you are SOL (well, sort of...)

Films/DVD Asylum

Movies from comedy to drama to your favorite Hollyweird Star.

In Reply to: Non Region 1 "Hero" and "Flying Daggers"...Educate Me posted by BuffaloTom on May 8, 2005 at 17:30:07:

I searched for a region hack for the US/Canadian version of the 1040 and came up with nothing. Zip. Nada. Since Rotel sucks The Big One in this area, I believe you have 3 options if you want the better versions of these movies:

#1 You can get another DVD player that is region free or can be made, via hack (usually through the remote control and "secret menus"), region free. If you don't want to spend big bucks, many el-cheapo Chinese/Taiwanese players are either region free/Macrovision free out-the-box or can be made so after 30 seconds on the remote.
#2 You can buy a higher quality overseas player that either is or can be made region free (the rest of the world has more or less declared region coding illegal, so the only area it essentially affects is North America which is quite stupid as its intended control was "the rest of the world" -- see how asinine it has become?). Of course, you may have to deal with voltage concerns but that depends on what country you purchase the player from.
#3 A decent computer with a DVD burner, preferably dual-layer capable, along with (be sure to read the very important fine print regarding the first two):

DVD Decrypter
http://www.dvddecrypter.com/
DVD Shrink
http://www.dvdshrink.org/what.html
(optional, but current "best" DVD writer)
Plextor 716 and included PlexTools Professional software
http://www.plextor.com/english/products/product_dvdrw_drives.html
If you want to know what's considered the best versions of these movies, visit DVD Beaver and you can get screenshots and commentary on the different versions. Unfortunately, the version for the best video may not be the best version for the audio. For instance, the House of Flying Daggers 2-disc Region 3 Starmax edition is considered to have the best video, but the Region 3 Edko 2-disc edition is considered to have the best audio (full bitrate DTS-ES 6.1 Discrete). The 2-disc Region 2 Japanese version of Hero is considered to have the best video, but again the Korean Region 3 Edko 2-disc edition has the better audio (full bitrate DTS-ES 6.1 Matrix). Since audio is my top priority, I own the Region 3 2-disc Korean versions of both of these movies. The difference in the video quality between what is considered the best version of these movies and these R3 editions is rather close, in my opinion. As an added benefit, these editions don't screw with the translations (entirely uncalled for and done just to satisfy political correctness -- fuck that!).
And please don't forget that you need to be very careful when buying from overseas. You don't want to get stuck with a VCD, SVCD or Pal-to-NTSC transfer of a movie. I purchased these two movies from www.cd-wow.com (use their Search function to pull up different regions) and had no problems whatsoever.
Here's a link to DVD Beaver (will take a bit to fully load, even with DSL/cable modems, but worth it):

DVD Beaver (Open in New Window)

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Follow Ups Full Thread

Topic - Non Region 1 "Hero" and "Flying Daggers"...Educate Me - BuffaloTom 17:30:07 05/08/05 (4)

you are SOL (well, sort of...) - Joe Murphy Jr 23:29:00 05/09/05 (2)

Re: you are SOL (well, sort of...) - Jack G 08:30:21 05/10/05 (1)

The rest of the world's region coding doesn't matter - Joe Murphy Jr 17:53:30 05/11/05 (0)

Re: Non Region 1 "Hero" and "Flying Daggers"...Educate Me - Jack G 05:58:20 05/09/05 (0)

Follow Ups

you are SOL (well, sort of...) - Joe Murphy Jr 23:29:00 05/09/05 (2)

Re: you are SOL (well, sort of...) - Jack G 08:30:21 05/10/05 (1)

The rest of the world's region coding doesn't matter - Joe Murphy Jr 17:53:30 05/11/05 (0)

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