LG BH-200 SD-DVD region hack

Anybody else try this yet?

Wow, I hope we can get a confirmation soon - thus would seal the deal for me!

It's not even a firmware hack per se...

Just tried it, and my Region 3 DVDs of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and House of Flying Daggers play fine.

I tried putting it on my USB drive first, but that didn't work. So I burnt it to CDRW and it loaded up as advertised. Thanks Julio!

This player keeps getting better and better!

hello here in my bh 200 i tried but the menu dont show up what i do wrong

WOW!

hi i burned like it was said but the region test is not showing up what i do wrong

thanks a lot julio it works.
another question i bought in us and i live in holland what to do that he plays pal system dvd anyone knows that?

ok where do you live julio do you have msn?

but i think it plays now all hd and blue ray dvd's am i wright?

WOW! Thanks a lot Julio. What a way to say Hi to the forum

I'll add it to my post. We can then keep all firmware info in on thread.


Can you please confirm the March firmware is still intact and you can still Bitstream DTS-HD/TrueHD?

If this doesn't effect the March firmware then this is truly marvellous and the BH200 just gets better and better . In literally just a week the BH200 has gone form an okay Combo Player to an absolutely amazing one!


If this hack just removes SD DVD MR then sadly it will stop not support PAL. That's always stored elsewhere to the Multiregion side, from my experience anyway. I would imagine that's much trickier to alter.

It's a real shame the LG BH200 still doesn't handle PAL , meaning many Non-R1 discs still won't work. Oh well it's still a definite plus.

For those who don't know:

* 95% of DVDs sold in Europe, Australia and New Zealand are PAL
* 95% of DVDs sold in Hong Kong are NTSC
* 100% of DVDs sold in Japan are NTSC
* 60% in South East Asia (i.e - Thailand) are NTSC but the other 40% are PAL

Those numbers aren't exact but educated guesses, based on my experience.

This hack just changes the SD DVD region and doesn't do anything to the firmware whatsoever. I don't have a new receiver to test bitstreaming, but Dolby TrueHD is still downmixed to DTS 5.1 over SPDIF.

Thanks Dickydoo. That's fantastic.

Julio Cohen: Will this also work on European LG BH200's which already support PAL and NTSC?

I hope you don't mind I've included this news on my Mini-FAQ here:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1009104

I've uploaded your ZIP file to Mega Upload including inside the ZIP file your instructions and the screen capture you kindly provided.

Awwwhhhh, I thought this hack would mean I can watch my PAL discs as well... what happens actually when you put in a PAL disc?

You get the error:

Check Disk

And it's spat out. I asked AlfaGT this and that's what he told me, his player is an American LG BH200.

Annoyingly it's common practise to not put PAL support into American or Canadian (maybe Central/South America too) Players but give all other countries both PAL and NTSC. From their point of view there is no point adding expense when all North American DVDs are NTSC anyway.

Most SD extras on HD Discs are in the NTSC format, but the "1492: Conquest of Paradise" Dutch HD-DVD (it's also out on BD) has PAL SD extras. So while the film works, American Players cannot read the extras. I don't know which players it's been tried on. Thankfully it's the only European HD Disc I know of that has PAL SD extras.

It was particularly stupid of that Dutch company to do that when due to frame rate reasons it's technically logical to put NTSC SD extras on all HD Discs (i.e - PAL Speed up).

p.s - It's still worth while mind you, as you can now play Non-R1 NTSC DVDs in it.

So you're saying an EU BH200 would play both?


Sure, absolutely - BTW muito obrigado Julio!

Yep!

But obviously it will then be European BD Region B and not Region A so will bring with it it's own problems. Hence why despite living in the UK I want an imported American Region A Player. I already have an Upscaling DVD Recorder for PAL DVDs anyway.

95% roughly DVDs in Europe are PAL but there's that 5% that are NTSC so they must make sure all DVD & HD Players support both, it's the same in South East Asia and Australia. It's a uniquely North American procedure.

