Is your region A blu-ray player really all region? (1 Viewer)

[Mark-P]

It says it is Region B.


When I load it in my Panasonic BD player there are two dots on the screen and nothing happens. I hit Top Menu and it says "This operation is currently disabled." That sounds region locked to me.


However, when I hit Stop and Top Menu, the menu comes up and I'm able to play it without any difficulty.

Thanks for the warning. I won't chance it since my Sony Blu-ray players can't be tricked into playing region B.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

If the STOP button won't work surely that is a player issue not disc.

Again with Panny players the Top Menu should be available at any time using the Functions button first ( if your model has one)

No, it is definitely not the player but a function of the disc itself which is likely set that way to prevent you from getting access to the menu so you can play it.

 

[Richard Gallagher]

I received Deadline U.S.A. from amazon.de today, and the Stop-Top Menu works with my Panasonic Blu-ray player.


A spot check shows it to be a very nice transfer.

 

[Citizen87645]

I have a basic Panasonic BD-85 and would like to try this "trick," but have no titles from other regions at this time. I'll keep this in mind if I run across something I really want from another region, but since BD Region A includes most of Asia, it's pretty rare for me to want something outside of that area.

 

[Dave B Ferris]

I received two German Blu-rays today, Exodus and Against All Flags.


The Stop-Top Menu trick does not work with Exodus, but it does work with Against All Flags.


Exodus is an ArtHaus release. Against All Flags is from Koch.

I thought many of the German Koch releases play in Region A without the need for the trick; in other words, despite the information on the packaging, they are all-region. I'm quite sure, for instance, that this is the case with "Man Without a Star", as helpfully confirmed by HTF member John Hermes.

 

[youworkmen]

No, it is definitely not the player but a function of the disc itself which is likely set that way to prevent you from getting access to the menu so you can play it.

Fortunately my multi region Bluray recorder also has UOP /PUO disabled so disc authoring skullduggery like that is ignored.

 

[CraigF]

^ I'm unfamiliar with that term. Sounds like a great feature:


One of the most annoying features of newer "Canadian" versions of BDs is so many unskippable preambles. Not only all the ones you get in the U.S., but we get most of them twice, each for the full duration, in each of the two official languages (why not put them both on one screen?, there's room, in the same font). So it's twice as bad.


Plus there are usually at least a couple more intermediary entities involved in the production/distribution/skullduggery of the Canadian BD process, and each of them gets an unskippable prolonged "logo spot". eOne bludgeons us with theirs, unskippable, multiple times, in between the others, lest we forget they're the heavyweight here. This is all just to get to the main menu.


Better watch the movie/TV series all at once, because there won't be any means of continuation from where you left off...you'll have to do it all again. They also (not alone) have defeated some of the primary BDP controls, like Stop and Pause and FF during certain BD startup sequences. Actually, when I've said "screw this" the odd time, I've noticed that drawer opening also seems disabled (?).


And they have learned how to defeat the "yellow button" trick with OPPO players for DVDs. Luckily we all probably don't buy that many new-title DVDs.

 

[Richard Gallagher]

I thought many of the German Koch releases play in Region A without the need for the trick; in other words, despite the information on the packaging, they are all-region. I'm quite sure, for instance, that this is the case with "Man Without a Star", as helpfully confirmed by HTF member John Hermes.

I played with Against All Flags again, and it gets a bit weird. It will play without the trick, but it's strange.


When I load the disc, all I see on the screen are two dots, one on top of the other like a colon (. One is orange and the other is white. When I then hit the Top Menu button, I get the message "This operation is current disabled" so I figured I would try to Stop-Top Menu trick, which worked.


However, after reading your note I tried it again, but instead of hitting Stop-Top Menu when I saw the two dots I just hit the Play button. A page from the menu appeared on the screen for a second, and then the screen went black but I could hear the modern Universal music. When the music ended, the screen remained black for a few seconds, but then the main menu came up. From that point on I could watch the movie without any problems. You have to wait for the main menu to appear by itself. If you hit the Top Menu button while the Universal music is playing, you get the disabled message again.


