The Region Free Blu-ray Player Thread

Well I’m pleased to say that I finally, after 4 years (where I actually gave money to Cultcine at one point ugh), I now have a region-free blu ray player (Philips). As far as I know it plays any DVD but I’m not sure about it being “zone-free” for blu ray discs.

Usually its just region free for the dvds but not for the blu rays unfortunately.

Does anyone have any experience with these guys: http://www.codefreedvd.com/

I’m not sure where I got my blu ray player from, it’s been years since I got it, but it was a place similar to this one. When I’m home I’ll fish out the box and see if I saved the receipt. I can tell you that the player I got came with streaming functions advertised but the player couldn’t connect to my network; I’ve got a roku so no big deal. Odd they would advertise that considering firmware updates to remove that functionality are downloaded.

I am toying with the idea of rather buying a high quality non-free player with a cheap region free player as a backup, rather than having to deal with the narrow selection of decent region-free players out there. A modified free player can cost a lot more than a non-free version…

At the bottom of that page for codefreedvd there is a link to 220electronics, previously mentioned. I purchased the Sony BDP-S1500 from their eBay site for $75 USD last Christmas and it suits my needs for a region-free player Haven’t used the other features.

Mine was an LG BPM33. No price or website info unfortunately. Think I got it for a little over $100? It was this model here on the codefreedvd site:

Just checked the site. I can find a Region A (The region I need) Sony player for $95. Cheapest postage to Denmark is $70. So $165 and to that I have to add Danish VAT (25%) and import fee ($24) so all in all $230. And that’s how an on-paper cheap player ends up costing a fortune. I have previously found a simlar player from another dealer on ebay that ended up costing something like $150 so that’s probably the way I’ll go when I go :slight_smile:

there is a bunch of players on amazon UK and DE, but it is a limited selection. At least that should be cheaper as it’s within-EU purchase/shipping

Please supply me with links :slight_smile:

When I have checked I have had a hard time finding anything cheaper than 200 euro or so.

@Admin pls pass the word along to Koch to make those new blu ray releases region free… or is there some actual word on region locking being required? Wouldn’t think so… the German blus for the Dollars films are region free as well as Explosive releases…

Not sure I’ll be buying any more region locked discs since my player is dead and I don’t want to keep paying extra for a region free player… at some point, they will be harder to come by and then will be stuck with a bunch of locked discs if player would need replacing again…

I doubt that Koch Media has any say in what they have to region lock sadly.

But you will probably always be able to buy a player not necessarily a region free one but you will always be able to buy a region B player so just go for one of those.

That’s usually in the license agreements. But I wouldn’t be surprised if you’d find a lot of “Region B” discs out thee that say so on the cover but actually aren’t… Unfortunately I do not have the technical means to check these things but that’s what I’m hearing from some labels…

That is true. Many many many Code Red discs for example are stated as being region A but they are mostly or always region free. That info can nearly always be found somewhere on the net. But if you are bound by a certain region you will miss out at some point.

I keep looking at region free players, but there are not so many downright serious or trustworthy shops, and the players offered region free are usually a bit older and pricier… I should have made that investment years ago…

I only had a region free player because my cheapo Insignia was hackable. Now that its dead, I’ll either find another cheapo hackable one or not buy one at all. I currently use my xbox as a player, at least its getting some use lol.

I checked all my Koch stuff and all are locked except for the 2 very old titles of Blindman and Death Sentence, I currently no way to watch them so they are all being sold except for the Silver Saddle blu ray.

Only other option for region locked discs is to rip them off with a blu ray drive onto computer, and then either re-burn or save digitally. But I don’t even have a blu ray drive yet.

Importing a region B player probably costs more than just buying a region free player here, because shipping from EU costs a lot.

Just saying if Koch was aware how much more sales potential they could have with region free maybe they’d try to make it happen?

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If it were up to them, probably, but more likely that these are contractual obligations

Region free players are way more cheap than they are in the EU so you’re probably right. Actually they are so cheap in the US that I would deem your problem a not really a problem :slight_smile: It’s the cost of a couple of releases.

Its all relative I guess.

I have very little money, so its a lot to me.

And the way things are going with digital media taking over, I wouldn’t be surprised to see someday in the near future that all hardware players are as hard to find as VCRs are now.

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At some point yes but certainly not in the near future. If they can last as long as I live it’s fine by me :slight_smile:

As long as there is enthusiasts keeping the physical media alive they will keep producing them. Just see how the record player market is doing.

But yes all is relative. But it’s still only the cost of a couple of releases.