I'm looking for folks that own & play HD-DVD movies, who ALSO have any DVDs of "foreign regions". For instance, if you're in the U.S.A. and collect HD-DVDs but also own some UK/Europe-Region DVDs as well.

Anyone willing to answer some questions regarding this area?

Sure. I have quite a few Japanese Region 2 DVDs. I've had my eye on a few HD discs. Since I'm in the US and my primary interest is in Japanese movies I much prefer the HD region coding over DVD coding. Both the US and Japan are in the same "A" region for HD.

For DVDs US is region 1 and Japan is region 2. So today, I have to make region free copies of the region 2 DVDs with my computer -- or when that is not practical play them on one of my two region free players.

Sure. I have quite a few Japanese Region 2 DVDs. I've had my eye on a few HD discs. Since I'm in the US and my primary interest is in Japanese movies I much prefer the HD region coding over DVD coding. Both the US and Japan are in the same "A" region for HD.

For DVDs US is region 1 and Japan is region 2. So today, I have to make region free copies of the region 2 DVDs with my computer -- or when that is not practical play them on one of my two region free players.

Mind if I ask what region free players you have that you play your Japanese DVDs on sometimes? (I assume these aren't HD-DVD players, correct?)

Sure Tokyo,

I've got quite a few SD DVDs from other regions. I used to purchase collectors/limited edition/special editions (as you can see in my link below) of SD DVDs, and quite a few of them came from Japan, Korea, Germany, etc.

What sort of questions do you have?

-JR

Mind if I ask what region free players you have that you play your Japanese DVDs on sometimes? (I assume these aren't HD-DVD players, correct?)
I have the OPPO 980, OPPO 970 (simple remote hacks required) that I picked up locally and a region-free Pioneer DV-393-S that I purchased at a duty-free shop in Akihahara. I would kill to make my HD-XA2 region-free.

Well the primary thrust of the conversation is this:

I've got a pair of friends (housemates) that have an extensive collection of USA & UK SD-DVDs. Their current region-free DVD player stopped working entirely, and since they have recently been coming over to my house and watching HD-DVD they want to upgrade.

So basically.. they need an SD-DVD player that can play SD-DVDs from multiple regions, AND play HD-DVD's.

I guess I'm wondering, how many of you here that collect HD-DVDs have multiple region SD-DVDs, and do you play all of these on a single player or on multiple units?

I'm a Brit based in the UK.

I have Region 1 US DVDs, Region 2 Japanese DVDs and Region 2 European DVDs. I have both US and European HD-DVDs.

Almost every DVD player on sale in the UK is capable of being modified to multi-region - and thus playing any disc. This is usually just a hidden handset hack (and even reputable companies provide the hack on a slip of paper when you buy the player) - though some mainstream models need a hardware modification to update the firmware AIUI.

The 50Hz / 60Hs (aka PAL vs NTSC) issue is not an issue in the UK - as all of our TVs sold in the last 10+ years have accepted RGB 50Hz and RGB 60Hz sources (and most will accept NTSC 3.58 60Hz and NTSC 4.43 60Hz , and the hybrid PAL 4.43 60Hz) so watching them isn't an issue.

(The European PS3 will replay Region 0 and Region 2 60Hz DVDs as well as Region 0 and Region 2 50Hz DVDs)

When it comes to film choice - I enjoy US blockbusters and independent cinema, domestic British stuff, but also enjoy modern French and German cinema (always nice to brush up my schoolboy language skills!) and as I'm currently learning Japanese I enjoy watching Japanese stuff. I've also enjoyed quite a few Scandinavian films of late.

If you are happy with subtitles then I can thoroughly recommend a lot of modern German, French and Swedish stuff - really different to the major US and UK movies - often far smaller and more character/story led, and with much more emphasis on relevance and performance.

Well for DVDs I will back them up on my PC as region 0 pal. Or use my phillips multi region player. Walmart selld them for like 45 bucks. You have to enter a code to do so. If you punch the model number into google you can get the codes. Most of my DVDs were better versions of the R1 version.

It wasn't till HD-DVD that I got foriegn films. Mostly french at the momment.

I'm from Germany. As you can see by my sig, I own a good number of laserdiscs, most of them japanese and US releases. I almost skipped DVD times and own/kept only a few. Most of them are imported from the US and UK.

Well the primary thrust of the conversation is this:

I've got a pair of friends (housemates) that have an extensive collection of USA & UK SD-DVDs. Their current region-free DVD player stopped working entirely, and since they have recently been coming over to my house and watching HD-DVD they want to upgrade.