So Stop-Top Menu gets you to the main menu faster, but now it looks like Against All Flags will work with any Blu-ray player. Incidentally, when you use Stop-Top Menu you don't hear the Universal music at all, it goes directly to the main menu.

 

[Richard Gallagher]

Thanks for the warning. I won't chance it since my Sony Blu-ray players can't be tricked into playing region B.

Actually, it now appears that it will work with your Blu-ray player. Scoll up to the previous note.

 

[Mike Frezon]

From the OP in this thread:

I'm curious and would like to ask some other folks here to try this and see if it works for them. Quite by accident I discovered my region A player plays blu-rays from all regions. I have two players, both Pioneer Elites, one all region and one an older region A player. By accident I slipped the region B disc of Paper Moon into my region A player...got the message on the screen that said the disc would not play due to it being from a different region. Pressed stop on the remote, then again by accident, hit the "Top Menu" button on the remote...and boom the menu comes up on the screen. So I select play movie and sure enough the movie plays no problem.


Curious, I pull Paper Moon out of the player and go get another Region B locked disc, this time Sam Pekinpah's Cross of Iron and go through the same procedure:


Insert disc and wait for it to load.


Get message saying wrong region.


Press stop on the remote.


Press Top Menu on the remote.


Boom the menu comes up and you can play the disc.


I'm guessing that this is just a function of how the region coding works but I only have Pioneer Elite players to test this on. I repeated the process with several other discs that were not region A and this works every time. Can somebody else here that has a region A locked player and some discs locked to other regions give this a try and see if it also works for you? I think I read somewhere that somebody discovered that they could also do this on their Panasonic player using this same process but I think this may work on any player.


Post your findings here, thanks!

Ack!


So I have received my copies of Region B locked Paper Moon and The Gospel According to Matthew from Amazon.uk..


Tonight, I plugged them into my Pioneer Elite FD-62 and went through the process as clearly outlined by Reggie above.


Nada. Zip. Zilch.


I put in the disc. Got the error message about it being in the wrong region. I pushed "Stop." Then pushed "Top Menu."


And, sad to say...all I saw was the "Pioneer" screen.


Color me surprised this didn't work for me.

 

[David Norman]

Did you push stop twice before Top Menu? I don't know if more than twice works, but I can';t tell from your post exactly which button order you used. Or maybe just try Top Menu when you see the Region Lock screen. I know there are several different button combinations that work on different players. Is there a Pop Up Menu button on the Pioneer (not sure if that's Panasonic designation for Top Menu)


I too would be a bit surprised i the 62 doesn;t work when the other did. I think the internals of those two are similar and Pioneer

didn't change motherboard manufacturers

 

[Worth]

Fortunately my multi region Bluray recorder also has UOP /PUO disabled so disc authoring skullduggery like that is ignored.

How and where do you get one of those?

 

[youworkmen]

^ I'm unfamiliar with that term. Sounds like a great feature:


One of the most annoying features of newer "Canadian" versions of BDs is so many unskippable preambles. Not only all the ones you get in the U.S., but we get most of them twice, each for the full duration, in each of the two official languages (why not put them both on one screen?, there's room, in the same font). So it's twice as bad.


Plus there are usually at least a couple more intermediary entities involved in the production/distribution/skullduggery of the Canadian BD process, and each of them gets an unskippable prolonged "logo spot". eOne bludgeons us with theirs, unskippable, multiple times, in between the others, lest we forget they're the heavyweight here. This is all just to get to the main menu.


Better watch the movie/TV series all at once, because there won't be any means of continuation from where you left off...you'll have to do it all again. They also (not alone) have defeated some of the primary BDP controls, like Stop and Pause and FF during certain BD startup sequences. Actually, when I've said "screw this" the odd time, I've noticed that drawer opening also seems disabled (?).


And they have learned how to defeat the "yellow button" trick with OPPO players for DVDs. Luckily we all probably don't buy that many new-title DVDs.

I'm in the UK so perhaps this isn't available in the US but this links to the upgrade discs, modified recorders and somewhere there is a YT video showing the speed at which UOP disabled players can reach the menus


http://www.tps.uk.com/?choice_id=178&tab_id=52

 

[youworkmen]

How and where do you get one of those?

