I don't now if this will help anyone but it sure helped me.
When we moved back over to Canada at Easter we brought all our UK DVD collection thinking quite foolishly we could find a multi region player quite easily... NOT.
It seemed after many weeks of searching that we would not be able to use our DVDs which was most annoying.
Then I heard of a fiddle( for want of a better word) that enables someone to change the region in a DVD player so it can play other region stuff.
I was not convinced but thought it was worth a shot.. the advice was to stick to the cheaper machines easily found in places like Walmart so I paid $26 and tried the formula, I got a code off the net and Bingo. MY very cheapie DVD player is now region free and plays anything I put in it.
It has saved me a lot of hassle and expense and funnily enough the same model is available in Walmart in the UK.. geared up to that region of course.
Might help someone so thought it would be worth a post.
XX Jeannine
I read yesterday that there is a similar problem with certain games machines.
As I understand it the games are owned by different companies in different countries. So if you buy a game in the UK it does not work on a machine in the US. and visa versa.
Probably a similar thing with film distribution rights.
Most DVD players are "hackable" because the companies dont set the code for the region in hardware. They want to build the same machine for every region and then they set the code using software - normally on a hidden menu. Some companies make it easy and you can buy region free DVD players from Richer Sounds (they actually come with instructions). Other companies like Sony are less than forthcoming!!
We 'hacked' ours the day we bought it. Works out so much better. DVDs are half the price when you can buy other regions, which beats the good old UK rip off market.
The website for finding out the secret code is http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks (http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks)
It's also a very good site for help with video editing and conversion.