GarryP

I was just picking on something you could find roughly the same spec in all three countries.

Blu-ray has the same region for UK and Aus, so that's no problem. As for US and DVD, yes in theory, but region free and other techniques allow you to break the implicit lockin.

Pollyana

Many dvd players are multi-region now anyway, problem solved Even mine, which is so old it was someone's spare that was on its way to the bin is multi-region

Jen1977ni

O, ok...our Tesco TV with built in DVD player isn't, very annoying!!! grr

GarryP

Blu Ray players are cheap now, even JB Hifi do one for $99.

Since UK and Oz share the same region under Blu Ray, you can get your disks from either and they will work. And you aren't putting money into the old format.

And as far as the Tesco built in DVD is concerned, you can usually find a 'region-free' code online if you know what the spec of the DVD player inside is.

Alfresco

Thanks Garry. That's great news.

Beedubya

You can go online and find a thingie which cracks the code, pardon my tech talk LOL!!

Anyway I did it with my last DVD player and you just punched in a sequence of numbers on the remote and Bobs ya uncle.

lesleys

Don't forget www.booko.com.au does an automatic price comparison for books, including US and UK sites. It's sometimes surprising which is best.

GarryP

Booko is useful, but it doesn't appear to take notice of the VAT being removed on DVDs, or of this new super saver free postage.

So take it with a pinch of salt.

moneypenny20

Couldn't do it with my old DVD which we replaced at Christmas and only bought when we first arrived here. The only way round it was to buy some particular one for all remote and then find a number that doesn't appear to exist and then throw the remote out of the window

Didn't know about blu ray UK and Aus being the same though, that's good to know.

paulry

for the not too distant future

OP: Thanks for the info

GarryP

For those who have hit the DVD region problem, http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks provides a long list of players and hacks to make your player work. Sometimes these require something like a One-for-All / Logitech Harmony remote to send keystrokes they have conveniently left off the supplied remote - but these are useful anyway in reducing the remote juggling act. Sometimes your precise model might not be mentioned, but its actually just a re-badged version of another machine, that is. A spot of googling is usually all that's needed to discover its parentage. As a last resort, you'll often find other machines by that manufacturer use the same hack.

The last machine that I couldn't find a hack for was a Sony, and that was many years ago - even they do multi-region today.

Saying that, I'd seriously be looking at Blu-Ray now. The players have come down to a sensible level, obviously they play DVDs and connect via HDMI for better quality. But mainly, they mean you don't buy lower quality DVDs now, and then find you want the higher quality Blu-Ray when you get your DLP projecting home cinema.

Plus, many blu-rays are actually region free (see http://bluray.liesinc.net/ ) so the US version will play OK.

Sherlock Holmes

Do I read that correctly? Blue ray players will play DVDs?

GarryP

Err, yes.

OK, I thought the above would answer all the questions, but looks like a beginner's guide to Blu-Ray is in order.

Blu-Ray is essentially a HD version of DVD (576p), with a built in resolution of 1080p (1920x1080). Five times the pixel area and less compression - that means you can blow the picture size up to a cinema size and not see too much blur.

Because the manufacturers aren't stupid, Blu-Ray players are also backwards compatible with DVD disks, and will usually upscale the result to 1080p. Actually, scratch that; because they are sometimes very dumb they have continued to try and limit what you can do with your property with region codes and the requirement to output over a digital HDMI connection. Then, because they weren't selling, they tended to not turn on the region coding or other nasty features. Upshot is, we are in the same region as the UK (Region B), but a different region to the US (Region A), but it often doesn't matter. In theory, if they player has, say, SCART or coax connections they can downscale or play silly b*****s - but they tend not to actually do this either. Still, an HDMI connection is something of a must.

The players come in different profiles, with different capabilities, but the usual now is profile 2.0 with a network port to connect to the internet and give you "BD-Live" - which is generally a crock and not worth even clicking on. Other than this the players can now run proper programs that means the menu, etc. usually looks more pretty and it can do things like Picture-in-Picture. Also, using that network port, many of the mid/high players can hook into your home network and player media from other devices (DLNA).

Blu-Ray comes with new HD audio codecs that give you essentially uncompressed sound, if you have the right decoding stage. Put that together with the picture and you can setup your own 'home cinema' that gives you a better experience than you'll receive at the local flea-pit.

In theory 3D is coming. In practice nobody is that fussed and the only decent 3D film (Avatar) can only be bought if you buy the right telly. Forget it for the mo.

Blu-Ray disks had a new set of protections (annoyances) put on in a vain attempt to stop backups/copying etc. These got comprehensively broken a few years back, which then allowed the format to grow (surprise). Today the cost of the disk is only $1-2 more than the DVD and they often produce 'triple packs' of DVD+Blu Ray to entice you in.

NCFC

Thanks GarryP, i feel very educated now.

moneypenny20

I googled on and off for five years. Tried many that were almost identical blah blah blah. Was not going to happen. Wasn't too fussed in the end as we only had one DVD that we couldn't play. Bloody irritating and most certainly not all available to hack.