If you're in the UK the link I've just posted.

If you're in the US - no idea

 

[Persianimmortal]

Skipping protected user operations is a great feature, but it looks like that feature is entirely dependent on firmware modification; you can't upgrade using official firmware.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Did you push stop twice before Top Menu? I don't know if more than twice works, but I can';t tell from your post exactly which button order you used. Or maybe just try Top Menu when you see the Region Lock screen. I know there are several different button combinations that work on different players. Is there a Pop Up Menu button on the Pioneer (not sure if that's Panasonic designation for Top Menu)


I too would be a bit surprised i the 62 doesn;t work when the other did. I think the internals of those two are similar and Pioneer

didn't change motherboard manufacturers

Reggie's instructions (and he's got Pioneer Elites) only call for one push of the Stop button. So that's all I did. I also tried the pop-up menu button along with the Top Menu button, too, I'll try some different combos later tonight, if I get the chance.

 

[JohnRice]

I just discovered this thread and I have several Panasonic players, so I tried one. I didn't read every single post, so forgive me if I'm repeating. This player is a fairly low end one from about 4 years ago, the BDT210. When the Region B screen came on, I hit STOP, then the pop-up menu and got "Not Available". I hit the pop-up menu again and it took me to the main menu. It might be important that on the remote, pop-up and top menu are the same button. I suppose one applies to Blu-Ray and the other to DVD. I have another higher end Panasonic that's a couple years newer that I can try. I tried two discs from different studios, and they both worked the same.

 

[David Norman]

Reggie's instructions (and he's got Pioneer Elites) only call for one push of the Stop button. So that's all I did. I also tried the pop-up menu button along with the Top Menu button, too, I'll try some different combos later tonight, if I get the chance.

I know, but reading a lot of Panasonic thread there seem to be slighty different sequences depending on which player or maybe even different remotes.


Some say stop once or twice then Top (or Pop Up menu), some seem to say wait until the warning and hit the Top/Popup once or twice.

Different once say push the "1" or "3" button.


Unfortunately I only have 3 Sony's (counting the kids PS3) and an Region Free Oppo to directly play with so I'm scouring other places for information.

 

[JohnRice]

I did more experimenting. I realized there are differences in the remotes, but those different remotes seem to work across players.


One important thing. I couldn't get ANY key combination to work using a Harmony One remote, with codes downloaded from online. I'm guessing I can update the necessary codes directly from a player remote and it will work.


The remote for the low end Panasonic player I have, the BDT210 I mentioned in my last post, has one button for both pop-menu and top menu. In that case, that button has worked on all the players I tried. I also have a higher end BDT500, and its remote has separate buttons for pop-menu and top menu. In that case, the top menu button worked.


So far, I've found two different procedures, depending on the player.


This is how the lower end players (BDT210 in my case) worked...


Play disc, get a Region B message. Hit Stop, then Top Menu twice. Wait a couple seconds between button pushes. You might be able to skip hitting Stop. It says the function isn't available the first time Top Menu is hit. The second time, the disc menu shows up.


On the higher end (BDT500 in my case) player, this is what worked...


Play disc, it just stops, with no message, but shows a virtual remote on the TV. Hit Top Menu twice (don't hit Stop), waiting a couple seconds between each hit.

Both of these bring up the main menu and then you can play the movie. You can stop and start the movie. It will keep playing as long as you don't eject the disc.

 

[youworkmen]

I actually use a Harmony One remote with my Panasonic Recorder and and it plays various region B discs using the MENU trick when the Recorder is set to Region A.


The Harmony One (UK Model) even offers commands that are not available on some actual remotes. For instance- on my Panasonic tv if I want to change inputs from say tuner to HDMI2 I have to press INPUT on the original remote then scroll through the options. The Harmony supplied me with a command that takes me directly to HDMI2 - same with other inputs.


Similarly, some Panasonic players/recorders no longer have an EJECT key on the remote but the Harmony One provided me with one so it actually does more than the genuine remote