Does Blu Ray have regions like DVD have?

Question

Does anyone know, do Blu Ray disks (or players) have encoded regions the way older DVD's do?

i.e. can I buy a US Blu Ray disk and play it in Australia or the UK or anywhere?

Do I need a multi region Blu Ray player? If so can anyone recommend one for Australia?

Answer 1

Yes, they have 3 regions, A, B and C. A map and lots of information is found here:

http://www.planetomni.com/Prod_BLURAY.sh...

They sell multi-region blu-ray disc players which work if your TV has an HDMI input. You can order one from them and they will ship worldwide and also have small transformers for the voltage as well as you'll need that in a 220 volt country.

These players will play all REGION A and B Blu-Ray Discs on any TV with HDMI input and in the exact image quality as if you were in whatever country the disc came from. You don't need a PAL-NTSC TV as in HDMI the video systems and standards don't exist as with DVD discs. These players are also CODEFREE for DVD discs for Regions 1 and 2.

Answer 2

Most if not all Blu-Ray Discs (BD) currently do not have Region encoding and can be played in any Blu-Ray player from any Region.  However, the Blu-Ray standard does support Region codes A, B, and C (see source link).  

It is up to the BD distributor, such as the movie studios, to determine if Region codes are used.  HD-DVDs, like standard DVDs, use Region restrictions.

Currently, the Panasonic Blu-Ray Player has one of the fastest load times and fewer complaints, but I would wait a few weeks for the newer models and see if prices on current models drop.

Answer 3

Negative Ghostrider.