Thinking about going multi-region

I don't think there's any BD player on the market with enforced firmware upgrades - even if it was an import PS3 you were using, you could theoretically just stop upgrading the fw and use it exclusively as a BD player. They can't put fw updates on the disc like with, say, the Wii, since so many players would be running so many different types of fw.

I guess they could theoretically come up with a BD equivalent of DVD region code enhancement, but that didn't work back then and most people seem less bothered about region locking now anyway so I don't see why they'd bother.
 
Hmm. All I know is that the BD player on my computer needed a updates. Or, one, thus far. It played some early BD discs but stopped whenever I got a newer disc. I sorted it out on this laptop a while back and has been working fine since, but I was reminded when I tried to play "Scott Pilgrim" on my brothers laptop who hasn't done the update a couple of days ago. It simply doesn't play without.

Yeah, I guess you're right however. I can't see the internet being an absolute requirement for every new BD needed.
 
Oh, BD drives and playback programs for PCs maybe. But standalone players I can't see it, although obviously you could be limited if stuff moves further along the "3D" line of thinking (although, realistically, if you care enough to be buying and watching like that, you can probably afford a new player anyway).

DVDs not working with early players as the technology and encoding developed was certainly a big problem for a time, but they seem to have been much better prepared for this with BD players (not 100%, but still).
 
Jayme said:
Yeah, I guess you're right however. I can't see the internet being an absolute requirement for every new BD needed.
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Isn't it in the spec.

Not sure if they can use it to enforce region locks though.
Would be very bad for consumers if they did, but quite a lot of the BDA are opposed to region locks anyway.
 
Reaper gI said:
Jayme said:
Yeah, I guess you're right however. I can't see the internet being an absolute requirement for every new BD needed.
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Isn't it in the spec.

Not sure if they can use it to enforce region locks though.
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They can and have with my model of BD player. The newest firmware removes the multi-region capability. However, there's an easy workaround called "don't connect it to the internet".

Reaper gI said:
...quite a lot of the BDA are opposed to region locks anyway.
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Sorry, what? Region locking is the reason Blu-ray won the format war. It helps certain major studios protect the profits they make in regional markets where their discs sell for higher prices.

No region code = Free market.
Region coding = Market protectionism.

And people think multinational corporations like free trade. Ha!
 
ayase said:
They can and have with my model of BD player. The newest firmware removes the multi-region capability. However, there's an easy workaround called "don't connect it to the internet".
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Exactly, this is what I was talking about. I don't know how they would get around this without significantly changing the encoding on the discs, and ******* over all the people who own players from companies who don't even exist "properly" any more/couldn't be bothered to offer fw upgrades for old players, etc.

Blu-ray won the format war because it is a better format, imo. There are plenty of very significant movie companies who don't region code their discs.
 
ayase said:
Sorry, what? Region locking is the reason Blu-ray won the format war. It helps certain major studios protect the profits they make in regional markets where their discs sell for higher prices.

No region code = Free market.
Region coding = Market protectionism.

And people think multinational corporations like free trade. Ha!
Click to expand...
It was European distros who were for region locks, hence region B being Europe.

Casual market didn't buy into HD so quickly, so the better format won. Rather than the less advanced but much cheaper alternative, like every other time.
 
A firmware update could get rid of the option to change the region. But i cant see there being one anytime soon. It plays all the latest blu-rays and i cant see there being any additional functions anytime soon.
And as other people have said, theres no reason why you have to connect it to the internet and update the firmware anyway.
 
ayase said:
No region code = Free market.
Region coding = Market protectionism.

And people think multinational corporations like free trade. Ha!
Click to expand...

Actually multinationals LOVE free trade, its how they squash all the small companies.

As for region locking, Funi released FMA:B unlocked and then MangaUK reports poor sales of their FMA:B release.

The US and Japan are now in the same region code so we get hugely delayed BD releases as the Japanese studios are scared of reverse imports. (although their prices are just insane!)

Maybe if they'd got the region coding right we'd still have FMA:B being released here and titles such as The girl who leapt through time wouldn't be years late with a BD release.
 
Project-2501 said:
ayase said:
No region code = Free market.
Region coding = Market protectionism.

And people think multinational corporations like free trade. Ha!
Click to expand...

Actually multinationals LOVE free trade, its how they squash all the small companies.

As for region locking, Funi released FMA:B unlocked and then MangaUK reports poor sales of their FMA:B release.

