to know. I'll still rely on the Technika to be on the safe side, just in case Sentai fix the loophole as you said.
 
Some funi stuff is AB already.

I wonder if this is a general flaw in region locking or specific to Sentai. I don't know why they bother locking their BR's in any event, the idea with regions is to stop imports, and given Japan and the US are both A I dont see a point locking out B.

-edit- Gonna see if I have any region A only funimation stuff and test it in my PS3 i think

-edit2- OK, got Clannad After Story working but when I tried Cat Planet Cuties it didn't work (goto was disabled).

I noticed that my PS3 identified the sentai disc just as a BR disc while the funimation one had its own little icon and gave the series name. Perhaps thats the reason?
 
Rosencrantz said:
I noticed that my PS3 identified the sentai disc just as a BR disc while the funimation one had its own little icon and gave the series name. Perhaps thats the reason?
Click to expand...

I doubt that makes any difference at all. Sentai just probably didn't set a Name/Icon for the disc. Some Manga releases are like that too, I think The Girl Who Leapt Through Time was one.

Rosencrantz said:
I wonder if this is a general flaw in region locking or specific to Sentai. I don't know why they bother locking their BR's in any event, the idea with regions is to stop imports, and given Japan and the US are both A I dont see a point locking out B.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure it's specific to Sentai. As you said it doesn't work with Funi discs, Manga discs don't work with this method when I change the region to A. I haven't got any NISA discs yet but I doubt it will work with those either.

And whilst I don't agree with it, Region Locking is meant to help protect Markets. If everyone imported US discs then Manga would not sell as much over here, and there would probably be even fewer BDs here. I understand why it's there but it's just annoying when one market doesn't get what the other does.
 
Ahhhhhh region coding, the bane of my existance for so many years.

I thought I had exhausted the possibility of playing Clannad on my PS3, but it turns out your method does work. I also tried on Funimation's FMA:B and FMP:TSR, neither worked.
 
Rosencrantz said:
I don't know why they bother locking their BR's in any event, the idea with regions is to stop imports, and given Japan and the US are both A I dont see a point locking out B.
Click to expand...
If they only have rights to a region A region then they can only put Region A on the disc. One reason being to protect the market borders (and remember, we're talking about people who thing locking subtitles on is a really good idea) - FUNimation presumable has to pay more to get the UK and AU rights along with the US, but that is OK since they can make that money back from sub-licenses. If FUNi only has US rights then the licensor is probably hoping to sell the show to Madman and Manga etc themselves and are worried that, if FUNi's discs were region free, then Manga would say "no thanks, our customer's have already imported it".
 
Re: Sentai Blurays on Region B Players

fabricatedlunatic said:
Seeing as you're updating, Mardock Scramble: The First Compression (Director's Cut) also works.
Click to expand...
It probably wouldn't be wrong to say that all their BDs work, I just don't want to put up something which would possibly be incorrect.
Thanks for the confirmation.

Oh, question. Do the Blurays for the two Mardock Scramble Movies have the Big Yellow subs which Sentai usually use?
 
Re: Sentai Blurays on Region B Players

Yeah, unfortunately.

But Mardock Scramble is the kind of show I watch in English, and it has a good dub (Hilary Haag <3), so it's not really an issue for me in this case.
 
Re: Sentai Blurays on Region B Players

ef A tale of memories and ef A tale of melodies work using the search method (all of the discs have the first episode on title 3 )
 
Re: Sentai Blurays on Region B Players

The procedure for doing this on Philips BD players (unless the search button has been added in the more current models) is different as you have to press the options button then select titles from the list which is when you'll get the list of available titles to select.
 
Re: Sentai Blurays on Region B Players

I can confirm that the Patlabor OVA collection works using this method, so it is likely that the Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 collection will work as well (and would expand this to Maiden Japan BD releases).
 
Re: Sentai Blurays on Region B Players

Updated with the K-On! Movie, I also have Colorful which probably works but have yet to test it.
 
Re: Sentai Blurays on Region B Players

Any word on Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 being region FREE?
 
Re: Sentai Blurays on Region B Players

BDT87 said:
Any word on Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 being region FREE?
Click to expand...
I don't know about region free, but it should work using this method since it still works for their latest releases. (e.g. K-On Movie)
After all, from what I understand Section 23 authors and distributes for both Sentai and Maiden Japan.
 
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