BBC London 2012 Olympic Games 5 disc BluRay set – Region B

[chgotop]

I received a gift from a coworker in our London office of a 5 disc Bluray set of the 2012 London Olympics events produced by the BBC. Upon receipt I knew the discs were region B but the gift giver did not. I presumed that the region code could be wiped and a copied disc would play on my Sony BDP-S360 player. I used the DVDFab HD Decrypter to clone the disc and (wisely) burned it to a blank Verbatim BD-RE DL rewritable disc. The region code was removed but the disc does not play. There is no error message, the disc loads and just displays a still black screen with no audio or advancement. I have since learned that most Bluray discs from the UK are "50i" and US disc players/TVs utilize 24fps (??).

My question is: If I purchase the full DVDFab program, is there additional functionality within it that will allow me to convert the region B discs to a Bluray format playable on the Sony Bluray player?

[MrVideo]

I received a gift from a coworker in our London office of a 5 disc Bluray set of the 2012 London Olympics events produced by the BBC. Upon receipt I knew the discs were region B but the gift giver did not. I presumed that the region code could be wiped and a copied disc would play on my Sony BDP-S360 player. I used the DVDFab HD Decrypter to clone the disc and (wisely) burned it to a blank Verbatim BD-RE DL rewritable disc. The region code was removed but the disc does not play. There is no error message, the disc loads and just displays a still black screen with no audio or advancement. I have since learned that most Bluray discs from the UK are "50i" and US disc players/TVs utilize 24fps (??).

Frankly I'm surprised that the BBC release is region coded, as the BBC has yet to region code any of the Blu-rays that I've purchased and had sent to me here in the states. I get the Doctor Who stuff because I want the original frame rate, not the 1080i50 that is converted to 1080i59.94 or 1080p29.97 for the states. How do you know that it is region coded? What is the UPC that is on the package (include ALL of the numbers, including the little first and last numbers). I can then go to another source and check it out.

Your assumption about frame rates is a little incorrect. It is true that HD video that is sourced by the BBC, or some other foreign countries will be 1080i50, but it is not true that US players are 24fps. No one in the world, that I know of, is actually releasing anything at a true rate of 24fps. That is because of our backwards and idiotic idea that we must still support the ancient NTSC analog rate of 23.976 fps. That is the frame rate that is used for movies and is supported world wide. US players support that as well as 1080i59.94 and 1080p29.97.

My question is: If I purchase the full DVDFab program, is there additional functionality within it that will allow me to convert the region B discs to a Bluray format playable on the Sony Bluray player?

You don't say how you have your player connected to your monitor/TV. Are you using HDMI, or component, or something else?

I haven't tried my older Sony BD player, as I have a lot newer Samsung. Today's newer players will negotiate with the display device (via the HDMI connection) what frame rate it supports and if the display does not support 1080i50, the player will convert the video to 1080i59.94 (or maybe 1080p29.97). I do not know what happens if a componet connection is used, since component cannot negotiate capabilities.

So, if you are using a component connection, that could be your issue, or if you are using HDMI, the Sony player may be too old and will not support 1080i50 conversion to 1080i59.94 or 1080p29.97, if your monitor will not display 1080i50..

There is absolutely nothing that DVDFab9 can do about that, as it is not a standards converter. If you want to play 1080i50 videos, you will need a player and/or display that will.

[chgotop]

MV,

Thanks for your response.

My declaration about the region coding was based on all of the online sales info I conducted after receiving the disc and realizing it would not play. Any site that sells this 5 disc set clearly "classifies" it as a region B disc set that will not play on standard US players but there is no specific labeling on the boxes/discs that confirms/states that. The box does list the video format as 1080i and the EAN format UPC is: 5 051561 002243 >.

I did modify the video settings on the bluray player to 1080i (from the normal 1080p), but that did not produce any video/audio. The Sony BDP-S360 player is connected to a Sony Bravia 40" TV (KDL-40V4100) via HDMI. As of this writing, I have not yet attempted to modify the TV display properties but I will poke around based on your points about display conversion that I was unaware of.

The bluray player and the TV are not "old" by reasonable standards but in this new era of constant technological advancements, they may be the reason for the situation at hand.

Once again, thanks for your assistance here.

[90312]

If your player will play an MKV or mp4 those type files are indifferent to all that jazz.

[MrVideo]

Any site that sells this 5 disc set clearly "classifies" it as a region B disc set that will not play on standard US players but there is no specific labeling on the boxes/discs that confirms/states that. The box does list the video format as 1080i and the EAN format UPC is: 5 051561 002243 >.

The site that I looked at does indeed list it as being region B. Unusual for the BBC to do that. The Olympic people may have forced them into doing that. Also unusual that there is a notice on the box about that. The source that I used, which is a database of released discs can be inaccurate, though the users strive to keep it correct.

I did modify the video settings on the bluray player to 1080i (from the normal 1080p), but that did not produce any video/audio. The Sony BDP-S360 player is connected to a Sony Bravia 40" TV (KDL-40V4100) via HDMI.

Ya, changing those settings shouldn't make a difference. I have the S350, which I don't even have plugged in (power connection).

So, if the region B listing I saw is indeed correct, your only choice to view it is to make a main movie copy. That strips all of the Java region checking code and just plays the main listing. While I couldn't get the customize feature to work (posting made about that issue), you might try the customixing option where you can put mode of the titles on the copy. You won't have any menu to select what is played, but at least the video will be viewable.

[MrVideo]

If your player will play an MKV or mp4 those type files are indifferent to all that jazz.

Unless that has changed with recent players, Sony has not been good at supporting playback of anything but Blu-ray authored discs. That is why I didn't get a newer Sony, but went with Samsung, because they do support playing video files.