So basically.. they need an SD-DVD player that can play SD-DVDs from multiple regions, AND play HD-DVD's.

I guess I'm wondering, how many of you here that collect HD-DVDs have multiple region SD-DVDs, and do you play all of these on a single player or on multiple units?

There is no multiregion HD-DVD player currently in existence, or has there been one announced with such functionality. The hope of course is that a code will be discovered that will allow one to unlock one of the HD-DVD players, but that's no help to anyone wanting to actually playback foreign DVDs and HD-DVDs. So the only option is to have separate players.

The best option, as far as quality goes, would be to buy an Oppo player and an HD-DVD player. If you want to save some money on the dvd player, I can also attest that Philips has some good options for players whose region coding can be easily unlocked.

There is no multiregion HD-DVD player currently in existence, or has there been one announced with such functionality. The hope of course is that a code will be discovered that will allow one to unlock one of the HD-DVD players, but that's no help to anyone wanting to actually playback foreign DVDs and HD-DVDs. So the only option is to have separate players.

The best option, as far as quality goes, would be to buy an Oppo player and an HD-DVD player. If you want to save some money on the dvd player, I can also attest that Philips has some good options for players whose region coding can be easily unlocked.

Okay that might be the key piece of information I needed. Presently, there is no HD-DVD player that can be made DVD-Region-Free? Well, it looks like either an HTPC is in order, or I'll have to recommend they wait a bit for the Venturer models and see of those solve the problem.

If they don't mind buying a new player (having one for their SD-DVDs and one for their HD-DVDs), there are quite a few very cheap SD-DVD players that can be purchased and "unlocked". I use a Toshiba SD-4900 which I purchased for less than $100. I'm sure you could find one for $50 or less.

-JR

I'm from Germany and most of my collection is bought online in all places of the world. Rough order: USA, Germany, UK, Hongkong, Korea (love Korean movies), Australia, others. The lack of region free HD DVD players annoys me a bit but as long as there is space for my old DVD player it will not stop me.

Yes their is a multi-region Pal/ntsc player under $50. Walmart sells them. $45 bucks. Its the phillips upconverter at the moment. It does an alright job.
I'm not sure what the current code is but I looked it up once for a friend. Just punched the model in to google. I have the older model from a few years back. All I had to do was hit 7,8,9, OK, 0 before putting the DVD in (while try was open). And it worked well.
Other wise I've been backing the movies up as region 0. Although so far only my xbox seems to like the Pal discs everything else say error or can't play pal..


But all of my Other region DVDs are/were better versions of the R1 DVD. I've got a R4 goofy movie in WS. The R1 is FS. F.I.S.T,Over the top, hot fuzz 2disc, revolver (2005, guy ritchie), lock stock and to smoking barrels DC. All but revolver and a goofy movie have a R1 version. Although hot fuzz with everything can only be found on the HD-DVD.

Many of my HD-DVDs have been foriegn films have been "foriegn". I soupose beecase HD-DVD is region free. So I've been willing to risk a little more as I've bought a few copys on DVDs. Well at least until I found xploited and found you could use amazon any were to import. So most were bought from ebay. But it was only 2 DVDs that were "fake". So not to bad for all I've bought.

The hope of course is that a code will be discovered that will allow one to unlock one of the HD-DVD players, but that's no help to anyone wanting to actually playback foreign DVDs and HD-DVDs. So the only option is to have separate players.

HD-DVDs are region-free, so the only real issue is with standard def DVDs. (You seem to bracket them together in the above sentence, which is potentially a bit misleading?)

If you are looking for a single player that will replay any DVD AND HD-DVDs then it doesn't exist on the market currently (apart from an HTPC solution)

However all movie HD-DVDs should replay on all HD-DVD players (the only exception will be if there are any 50Hz releases in Europe) - so foreignt HD-DVD replay shouldn't be an issue.

Current best solution is a multi-region DVD player AND an HD-DVD player.

Same here, "european" HD DVD player working with RC2 SD DVDs only, and i'm using my old region-free SD DVD player for all other region's SD DVDs i have.

Sign me up for a region free SD DVD / HD DVD / Blu-ray all format player.... :D

I live in Europe.
I've got over 1500 DVDs.
Around HALF of them are from a zone other than the European (2).

Many of those are zone 1 (US) because they are films or editions not available in Europe.