So, multi-region doov'de players.

[Danny]

Do people still buy these anymore? i just saw an ad on tv for one and they seem pointless. like why get an expensive dvd player, not even blu-ray but the format thats bieng phased out when you dont need to? Heres how i play the dvds i get from america or asia. i whent to tescos got a £15 dvd player that was just play, stop and eject buttons on it. type in its model and get a code to remove the region lock. Does anyone still do anything other than that? i bring this up because a mate of mine refuses to do so and bought a £150 region free dvd player because he thinks what i am doing is "piracy". Now ive tried to tell him im BUYING dvd's, just from other countries, im not making copies, im just making it so the player can play more than the shitty versions we always get in the uk. but he wont listen. course this is the same guy who wants an ipad even though he has an iphone and a macbook "because he wants a new toy" anyway, whats you thang'? do you import dvds and play them on a region free player, code break a regular player or dont get any filthy foreign devil media on you players?

[LouCipherr]

i bring this up because a mate of mine refuses to do so and bought a £150 region free dvd player because he thinks what i am doing is "piracy". Well, that means he obviously doesn't understand the definition of "Piracy." You're certainly right - if you're buying the DVD's, you're not pirating anything. As far as region-free players, there's no need anymore. Just about every standard def dvd player out there has a code to remove the region lock, so buying a player with the region lock removed already and paying that kind of premium is silly. This was one of the great things about HD-DVD players - no region coding. I bought HD-DVD's from all over the planet and just put 'em in and they'd play.

[EvilNed]

Rich as fuck? I don't know how things are over in the UK, but I bought a region free DVD player a year ago for about the equivalent of 35 pounds maybe? It also plays files directly from a USB-stick and kicks major ass.

[bassman]

I've never purchased different region DVDs or players, but now that I think about it....Capn once sent me a dvd that played fine on my R1 player. I thought you guys used a different system?

[Danny]

Rich as fuck? I don't know how things are over in the UK, but I bought a region free DVD player a year ago for about the equivalent of 35 pounds maybe? It also plays files directly from a USB-stick and kicks major ass. sarcasm gentle commie, scarasm.

[LouCipherr]

I haven't bought much from overseas - last thing I picked up is the UK version of Spaced. I won't even go NEAR the US release (long story for another thread). I did buy a bunch of HD-DVD's from overseas, but I guess I won't be doing much of that in the future.

[MinionZombie]

I've used codes to unlock three DVD players in my time, including my awesome Samsung that I've had since Xmas 2002. BTW, I really don't see DVD as majorly threatened as a format yet. Blu-Ray is still trailing way behind DVD sales, and the technology is still too complex and expensive - i.e. it hasn't reached Ford Mondeo standards yet - i.e. i.e. pick whatever, you can't go wrong. BR has too many niggles and silly little problems or things only tech-nerds would realise about. Back to DVD players, I've been buying R1 discs for years now, so often because R2 gets screwed out of extra content, or has an inferior transfer, or is cut to ribbons, or for example with Rambo the R2 has shitty tacked-on sub-titles while the R1 has the exact same clean, crisp, suitable sub-titles I saw in the cinema ... and as an afficianado of this 'ere thing called "film", that's a naughty-no-no. As far as buying R1 discs being "piracy" ... is your mate smoking crack? You're buying a legal disc and the money ends up in the hands of the companies and people that put it out there.

[SymphonicX]

OK it's a two fold answer for me... When I originally bought my very first DVD player - a matsui from Dixons, within a month I'd typed the code in to unlock it... Then my next DVD player came along and that was already pre-unlocked - it was billed as Region 2 on the box but the shop had unlocked the whole consignment and sold it like that....£90 back in 2003 Then I got rid of that, gave it away to some random person....and I was left with my xbox, my ps3 and my computer...obv the consoles are untouchable with region coding... but the PC dvd player isn't an issue... as for it being "piracy" well, your mate is obviously very uninformed. The only people remotely suffering would be the manufacturers who insist on region coding their DVD players in the first place, and then releasing a region free model. Fuck them.

[EvilNed]

Tried the "region number unlocking" thing on one of my Pioneer surround sound systems. Wouldn't work.