I thought BDA studios haven't activated region encoding yet... f***** Blu-Ray, this totally illegal, anti-consumer, monopoly-based format.

Unique? If you mean corrupt and stupid, like most things here, then yes.

No BD discs use BD+ yet (or whatever it's called) but I'm afraid many use Region Coding, and unlike SD DVD region coding no one has managed to crack it yet.

* All Fox discs are Region A or Region B (or C) and all EIV discs are Region B. Those are the only two companies I know of that use them on 100% of titles.
* EIV (Entertainment in Video) are a UK DVD/BD distributor who get many of their discs from New Line. Thankfully they're UK only as their DVDs/BDs suck. I am more than happy to never ever buy their discs again.

The truth is if it's Region Locked it will more than likely be a Region A disc. You guys simply have the most sought after films in the world.

* Lionsgate mostly use Region A for their releases (3:10 to Yuma is Region Free).
* New Line the same (Pan's Labyrinth Region Free but Rush Hour 3 & Hairspray Region A). It's generally agreed Pan's Labyrinth was Region Free as it was already out in most parts of the world.
* Disney use Region Coding in both America and the UK and have no pattern to speak of. Ratatouille is Region A in America and Region B in Europe but Pirates of the Carribean 3 is Region Free.
* Sony use it intermittently and again have no pattern, although mostly when they region lock a disc they use it on Region A, although thankfully they've not used Region Coding for flipping ages now. I cannot remember the last one.

Here's one example: Casino Royale Region Free everywhere except oddly America where it's Region A, and cut the most out of all versions so no one would want to import it anyway (cut even more so than the UK version).

Check out this awesome site which details what BDs are Region Locked and which are Region Free:

http://bluray.liesinc.net/

It's updated regularly and you can see it's split into Region A, B and C categories at the top.


Yes

Although I cannot comment how corrupt or stupid your country is , well I think your gun laws need overhauling (starting by updating the Constitution's second amendment) but I'd rather not go there

Then the criminals will be the only ones armed and will run amuck. Such a rehaul just wouldn't be feasible in this country.

I think it's flipping amazing and you're even more amazing for finding it, thanks!

Julio Cohen: Will this hack also work on European LG BH200's which already support PAL and NTSC? I guess it should, right?


FYI the second photo doesn't work.

This is awesome. I just tried it with my BH-200. Thanks for this information, my player just got one step further to the perfect one.

Still missing so far: Playback of PAL SD-DVDs and Playback of BR B and C exclusive titles.

Well I am happy with what I got now, it is so amazing that this player gets better and better.

Oh and this is something not even my region code free Toshiba HD-XE1 (European HD-XA2) can do: the BH-200 plays back R1 Fox and Paramount SD DVDs.

The XE1 requires a remote control hack to play any R1 Fox or RCE or Paramount SD DVDs. Ok, on the plus side, it plays both PAL and NTSC SD DVDs.

But: the BH-200 Multiregion hack does not allow to play RCE enhanced R1 DVDs, I have just checked with my R1 Final Fantasy: The Spirits within SD DVD. It does not play with the BH-200 region 0 setting. I am changing back my BH-200 region to region 1 since I can play all the other SD DVDs with the HD-XE1 (but it is good to know that the BH-200 is such a capable machine).

hello my bh200 is region free now but does somebody know how to change or make free the bd region?

That's a pity. Thanks for the heads up the hack isn't RCE safe.

There is nothing wrong with leaving it on Region 0, then set it to Region 1 for Final Fantasy (how many times do you watch it?), then put it back to Region 0. Unlike a Firmware upgrade you're only making a minor change so I wouldn't worry about running it every now and again. There are very few RCE discs out there.

I read about that E1 workaround to play RCE discs. Personally it wouldn't bother me.


That's the million dollar question, that so far no one has cracked. Not on the BH200 or any BD Player. Given time I'm sure someone will crack it though.

what will happens if loading software europe in my us player