Wii Virtual Console

[Harrison]

You really do have a thing against Sony don't you LowercaseE.

I'm feeling left out here. Will have to get me a Wii very soon as all this talk of the system is getting me more and more interested in it. And Oz mentioning homebrew enabling even more som now.

[LowercaseE]

/\ I just don't like what they're doing with BluRay. The fact that they're still using region codes is just retarded, plain and simple. It was a stupid idea for DVD and it's even more stupid to carry that idea over to a new format. HD-DVD is region free, you can get a DVD anywhere in the world and play it on any player you want. THAT'S how the "digital revolution" should work. It should make things more compatible, not less. Also, the last I read was that Sony was exercising content control over Blu-Ray and that's censorship which I am vehemently opposed to.

[J T]

region free, you can get a DVD anywhere in the world and play it on any player you want. THAT'S how the "digital revolution" should work. It should make things more compatible, not less.

Amen to that.

[LowercaseE]

I have no doubt that Blu-Ray will be region hacked sooner or later, but just the fact that they're even instituting it is dumb. Even many regular DVD players nowadays are easily hackable (through remote codes) to make the region free right from the factory. Some of them, such as Oppo Digital's players even directly advertise themselves as region free. Sony is such a megalomaniacal company, they want to control everything. They're like the Wal-Mart of electronics companies.

[Teho]

I thought the region encoding on blu-ray is optional? I mean, the players support it if the publisher wants it, but it is completely up to the publisher whether they want to include it or not?

I know the games for the PS3 are region-free in the way that they can be bought anywhere and will work anywhere. The games can contain code however to work differently depending on where it is played, so that regions that heavily censor content in games such as Germany, can have their damn censored game without it being a separate release. Whether this works better than the old system remains to be seen.

[Harrison]

/\ I just don't like what they're doing with BluRay. The fact that they're still using region codes is just retarded, plain and simple. It was a stupid idea for DVD and it's even more stupid to carry that idea over to a new format. HD-DVD is region free, you can get a DVD anywhere in the world and play it on any player you want. THAT'S how the "digital revolution" should work. It should make things more compatible, not less. Also, the last I read was that Sony was exercising content control over Blu-Ray and that's censorship which I am vehemently opposed to.

That is a good point. And region coding is something Sony feel very strongly about. Look at their recent PSP exploits, sueing companies in Asia for supplying PSPs outside of their intended region.

The newest PSP custom firrmware based on Sony's newest fw3 release makes me launch as practically within days of its release the custom version was out that removed region restrictions allowing any UMD to be played from any region, and also the bypassing of all other PSP restrictions.

Sony, as with most large corporations, do have a lot of bad things against them, but equally they still manage to produce some nice consoles and other technology which is worth the purchase.

I didn't know that HD-DVD was region free. That is good if that continues to be the case. The UK government was reports to have told manufacterers that they must try to make all of their next generation optical HD players compatible with both HD-DVD and BluRay formats. This can only be a good thing, but we will have to see if the manufacters play ball and do this or if the UK government have the balls to sue them of they don't.

Personally I'm holding off the purchase of a HD format until a clear winner in the format wars is announced. I have a feeling it will split into Bluray being the format for PS3 and HD-DVD being the format for home video players replacing current DVD players, so in effect both formats win in their own markets. Bluray won't die purely because it is the PS3 format.

I have no doubt that Blu-Ray will be region hacked sooner or later, but just the fact that they're even instituting it is dumb. Even many regular DVD players nowadays are easily hackable (through remote codes) to make the region free right from the factory. Some of them, such as Oppo Digital's players even directly advertise themselves as region free. Sony is such a megalomaniacal company, they want to control everything. They're like the Wal-Mart of electronics companies.

I don't. I fully expect Blu-Ray players to get hacked in no time. Look at when DVD first came out. No players could be soft modded to run other region discs, but mod chipd soon appears to bypass this.

I purchased a nice Sony DVD player soon after DVD took off and bought it pre-chipped to make it region free from an official Sony Centre! How cool is that! And I have to say that I'm still using the same DVD player to this day. Everyone I know who purchased much cheaper players have been through 2 or three since. My Sony still continues to work perfectly, giving great sound and audio, output to my Sony AV Amp of the same age which is also still working perfectly.

As I said above, Sony may be obsessed with trying to restrict access by region, but they do make some great hardware.

At the end of the day though you cannot blame Sony alone for wanting to protect their discs and its content. Making things region free is also not liked by governments. If consumers can purchase a disc at a lower price from another country that will work out of the box then they will. But doing this doesn't generate any income for any retailer in the country the person is living in, and the government don't make any tax from it either. Do you think it is only large organisations that have a part to play in region encoding and region restrictions? Think again. The governments are working with the companies to try and enforce region restrictions so they ensure revenue from all purchases made from their population.

[LowercaseE]

I know that it's a whole "conspiracy" and not just Sony's doing, but I just don't get how HD-DVD can go region free with no problems and Sony can't follow suit. I totally forgot about Sony putting Lik-Sang out of business too. I'm sorry, but that was a dick move if ever there was one. That's the kind of thing that really angers me about companies like Sony. Like they don't have enough money and they have to squash someone who's actually trying to give the fans what they want.

I'll agree that they do have some good hardware, but there are comparable or better things out there. When I bought my HDTV, a Panasonic 34" widescreen, I did a side by side comparison of it with a Sony HDTV of the same size. The sales guy and myself tweaked the settings on both and no matter what I or he did, the Panasonic clearly had the better picture. At least to my eyes anyway. Not only that, it had more options (simulated surround, BBE enhancement, etc.) that the Sony did not. AND the Sony cost $200 more. From my experience with Sony, you're just paying for the name most of the time.

[J T]

Sony gear used to be the mutt's nuts but now it seems a long way from that.

Although LowercasE, was it a flat panel screen? Panasonic screens trounce Sony ones.