Pet Shop Boys Community

lalolalo wrote: Wed 30 Jul 2025, 1:36 pm What's a shame is that the BR is region B. The same happened with It couldn't happen here.

I'm asking out of ignorance, is it that harder to make a BR multiregion? Don't they know the item will be bought from all around the world?

It's a publishing rights issue. It's limited to region B as the BFI likely only required the rights to distribute this in the UK, not worldwide.

This is exactly *because* otherwise it will be purchased around the world.

lalolalo wrote: Wed 30 Jul 2025, 1:36 pm What's a shame is that the BR is region B. The same happened with It couldn't happen here.

I'm asking out of ignorance, is it that harder to make a BR multiregion? Don't they know the item will be bought from all around the world?

Just buy a Didar Bluray player. Job done

Or rip then stream to the TV. Region coding hasn’t been a serious problem for about 20 years.


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Just so I am clear. The album was remastered in 2023 and not released until 2025?

herts101 wrote: Fri 01 Aug 2025, 7:46 am Or rip then stream to the TV. Region coding hasn’t been a serious problem for about 20 years.

How is one going to do that without a region free bluray player? And how do you rip a stream to a TV? A stream of what?
Region-locked blurays are still a pain. These cheap region-free players obviously do not offer the picture and sound quality of stand-alone bluray players.

They're not a serious problem for DVDs (where software modification is easy) or 4K UHD discs (that do not have region coding).

Gabby wrote: Thu 31 Jul 2025, 11:29 pm

lalolalo wrote: Wed 30 Jul 2025, 1:36 pm What's a shame is that the BR is region B. The same happened with It couldn't happen here.

I'm asking out of ignorance, is it that harder to make a BR multiregion? Don't they know the item will be bought from all around the world?

Just buy a Didar Bluray player. Job done

USD 200 later, job done.
By the way, I love you Gabby but that doesn't answer my question.

herts101 wrote: Fri 01 Aug 2025, 7:46 am Or rip then stream to the TV. Region coding hasn’t been a serious problem for about 20 years.


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Yes, I also can take two blu rays, put them in some kind of an axe, tied them together and with just a couple of gears and some metal pipes turn them into a bicycle, but that's not what I asked.
If I had asked, how do a turn a blu ray into a bicycle? that would have been a good answer.
If I had asked, how can I watch a region B bluray content? yours might have been the right answer.
But no.
I want to play my blurays in my BR player to get the whole BR experience.
My question was, is it that harder to make a BR multiregion? Don't they know the item will be bought from all around the world?

lalolalo wrote: Fri 01 Aug 2025, 5:44 pm

Gabby wrote: Thu 31 Jul 2025, 11:29 pm

lalolalo wrote: Wed 30 Jul 2025, 1:36 pm What's a shame is that the BR is region B. The same happened with It couldn't happen here.

I'm asking out of ignorance, is it that harder to make a BR multiregion? Don't they know the item will be bought from all around the world?

Just buy a Didar Bluray player. Job done

USD 200 later, job done.
By the way, I love you Gabby but that doesn't answer my question.

I've done some searching before and I believe hacking a bluray is harder than a DVD player, but I don't understand the technology around that. I also know you can pick up hacked players all over (Amazon sellers and such) but I'm leery about that so I try to look for alternative solutions.

The Didar isn't (by a long stretch) the best BluRay player out there, but it does the job for me. It has one little weirdness - the first time you put in a UK BluRay it gives you an error saying it wont play (which is quite alarming when you hoped it would play right away) but if you press the "Menu" or "Top Menu" button, lo and behold it plays just fine and you never have to see that error again.

Any region of DVD plays on it right out of the box without issue.

God, I sound like an advert for them - trust me, I am in no way affiliated, but these little beasts have saved my bacon with multi region discs.

oakey wrote:

herts101 wrote: Fri 01 Aug 2025, 7:46 am Or rip then stream to the TV. Region coding hasn’t been a serious problem for about 20 years.

