The Q & A Thread (for questions that do not need a thread)

Re: The Q & A Thread (for questions that do not need a threa

Just Passing Through said:
IncendiaryLemon said:
So I just ordered something from United Publications USA and while I got a confirmation email, when I go to my account page, it says I have no standing orders. Is this right?
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It'll take about a day (a little longer as it's a bank holiday), as they update their system by hand. (If you ever want to cancel, change your card details, or your password, you'll have to e-mail/submit the form on the site or phone them up).
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Ah right, that's fine then. Kind of weird they do it by hand. I was under the impression every site would be automated.
 
Re: The Q & A Thread (for questions that do not need a threa

IncendiaryLemon said:
Just Passing Through said:
IncendiaryLemon said:
So I just ordered something from United Publications USA and while I got a confirmation email, when I go to my account page, it says I have no standing orders. Is this right?
Click to expand...

It'll take about a day (a little longer as it's a bank holiday), as they update their system by hand. (If you ever want to cancel, change your card details, or your password, you'll have to e-mail/submit the form on the site or phone them up).
Click to expand...

Ah right, that's fine then. Kind of weird they do it by hand. I was under the impression every site would be automated.
Click to expand...

It depends on volume of traffic. A few hundred orders each day is doable by hand, which I guess would be realistic for anime, and as I mentioned in another thread, it has the added benefit of security. It's hard to hack a human, unless you're in Ghost in the Shell.
 
Re: The Q & A Thread (for questions that do not need a threa

RightStuf also seems to do it by hand, as it acts in the same way as UP1, your order doesn't immediately show up on your account page. So UP1 isn't alone.

But doing it by hand in this day and age :eek:
 
Re: The Q & A Thread (for questions that do not need a threa

Stiivun said:
RightStuf also seems to do it by hand, as it acts in the same way as UP1, your order doesn't immediately show up on your account page. So UP1 isn't alone.

But doing it by hand in this day and age :eek:
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Pro's and cons I think. Having it all online makes it vulnerable to being hacked and credit card data stolen.

Perhaps the savings of not having to have top notch security and web design are worth the hassle of manually inputting orders.
 
Re: The Q & A Thread (for questions that do not need a threa

So today my US Import Shiki boxset arrived. It came with both Blu Rays and DVDs however the DVDs were locked to Region 1. Despite this, my PC plays the discs just fine. If I got a Blu Ray disc drive for my PC, would that also play Region A discs without issue?
 
Re: The Q & A Thread (for questions that do not need a threa

IncendiaryLemon said:
So today my US Import Shiki boxset arrived. It came with both Blu Rays and DVDs however the DVDs were locked to Region 1. Despite this, my PC plays the discs just fine. If I got a Blu Ray disc drive for my PC, would that also play Region A discs without issue?
Click to expand...

The only issue you'll have is that you'll need a Blu-ray player software like PowerDVD. I set my laptop to USA so that I can play Region A and Region 1 discs, and use PowerDVD 12 for Blu-ray and VLC (or Window Media Center) for DVD.
 
Re: The Q & A Thread (for questions that do not need a threa

NormanicGrav said:
IncendiaryLemon said:
So today my US Import Shiki boxset arrived. It came with both Blu Rays and DVDs however the DVDs were locked to Region 1. Despite this, my PC plays the discs just fine. If I got a Blu Ray disc drive for my PC, would that also play Region A discs without issue?
Click to expand...

The only issue you'll have is that you'll need a Blu-ray player software like PowerDVD. I set my laptop to USA so that I can play Region A and Region 1 discs, and use PowerDVD 12 for Blu-ray and VLC (or Window Media Center) for DVD.
Click to expand...

My PC is set to UK and VLC played the R1 disc fine. Weird. Also, I think I could put up with the software considering how much cheaper buying a Blu Ray drive and Software would be in comparison to a multiregion Blu Ray player.
 
Re: The Q & A Thread (for questions that do not need a threa

IncendiaryLemon said:
My PC is set to UK and VLC played the R1 disc fine. Weird. Also, I think I could put up with the software considering how much cheaper buying a Blu Ray drive and Software would be in comparison to a multiregion Blu Ray player.
Click to expand...
VLC ignores region locking on DVDs. You can have your PC set to any region and any DVD will play. BD on the other hand is a giant pain in the arse. BD drives are also set to one region like DVD drives, but then you run in to the other problem - barely anything supports playback of Blurays normally, and pretty much all of the programs that do are behind a paywall.
Personally I run AnyDVD HD which removes the copy protection on the disc temporarily, then I play back the transport streams on the disc in MPC-HC. Kodi (formerly XBMC) allows you to boot the disc like a normal player/program would and access the menus and stuff, but again, that's only after you've got something like AnyDVD running.
 
