From: Ken Bawcom (email suppressed)
Date: Mon Feb 15 2010 - 16:46:29 PST
Indeed they can. Oppo does not offer the firmware, but it has been
created by Oppo fans for Oppo's new BDP-83, and probably for the
newer, and cheaper, BDP-80 as well. However, Oppo puts out regular
official firmware updates, which will undo the region-free firmware,
and the region-free firmware updates always lag behind, but do get
updated eventually.
www.videohelp.com may well have a link to region-free firmware for the
Oppo, but I haven't checked. If you go to www.avsforum.com, go to the
Blu-ray players forum, look for the BDP-83 thread, and/or the BDP-80
thread, and check the first post, you will find the info there. It's a
very lengthy thread, but it does have a search function, so you can
also look for the latest posts about firmware updates.
www.jvbdigital.com makes hardware-modified versions of both Oppo
players, that are, and will remain, region-free, for a reasonable
price. Oppos are popular, so there are probably other companies
providing such mods as well, but JVB is very reliable.
Ken B.
Quoting Lundgren <email suppressed>:
> Can the OPPO players be made region-free with only firmware mods?
>
> I thought all players on the market required hardware-mods.
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ken Bawcom" <email suppressed>
> To: <email suppressed>
> Sent: Monday, February 15, 2010 12:57 AM
> Subject: Re: by Brakhage bluray
>
>
>> Unfortunately it seems that the "Blu-ray Disc Association" is far
>> more aggressive about enforcing the requirement that all Blu-ray
>> players be region encoded, so region-free Blu-ray players are
>> rather scarce. Many manufacturers who had made region-free, or
>> easily converted to region-free, DVD players are not doing that
>> with their Blu-ray players. Oppo, known for reference quality
>> players at reasonable prices, players that converted between PAL
>> and NTSC, and could easily be made region-free, now require
>> firmware mods, or physical mods, to be region-free. One reliable
>> source for modified players is JVB Digital.
>>
>> Ken B.
>>
>> Quoting Chuck Kleinhans <email suppressed>:
>>
>>> Blu-Ray regions are different than DVD regions. There's a fairly
>>> good discussion on Wikipedia: Blue-ray Disc.
>>>
>>> Chuck Kleinhans
>>>
>>>
>>> __________________________________________________________________
>>> For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> "Those who would give up essential liberty
>> to purchase a little temporary safety
>> deserve neither liberty, nor safety."
>> Benjamin Franklin 1775
>>
>> "I know that the hypnotized never lie... Do ya?"
>> Pete Townshend 1971
>>
>>
>> __________________________________________________________________
>> For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.
>
>
> __________________________________________________________________
> For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.
>
>
>
"Those who would give up essential liberty
to purchase a little temporary safety
deserve neither liberty, nor safety."
Benjamin Franklin 1775
"I know that the hypnotized never lie... Do ya?"
Pete Townshend 1971
__________________________________________________________________
For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.