Blu-Ray Movies

Any player will play region-free DVDs. That's because they are region free. If you pop a R2 in an American 360 it won't play. Pop it into the add-on and it plays. That's because the player is region-free. I don't know what you're arguing with, but it's clearly not with anything I'm saying.

Pyro: I feel the same way, and it seems like all the ones worth having are 30 dollars or more. I just cannot afford to shell that kinda cash out. I do like it when a Blu-Ray copy is just 2 or 3 dollars more than the DVD counterpart, though. For example, TDK was about the same price when it released (give or take a couple bucks) regardless of the format.

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"This is that human freedom, which all boast that they possess, and which consists solely in the fact, that men are conscious of their own desire, but are ignorant of the causes whereby that desire has been determined." -Baruch Spinoza

Untrue. Maybe hacked consoles are able to but mine certainly isn't.

Vidi:



Which I took a couple of minutes ago where I attempted to play the nearest R1 DVD I had to hand. Incident at Loch Ness if you're bored enough to wanna know.

EDIT - Mr McClane got there first when I was searching for my camera, and I was assuming he meant that the player was region free which it obviously isn't.

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"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how the Tatty 100 is done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves." - Brendan Behan

OK, so now I'm getting rather confused here. I did a search on the add-on and some people are saying it's region-free, but locked to the region of your 360. And then some are saying it's not region-free. So I'm not sure what to tell you. I'll go try my copy of Sunshine again and double check to make sure recent updates haven't affected it.

It's not a biggie if it isn't John, but thanks for checking anyway.

I know for a fact HD-DVDs are region free because they never implemented a region code system on the discs or players, so at least you still have that bonus.

We're getting off topic here but Sunshine was actually the movie that prompted me to get a standalone Blu Ray player to compliment the import PS3 - So many discs are region-free that I'd begun buying them without checking up first and the Sunshine BD was the first one which wouldn't play on my PS3.

Ah, yea. They started that awhile ago, but like you said most of the earlier Blu-Ray films had no region coding on them.

And I just double checked my copy and turns out I was wrong. It's not R2, but it's region free and in PAL. So my guess is the HD-DVD is not region-free. Sorry if I got your hopes up.

I would say 80-85% of BD movies are region free, it's just a few studios which are clinging on. I used to use this site to check, which might be handy if you're after something which is only released over here - Link

Not that bothered about the Xbox add-on being locked, to be honest. I've got a region-free player in the bedroom (not great quality but it works) but my Samsung BD player is now in charge of most of my DVD watching and it's locked to R2. I bought a cake of blank DVD9s and spent a day backing my imported movies up so that the Sammy will play them.

Mine isnt hacked... I play my Region 0, 2 and 3 discs...along with my region 1 discs all in my 360 with no problem.

I'm afraid I just don't swallow it. You do know that if you copy DVDs you remove the region coding?

So, what are some Blu-ray movies that I should buy for the picture quality?

I picked up Donnie Darko today and I still haven't opened it and watched it, but I'm reading online that it's one of the worst Blu-rays out there. This sucks. I probably won't take it back as I want the film and don't have it on standard DVD, but dammit, I LIKE GETTING AMAZING BLU-RAY MOVIES!

Terminator 2 is amazing on Blu-ray.

I have a fair few R1 HD DVD for the 360 HD-DVD player. I live in the UK, so R2 is what it should only play. I also have a fair few region unlocked Blu-rays that work on the PS3, like The Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

There isn't an R1 or R2 for HD DVD discs though - they're all region free. Blu Rays are a different matter but the majority aren't coded.

As far as picture quality for The Sexy One, two of the best looking modern discs that I own are No Country For Old Men and Zodiac. There's nothing flashy going on there, they just look absolutely superb. For a purely visual treat with an older movie, 2001 takes some beating.

That's cool, didn't realise that it's just the discs that are uncoded. I'll have to get more. They are cheap as chips, but hard to find now, for a low price, brand new.

eBay is full of them - I got the Xbox HD DVD drive and 8 films for £23.99 there earlier in the week and have picked up a few bargains since.

I actually have No Country for Old Men and yeah, it looks great, but it didn't wow me incredibly. Maybe I should watch it again.

Patton, for an old movie, was extremely wow-able. Some people hate how "waxy" the people appear, but I didn't mind. I thought it was gorgeous.

Zodiac is a movie that I love and I will definitely pick that up when I can. OOOOOOOH, those wonderful Jake Gyllenhaal Blu-ray discs!!!!

I have 2001 as well and it's great too.

We might be coming at this whole 'great' thing from different starting points, I dunno, but if I had to pick one disc which shows off HD without shouting about it, that disc would be Zodiac. It helps, of course, that it's an excellent movie anyway.

I generally check here before I replace one of my DVDs though, just in case the upgrade isn't really an upgrade. For instance, I got 12 Monkeys on HD DVD during the week and the transfer isn't noticeably better than my old DVD but it's got the commentary track my R2 disc lacked so it was worth the 4 whole pounds I paid for it.

I for one love Blu-Ray. Like you will get from most people, a simple mostly dialogue movie, is not worth the extra. Maybe a few dollars more, not double the price. But for the action fans like myself, you'd be crazy to prefer any other. I didn't want to get a Blu-Ray player at first. So I bought an upgrader for DVDs. Yea that worked well. But I finally got a Blu-Ray for The Dark Knight. Sound is incredible, mostly with explosions and in movie things rather then the soundtrack. My collection so far is...
The Dark Knight
The Knowing
Saw 5
Saw
Terminator 2 - Judgement Day
Disturbia
Batman Begins
Wanted
Pirates of the Caribbean 3
V for Vendetta

Blu-Ray needs to up the ante on special features and stuff like that. Yes, there is a noticeable (not necessarily significant) increase in sound and picture quality (I think mainly in sound), but the new releases need to include extras out the wazoo for this format to really be worth it, IMO.