Skywise
01-04-2007, 04:11 PM
I was at a high-end dealer today to try out my Air set and to see if I could get some more information about the HD launch itself. The discs didn't work, but to my surprise the CSR went into the back and got a piece of paper which described how to make the Samsung BD-P1000 player region free (the only Blu-ray player they had). That didn't work this time, but we're guessing that the problem doesn't necessarily lie with the region, but could just be a compatibility issue because it's using early firmware and the discs are dual layer. Even though the test was a failure I think it's really encouraging that the player has a remote hack, and it gives us a glimpse into the future that the region system is just as useless for HD as it was for DVD.
In addition one thing that hasn't really come out before now, is that for Blu-ray region coding for a particular title is limited to 12 months only. After 12 months if a company does repressings they have to remove the region coding, provided they don't significantly alter the contents of the disc, like add commentary tracks and the like. Source for that last bit from over at AVS:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=9329329&&#post9329329
So the incentive is there to not region code in the first place.
In addition one thing that hasn't really come out before now, is that for Blu-ray region coding for a particular title is limited to 12 months only. After 12 months if a company does repressings they have to remove the region coding, provided they don't significantly alter the contents of the disc, like add commentary tracks and the like. Source for that last bit from over at AVS:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=9329329&&#post9329329
So the incentive is there to not region code in the first place.