The US and Japan are now in the same region code so we get hugely delayed BD releases as the Japanese studios are scared of reverse imports. (although their prices are just insane!)

Maybe if they'd got the region coding right we'd still have FMA:B being released here and titles such as The girl who leapt through time wouldn't be years late with a BD release.
Click to expand...

800px-Blu-ray_regions_with_key.png


What annoys me about the Blu Ray region encoding, is why did they lump the USA together with Asia? Its true that anime or asian film fans would benefit from it in the USA but why lump us with the rest of Europe? Entertainment wise, us Brits are one of the major importers of American shows, why not give us the rights to share the same region coding? pfft.
 
Project-2501 said:
Actually multinationals LOVE free trade, its how they squash all the small companies.

As for region locking, Funi released FMA:B unlocked and then MangaUK reports poor sales of their FMA:B release.

The US and Japan are now in the same region code so we get hugely delayed BD releases as the Japanese studios are scared of reverse imports. (although their prices are just insane!)

Maybe if they'd got the region coding right we'd still have FMA:B being released here and titles such as The girl who leapt through time wouldn't be years late with a BD release.
Click to expand...

Region coding isn't what killed the UK release of FMA:B.
The BBFC requires that the rating certificate is printed on the disc, so the disc print run can't be shared with other manufacturers in the US and then imported as the US manufacturers don't want our ratings on their discs.

Because of this the UK needs its own print run, the current minimum BD print run is 3,000 copies. When this finally drops by a significant margin, we'll see even more BD releases and potentially the rest of the FMA:B BDs.
 
afoia said:
Entertainment wise, us Brits are one of the major importers of American shows, why not give us the rights to share the same region coding? pfft.
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Exactly, we're a major importer, so we need a different region.
Without the barrier we'd import disks from the US rather than sub-license off them. This could kill all the European companies who just release su-licensed copies of American properties with jacked up prices.
 
Jiindama said:
Region coding isn't what killed the UK release of FMA:B.
The BBFC requires that the rating certificate is printed on the disc, so the disc print run can't be shared with other manufacturers in the US and then imported as the US manufacturers don't want our ratings on their discs.
Click to expand...

Re-read what Manga said.

"So, you may ask why doesn't Manga buy in Region 0 BRs from the USA? The reason is that A.) We are not allowed to by the Licensor in Japan,
Click to expand...

So even without the BBFC they would not have been allowed to do it.

Plenty of other companies use the same master for multiple countries and can cope with printing the BBFC logo on just the UK discs.
 
Project-2501 said:
Plenty of other companies use the same master for multiple countries and can cope with printing the BBFC logo on just the UK discs.
Click to expand...
Have to print on the whole disk run. Same reason UK disks often have Irish or German certs printed on the disks.
We're not talking same master (we can share those anyway for most DVDs) we're talking same print run (due to the large minimum).
 
Project-2501 said:
ayase said:
No region code = Free market.
Region coding = Market protectionism.

And people think multinational corporations like free trade. Ha!
Click to expand...
Actually multinationals LOVE free trade, its how they squash all the small companies.
Click to expand...
My point was that they only love it when it suits them.

"I don't agree with my competitors being able to protect their business from being taken away by me, but I have a right to protect my business from overseas competition. I even have a right to protect my revenues in one country from being undermined by the lower prices I charge for exactly the same thing in another!"

That's not free trade. Yet that's the way a hell of a lot of large corporations behave. Blatant hypocrisy from people who want to live by the sword but aren't prepared to die by it.

The true laissez-faire region coding map:
800px-No_colonies_blank_world_map.png
 
Reaper gI said:
Have to print on the whole disk run. Same reason UK disks often have Irish or German certs printed on the disks.
We're not talking same master (we can share those anyway for most DVDs) we're talking same print run (due to the large minimum).
Click to expand...

The silkscreen can be done afterwards. Its the same silkscreen machines for DVDs, CDs and blurays. They could even just silkscreen the BBFC logo and reg number over the existing artwork.

So maybe I need to repeat:

"So, you may ask why doesn't Manga buy in Region 0 BRs from the USA? The reason is that A.) We are not allowed to by the Licensor in Japan,
Click to expand...

Many many live action DVDs have a language selection at the start and copyright info for 10 or more regions yet the disc is printed only in English.

My BD of Bladerunner has 4 ratings logos on it. Even MangaUK BDs for GITS and Skycrawlers have 2 logos, BBFC and the Irish one.
 
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