Re: The Q & A Thread (for questions that do not need a threa

Mangaranga said:
IncendiaryLemon said:
My PC is set to UK and VLC played the R1 disc fine. Weird. Also, I think I could put up with the software considering how much cheaper buying a Blu Ray drive and Software would be in comparison to a multiregion Blu Ray player.
Click to expand...
VLC ignores region locking on DVDs. You can have your PC set to any region and any DVD will play. BD on the other hand is a giant pain in the arse. BD drives are also set to one region like DVD drives, but then you run in to the other problem - barely anything supports playback of Blurays normally, and pretty much all of the programs that do are behind a paywall.
Personally I run AnyDVD HD which removes the copy protection on the disc temporarily, then I play back the transport streams on the disc in MPC-HC. Kodi (formerly XBMC) allows you to boot the disc like a normal player/program would and access the menus and stuff, but again, that's only after you've got something like AnyDVD running.
Click to expand...

Hmmm. That does seem a pain. Also I just looked at the price of PowerDVD and damn. £44 is kind of steep for some Blu Ray playing software. I'm genuinely surprised there is no freeware blu ray software yet. I mean Blu Ray has been out for ages now. I was under the impression that MPC-HC supported Blu Rays outright, as in the file menu, the option to play a disc from your drive says Play DVD/BD.

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Re: The Q & A Thread (for questions that do not need a threa

Mangaranga said:
Personally I run AnyDVD HD which removes the copy protection on the disc temporarily, then I play back the transport streams on the disc in MPC-HC.
Click to expand...
That's exactly the way I do it too, it works well enough. AnyDVD's a bit overpriced really for what it is, but along with a BD drive it still works out cheaper than a region free BD player.

I'd be wary of PowerDVD IncendiaryLemon as I don't think it even unlocks regions, so you'll just use up your drive's region code changes and then find yourself stuck with one region (unless you get something like AnyDVD as well).
 
Re: The Q & A Thread (for questions that do not need a threa

ayase said:
I'd be wary of PowerDVD IncendiaryLemon as I don't think it even unlocks regions, so you'll just use up your drive's region code changes and then find yourself stuck with one region (unless you get something like AnyDVD as well).
Click to expand...

I second that notice. PowerDVD is region locked which is why I changed my drive's region.
 
Re: The Q & A Thread (for questions that do not need a threa

Be aware that the region code of some DVD drives is in the drive's firmware, so even VLC can't get past it. To beat that, you have to flash the firmware which will invalidate your warranty.
 
Re: The Q & A Thread (for questions that do not need a threa

So I've decided I need a new region A player and since ya'll are kinda talking about it I thought I'd ask, could I just buy a US player from Amazon.com and have it shipped over? I'm not sure how it would work because I know there are differences like voltage, watts and frequencies...would the saving even be worth the hassle? (I can buy a player for less than £30 from the US and cheapest I can find a region free player in the UK is like £150.
 
Re: The Q & A Thread (for questions that do not need a threa

Most modern electronics are built to take anywhere between 110-240v (so the same basic model can be made in China and sold worldwide) and don't even need a converter. Indeed I have a couple of items which, upon close inspection, I found to have a US or European plug inside a UK plug shaped adapter for sale in the UK.

You'd want to check the specific model to make sure it can take 240, but it's likely you can just swap the plug over (or even use a travel adapter) and it'll probably be fine.
 
Re: The Q & A Thread (for questions that do not need a threa

Okay I'll have a look into it tomorrow, just seems like a much cheaper option, and with the PS4 plugged into my TV anyway I could just use that for region B stuff. Thanks for the info.
 
Re: The Q & A Thread (for questions that do not need a threa

I just searched on Amazon.com, I think that one was a refurb though but still sold through Amazon. Tbh £30 was maybe a touch optimistic, even more so when you add shipping (no idea what that would cost), but even if it ends up closer to £60 it's still a damn sight cheaper.

http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-BD-H5100- ... ray+player

That's the one I was looking at but I'd prob go with something else tbh.
 
Re: The Q & A Thread (for questions that do not need a threa

If you buy a blu-ray player direct from USA you'll need a step down USA to UK voltage converter which will cost you around £5-10.

You'll probably have to buy one direct from Amazon as it doesn't seem that some of the marketplace sellers (even one's fulfilled by Amazon) of the blu-ray players on Amazon.com will send to the UK.
 
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