Life On Mars (UK) Blu-ray ... Will it play on American Blu-ray players (1 Viewer)

Will the UK blu-ray sets of Life On Mars series 1 & 2 play on American blu-ray players?

I read on the SD TV thread that these TV box sets from the UK are region-unlocked. I assume that means my BD player will play them, but do I also need to have some hdmi converter for my set to play what the BD is sending?

I have a three year-old Panasonic DMP-BD30 that has been firmware updated to version 2.9.

The Life On Mars UK sets are selling at 9 pounds, which comes out to about $17USD each, I believe. Plus, there is no blu-ray version being marketed in U.S. to choose from. I would like to order these sets from Amazon UK, and forego the domestic U.S. DVD versions.

According to this site, yes.

http://blurayregioncodes.com/

BTW, this is a really useful site for questions such as these. It is very bookmark worthy.

Originally Posted by Paul Arnette

According to this site, yes.

http://blurayregioncodes.com/

BTW, this is a really useful site for questions such as these. It is very bookmark worthy.

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Valuable site, thanks. So my BD player will play it, but is there any compatibility issues with my TV displaying it? I've got an old Mitsubishi HD rear-screen DLP connected via component (since it was pre-HDMI).

Usually there is an addendum if the title has anything squirrely about it (e.g. if the title is encoded at 1080i50Hz). I didn't see any mention of titles with the Image Constraint Token (ICT) set, so I don't know if they make mention of that or not. It seems rare that ICT is set on a BD though. Of course, you might have an issue with special features being in PAL. I'm not very familiar with how Concorde generally handle that sort of thing. You might wanna keep doing some digging, but odds are good you'll at least be able to play the main features on your player.

Originally Posted by Paul Arnette

Usually there is an addendum if the title has anything squirrely about it (e.g. if the title is encoded at 1080i50Hz). I didn't see any mention of titles with the Image Constraint Token (ICT) set, so I don't know if they make mention of that or not. It seems rare that ICT is set on a BD though. Of course, you might have an issue with special features being in PAL.

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I don't actually own the set yet, but I've done research into it previously. The image is 1080p24, but it's slowed down from the 25 FPS it was shot at. Special features are in PAL. The consensus seems to be that it doesn't come from an HD source, but was rather upscaled.

As I said in Michael Reuben's review thread of the DVD version already: yes it will.

Since then, I've watched two episodes on my Region-A Blu-ray player, so I can confirm it again. They will play in your R-A player as well.

The price at Amazon/UK is right too: £ 9.98 for each of the season sets (the DVD sets are "only" £ 9.38!).

Absolutely, certainly, guaranteed not region-locked!


Cees



Edited by Cees Alons - 7/29/2009 at 10:42 pm GMT

Every story (or thread) deserves an ending, so here's a happy one. I received the UK BD of Life On Mars series 2 and it does play in my BD player (it's a little noisy until it finally grumbles one last time, as if going, "Oh, all right, I'll play your damn imported BD," and the episodes begin).

Also, as reported, the extras do not play, which is no big deal to me, since they were minimal. I just wish I had waited on pulling the trigger and paying $30 to get series 1 on SD during the DD sale, and ordered series 1 BD through Amazon UK instead. Both series were sale-priced at only about $17USD each.

Thanks again to those who reported this would work, and provided a list of region-unlocked BDs.
Edited by Hollywoodaholic - 8/4/2009 at 03:43 pm GMT

I truly have enjoyed this show and love the fact that the UK blu-ray plays fine in my blu-ray player (except for the extras). But what's with the stuttering credits when at the end? Very strange. The regular image isn't jerky, but the credits are.

Originally Posted by Hollywoodaholic

I truly have enjoyed this show and love the fact that the UK blu-ray plays fine in my blu-ray player (except for the extras). But what's with the stuttering credits when at the end? Very strange. The regular image isn't jerky, but the credits are.

Click to expand...

Maybe the credits were created interlaced instead of progressive?