DVD R1 RCE?

[Bester]

Hi!

I live in the UK and am currently thinking about buying the R1 DVD of The Gathering/In the Beginning. Before I do, I thought I'd find out if anyone has experienced any problems whilst playing this particular R1 disc on a multi-region UK DVD player. I've heard alot about the Regional Coding Enhancement recently and thought I'd play it safe before purchasing the disc.

Can anyone please help? Thanks!

 

[**DONOTDELETE**]

I am using a multiregion player in RPC1 mode (regionless mode, the player pretends not supporting region codes) and the R1 disk plays fine. Given that RPC1 players are most vulnerable to RCE, I must conclude that it has no RCE.

In the long term though, everyone wanting full multiregion capability is recommended to use RPC2-hackable players. The ones where you disable the counter and can infinitely switch regions.

 

[Kribu]

Plays fine on my regionfree standalone player - I know my player can be hacked to avoid RCE but so far I've done nothing to it. No complaints, no nothing, no need to set the player to R1 manually. I think it's safe to say it's RCE-free.

Actually, I've even heard rumours that it might be the same version that was also released down under as R4 - being really a double-region disk, not just R1 or R4, just marked as appropriate for the given region on the packaging. But I don't know how true this would be.

 

[Bester]

Cool! Thanks for your help, guys.

It's a shame that I have to resort to buying the R1 disc - I really think we are being treated unfairly in the UK, where they have decided (in their ultimate wisdom) to release each movie in a separate package! I'm definately going to buy the R1 disc, rather than forking out twice as much for the same thing. The cheek of these people!!!! /ubbthreads/images/icons/smile.gif Thanks again.

 

[A_M_Swallow]

The R2 DVD version of "The Gathering" and "In the Beginning" are due out in the next few days. <a target="_blank" href=http://www.amazon.co.uk>www.amazon.co.uk</a> is taking advanced orders.

These things come when the time is right.

 

[dawnchild]

<blockquote><font class="small">Quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by A_M_Swallow:
<font color=yellow>The R2 DVD version of "The Gathering" and "In the Beginning" are due out in the next few days. .</font color=yellow><hr></blockquote>

Aye , I have ordered my DVD-copy of "In the Beginning" from Blackstar UK Internet DVD-store and can`t wait to have it in the mail in a week or so! Wohoo!! /ubbthreads/images/icons/smile.gif /ubbthreads/images/icons/smile.gif

 

[Bester]

I was really looking forward to the possible release of a season-by-season DVD box set of B5.......until I saw the price of the first installment of the season-by-season DVD box set of ST:TNG........£89!!!!!!!!!!!! Bloody hell!!!!!!!! If the B5 DVDs are released at this price, I think I'll just stick to my VHS tapes........or maybe I'll end-up buying the whole series on DVD on import (R1). Afterall, those lucky Yanks get everything cheaper than us Brits. I guess I'll just have to wait and see......

 

[GenevaRanger]

Yes, the whole series on DVD Season set won't be VERY cheap . For the time being I have managed to get everything on a DivX copy, made from VHS recordings, so the quality is quite low, but I can play my episodes as often as I like without being afraid that they decay. However, I will still buy all the DVDs of course .

 

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Yes. They are likely to cost a bit, but be much cheaper than VHS versions. It will be useful to buy from the most economic source. So those with multiregion players can see their player earn back its price difference.

 

[ibwolf]

<blockquote><font class="small">Quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Bester:
<font color=yellow>I was really looking forward to the possible release of a season-by-season DVD box set of B5.......until I saw the price of the first installment of the season-by-season DVD box set of ST:TNG........£89!!!!!!!!!!!! Bloody hell!!!!!!!! If the B5 DVDs are released at this price, I think I'll just stick to my VHS tapes........or maybe I'll end-up buying the whole series on DVD on import (R1). Afterall, those lucky Yanks get everything cheaper than us Brits. I guess I'll just have to wait and see......</font color=yellow><hr></blockquote>

It should be pointed out that the R1 version of ST:TNG box set is not much cheaper than the R2 version. Once you figure in shipping costs I doubt that it will work out as cheaper.
The lowest price I've been able to find for R2 ST:TNG box set is 66.99 pound from Play.com.
If a season of B5 will ever be available at a similar price I wont hesitate to buy it.

