Can I make my Blu-ray player multi-region?
AIt’s rare that Guru paints the age of DVD to be the good old days, but damn, this used to be so easy. Bash in a cheat code on the remote, select the appropriate option from the hidden menu, and you’re an international disc wizard, Harry. Not anymore. GaGu knows a couple of BD players equipped with shortcuts, but you probably haven’t got one. The rest are stubbornly adhering to the Blu-ray Consortium’s rules, which basically state that if you want to license the tech, you’d better not include a multi-region option.
There is good news to go with the bad. Blu-ray simplifies the region encoding standards, splitting the world into three (rather than DVD’s nine) nebulous districts, meaning you’re more likely to be able to shop around for discs that’ll work with your particular player. Disc creators, also, aren’t quite as beholden to the standards as the hardware boys – many releases are encoded for multi-region play.
There are devices which you can solder in yourself. These work with many players to bypass firmware legitimacy checks; once you’ve installed your own firmware, you’re free to play whatever you like. These add-ons can be hardware specific, so hunt one down yourself.
But! Hold your horses, because there’s one weird trick that Blu-ray Region Cops hate. If you’re trying to play a disc and get the red ‘region locked’ screen, simply whack the ‘Top Menu’ button. Often (although it’ll depend on the disc and the player) this will bypass the screen and get you straight to the action. But no promises.
Blu-ray simplifies the region encoding standards, splitting the world into three rather than DVD’s nine nebulous districts