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Blu-ray / DVD Regions

Black Hole

Black Hole

May contain traces of nut
Having just acquired my first Blu-ray player via a Tesco clearance discount, I've been buying a few discs on eBay - but I am perturbed that there seems to be no way I can verify the purchases are Region 2 without breaking the seal.
 
The region information should be visible on the packaging, but some do not seem to show it, perhaps they are region free.
The UK Blu-ray discs should be Region B, whereas UK DVD's are Region 2.
 
brian said:
The region information should be visible on the packaging, but some do not seem to show it, perhaps they are region free.
The UK Blu-ray discs should be Region B, whereas UK DVD's are Region 2.
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I quote from WP and hope it is accurate. This may reassure BH:

"Among major U.S. studios, Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios, Sony Pictures, and Walt Disney Pictures have released most of their titles region-free. MGM and Lions Gate Entertainment have released a mix of region-free and region-coded titles. 20th Century Fox has released most of their titles region-coded."
 
Thanks guys. Now I know what I'm looking for, I have found the "ABC" logo on one and a "B" on the others. I'm surprised the regions are divided differently from DVD.
 
Bleedin' 'eck!

I was about to register my player with LG and looking carefully at the labels for the serial number, and have discovered that what I thought was a LG BD660 (3D, DLNA, Dolby HD etc) in a 660 box with 660 documentation, is actually a BD550!!!

It was clearly a display model, complete with stand-up information board (660), so it would appear whoever put the unit out in the first place mislabelled a 550 as a 660, and the error has propagated. When I take it back I forecast I will end up with my money back and no replacement unit (although, frankly, a 550 will do me well enough if I can get a significant discount).
 
Somebody may have bought a BD550, and ended up with a BD660 in the BD550 box.
 
I have a replacement, checked before I left the checkout! Much better remote :)

According to the staff, if it had been on display it wouldn't have come in a box (and to be fair the replacement also has the info board inside the carton, so maybe that's standard practice). There also seems to be a confusion between BD660 and BD650 - the unit is marked BD660 on the serial label and the facia, but some of the other packaging labels say BD650 (ditto the last one). Ho hum. :mystery:
 
Black Hole said:
I have a replacement, checked before I left the checkout! Much better remote :)

According to the staff, if it had been on display it wouldn't have come in a box (and to be fair the replacement also has the info board inside the carton, so maybe that's standard practice). There also seems to be a confusion between BD660 and BD650 - the unit is marked BD660 on the serial label and the facia, but some of the other packaging labels say BD650 (ditto the last one). Ho hum. :mystery:
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It should be easy to tell, as one has smart features and 3D, according to this:

http://www.besteproduct.nl/Blu_ray_en_HD_DVD_spelers/Vergelijk/?productid=95844&productid=109091

(May need Google Translate.)
 
According to that list, the 650 has an S-Video port and no Ethernet. I have little doubt this one is the real McCoy, but it is odd that even a label on the back of the unit refers to BD650.
 
Black Hole said:
I DON'T BELIEEEEEVE IT!!!!

The replacement won't even power up :(
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So, trip back to shop, not only make sure you have the correct model and packaging but also insist on powering it up, connecting to a TV, take a blu-ray (3D) disk along and also a DVD, ...
 
Are you psychic? The BD550 (apart from being a 550) was failing to play DVDs, which is what caused me to start looking into the nitty-gritty in the first place.

Am I right in thinking they have two lasers, a blue one for Blu-ray and a red one for DVD?
 
And it works on all fronts.

I hooked up the network, and it found an update and asked if I wanted to install it. I said OK, and then (some time later) had a play with DLNA. It found the CIFS mount on HDR1, but wanted credentials which I was not sure of. HDR1 and HDR3 were available as DLNA servers, but it would not play the StDef .TS files and for some reason the HiDef .TS files were not even listed. .MP4 iPlayer grabs played OK (if loud). The networking abilities being somewhat limited from my point of view, I will probably not have it routinely connected to the network.

Blu-ray plays fine, upscaled DVD looks fine, but 4:3 DVD gets stretched to 16:9 and I can find no setting to change it (4:3 options are greyed out presumably because it detects the display capability over HDMI). However, setting the Qumi to 4:3 solved that.

Third time lucky.
 
As I am new to all this, can somebody suggest what I should be looking for in terms of a multi-channel decoder/amp/speakers to take the digital audio (fibre) from the Blu-Ray? I'm not all that bothered about surround sound, but I'm guessing straight stereo is not going to be an option. I don't want to spend a fortune though.
 
If you really don't want a full-blown surround sound system (although that will best) then you may want to consider a soundbar which use jiggery-pokery to simulate surround sound and doesn't need speaker wires trailing all round the room.

Budget? One man's fortune is another man's loose change down the back of the sofa. As a guide though, at a minimum you would be looking at around £200 then step up to £500 then £1000 (and keep doubling) for each appreciable improvement in quality until your ears tell your wallet "that is good enough".
 
Even at £200 I'm thinking I would have been better off buying a complete home theatre system than just a Blu-Ray player. I have a pair of self-powered speakers in service at the moment, they used to be wireless but I think my WiFi kills that (it was never great anyway) so I "repurposed" them. Sound quality is adequate, the main problems are that each speaker has a wall wart (and large at that), and there is no volume control on the Blu-Ray's analogue outputs therefore I can only adjust the sound levels manually on the speakers themselves.

So, any other ways to provide remote-controlled sound from analogue source?
 
Black Hole said:
Even at £200 I'm thinking I would have been better off buying a complete home theatre system than just a Blu-Ray player. I have a pair of self-powered speakers in service at the moment, they used to be wireless but I think my WiFi kills that (it was never great anyway) so I "repurposed" them. Sound quality is adequate, the main problems are that each speaker has a wall wart (and large at that), and there is no volume control on the Blu-Ray's analogue outputs therefore I can only adjust the sound levels manually on the speakers themselves.

So, any other ways to provide remote-controlled sound from analogue source?
Click to expand...

It's the slippery slope, BH. A sink hole for all your money!

People are always upgrading their hihi and AV systems. Try eBay. And yes, the amps generally allow two speaker output. You can always add speakers gradually, eg, a subwoofer. (Talking of which, I have a spare sub for sale, but carriage might be expensive!) At least with components you can gradually improve your system. Plus, you could use your existing speakers for now. I prefer HDMI to pass sound/picture from component-->amp-->TV/speakers but whichever way you go it is easier if the amp has enough inputs of the right sort. (hdmi or optical or legacy)

Soundbars? I suppose so. My ears get assaulted and insulted every time I visit the TV bit of John Lewis and a salesperson is demoing the acoustic distortion to impress a prospective customer. I think they reckon volume=quality! I suppose in a domestic room they would sound adequate. It is only when you have lived with a system for a while that you will want to try something better. Maybe the thump of sound effects is lacking, so you buy a big subwoofer. Speech is indistinct, so you buy 3 better front speakers and shift two to the rear. I am fairly happy with my system now, but was a long time getting there. One of my daughters now has my original all-in-one system. Before that, I used a standard 2 channel amp and two front speakers.
 
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