It's also worth mentioning that Warner, in general, prices it's DVD releases lower than Paramount.

 

[Kribu]

I've recently found that the DVD prices in Australian online stores (for R4 releases) seem to work out the best for me. They're generally (at least for the titles I've been interested in; in the cases where there is both a R1 and R4 release) slightly cheaper than the R1 releases, and the shipping costs seem to be comparable to shipping from US. Plus there isn't, as far as I know, the danger of RCE.

I sure am glad I have a regionfree player. /ubbthreads/images/icons/grin.gif Plus two computers, each with a DVD-drive - if needs be, I could just set one of them permanently to R1 or something; but from I have read on the 'net, my standalone player should be fully able to handle RCE as well.

I really don't think that I would get a R2 release of the B5 DVDs... R1, perhaps, if it's not released in R4 at around the same time (although I understand the Gathering/ItB DVD was out even earlier in R4 than R1?). But I doubt I could afford R2, at least not at the British prices.

 

[dawnchild]

<blockquote><font class="small">Quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Kribu:
<font color=yellow> But I doubt I could afford R2, at least not at the British prices.</font color=yellow><hr></blockquote>

I can afford the R2 British prices , what sucks when I order DVDs from a UK Internet Store is that there is about a 50 % chance ( take my word for it! ) that I will have to pay a huge customs-tax on the package! Last time I ordered my Farscape-DVD it was stopped in bl**dy customs and I was charged the equivelant of £ 18 in customs charge on top of what I had paid for the DVD! - and that also happened not the time before that but before that again! /ubbthreads/images/icons/frown.gif If it weren`t for the fact that I can`t get hold of those Farscape-episodes here in Norway , and I just gotta have them , I wouldn`t try my luck at this anymore. Is costly!

 

[Kribu]

Ouch. /ubbthreads/images/icons/frown.gif

Over here, I think the limit for over which you have to pay the 18% VAT is around $38 or £28 (incl. shipping), so while ordering about one DVD or a couple of VHS tapes/CDs works out fine, I would definitely have to count with paying that 18% extra with box sets. Which is why I will *really* have to look around before buying.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

The UK price mentioned works out to around $128 US. That isn't a huge jump over typical prices for the R1 release. The problem is that - at least in the US - Paramount did not establish either a suggested retail price or a minimum advertised price for the title. They just set their wholesale price and left distributors and retailers to mark the set up as they saw fit, while expressing a vague hope that the set would sell "for under $100"

??? Without a published benchmark against which to measure discounts, consumers have a hard time figure out when they're getting a good deal. Fox set an MSRP of $125 for The X-Files, later raised to $150. Of course, hardly anyone sells the sets for that much, they usually go for around $85.00 USD.

The best price I've found on ST:TNG R1 from a US dealer is $99.99 plus shipping. Retailers list "MSRPs" of $138 to $150, but they seem to be making up these numbers because MSRP is a required field on their sites. /ubbthreads/images/icons/smile.gif The price premium over X-Files either reflects a higher wholesale cost, or the expectation that there will be more demand for TNG, and therefore consumers will be willing to pay more.

The best UK price I've seen is 69.99, or about $95 USD, so both sets are in the same ballpark if you know where to shop. Canadian dealers are selling the R1 set for around $132 CDN or $82 USD, which probably makes them the best deal over-all if you can pay in US funds.

These are hardly outrageous prices for a 7-disc set with 26 episodes and a boatload of extras. A typical 2 hour movie DVD retails for around $25. 7 of them would set you back $175. Compare all of these numbers to the TNG VHS release - where each tape contains only one episode, and retails for $15 on Amazon.com. The whole first season would cost a whopping $390 - or about what you would spend to buy the first four seasons on DVD.

All things considered, I'd say the DVDs are a bargain, although they do require laying out a large chunk of cash all at once. If Warner Bros. can match Paramount in terms of quality and features, I'd have no problem paying a similar amount for a B5 Season One boxed set.

Regards,

Joe