John H Ross

Region coding, and its impact on existing players

Forgive me if this has been discussed before in one of the other long threads but I've been spending far too much time on the road lately (with work, tut!) and not enough time in front of the PC.

Is it true what I'm hearing about HD-DVD and/or Blu-Ray introducing some kind of region coding at some point in the future? If so, I was wondering what impact that would have on existing machines. For example, if in 12 months time WB issues a title on HD-DVD region coded "1" would it not refuse to play on players manufactured before region "1" existed because it would be seen as a potentially "hacked" player? Would that mean existing players would have to be chipped or could a firmware upgrade work around it?

More specifically, I'm presuming that it would be considered insane to import a HD player into, say, the UK at the moment because once region coding comes into effect it'll go bye-bye - even more so than a machine used in the States (again, unless you send it away to be chipped)?

John

Jerry Goldsmith
1929-2004

Sam Davatchi

Re: Region coding, and its impact on existing players

I think some of the HD discs are already region coded. I have bought the Terminator on Blu-ray and it's region coded already. It shows on the back region A.

Mark Zimmer

Re: Region coding, and its impact on existing players

Yes, BD is using region coding already. My understanding is that the Toshiba HD-A1 doesn't have the necessary software for region coding, so early purchasers of the HD-A1 shouldn't have to worry about it (there's not even a single mention of HD region coding in the manual), though they might try to sneak it in through a firmware update at some point. Another argument for not connecting the player to the Ethernet.

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Sam Davatchi

Re: Region coding, and its impact on existing players

Wow, that's great if Toshiba HD-A1 has no HD region coding! But what about normal DVDs and is it PAL capable?

Walter Kittel

Re: Region coding, and its impact on existing players

Sam - Standard DVD region coding is enforced on the HD-A1, and it does not support PAL playback. 0 for 2. Sorry.

- Walter.