How is one going to do that without a region free bluray player? And how do you rip a stream to a TV? A stream of what?
Region-locked blurays are still a pain. These cheap region-free players obviously do not offer the picture and sound quality of stand-alone bluray players.

They're not a serious problem for DVDs (where software modification is easy) or 4K UHD discs (that do not have region coding).

Probably can’t go into all the details here but essentially you buy a region free Blu-ray drive for a PC/Mac, rip at full quality picture and audio, then stream via any appropriate device. I use an Apple TV.


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lalolalo wrote:

herts101 wrote: Fri 01 Aug 2025, 7:46 am Or rip then stream to the TV. Region coding hasn’t been a serious problem for about 20 years.


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Yes, I also can take two blu rays, put them in some kind of an axe, tied them together and with just a couple of gears and some metal pipes turn them into a bicycle, but that's not what I asked.
If I had asked, how do a turn a blu ray into a bicycle? that would have been a good answer.
If I had asked, how can I watch a region B bluray content? yours might have been the right answer.
But no.
I want to play my blurays in my BR player to get the whole BR experience.
My question was, is it that harder to make a BR multiregion? Don't they know the item will be bought from all around the world?

Ok - got it. Can’t help you if you still want to put a disc in a player.
Personally, although it’s a bit more hassle to get there, I find the playback experience of a full quality file via an Apple TV works better for me. Simple and easy to watch and keeps the discs pristine.


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herts101 wrote: Sat 02 Aug 2025, 8:54 am

oakey wrote:

herts101 wrote: Fri 01 Aug 2025, 7:46 am Or rip then stream to the TV. Region coding hasn’t been a serious problem for about 20 years.

How is one going to do that without a region free bluray player? And how do you rip a stream to a TV? A stream of what?
Region-locked blurays are still a pain. These cheap region-free players obviously do not offer the picture and sound quality of stand-alone bluray players.

They're not a serious problem for DVDs (where software modification is easy) or 4K UHD discs (that do not have region coding).

Probably can’t go into all the details here but essentially you buy a region free Blu-ray drive for a PC/Mac, rip at full quality picture and audio, then stream via any appropriate device. I use an Apple TV.

I know how to stream a video file to a TV, the question was how one watches this bluray release without a region free player. The answer is: you don't.

How do you listen to a CD? Well by using Spotify or listening to an mp3. That's not really an answer, is it?

How to watch this new version of Potemkin with the PSB soundtrack if you don't have a region B player. Well, there's a lot of ways, legal or illegal.

The point in all of this is that you *do* need a regionfree bluray player or drive to either watch or rip the physical disc, as others have commented. There is no way around that.

I love the comment on the blurays discs to make a bike out of it.

But in the end the answer is: the release is region B locked because BFI, a British institute paid by taxpayers money, does not have the global rights to release it worldwide.

oakey wrote: Sat 02 Aug 2025, 8:59 am But in the end the answer is: the release is region B locked because BFI, a British institute paid by taxpayers money, does not have the global rights to release it worldwide.

Got it. Thanks oakey, not only you got me, but also you answered exactly what I asked.

I got my HMV Blu-ray/CD in the post yesterday, but have yet to play it. I'm going to attempt to rip the Blu-ray audio, to see if 'Men And Maggots' and other tracks are longer versions or different to the CD - will let you know when achieved.

Anyone received and played the LP version yet? I'm interested to know how they end and start each side, given it's a continuous piece of music on CD. Do the end of side A, B and C have unique endings (and therefore the start of side B, C and D have unique starts), or are they just handled with quick fade outs/fade ins?

Update: Wasn't able to rip the Blu-ray. MakeMKV told me it's using a newer version of copy protection. Hopefully there'll be an update to it soon to accommodates that encryption.

My rarewaves order has not been shipped yet. Anyone received it already?

My bundle arrived yesterday from Amazon (ashamed to say) and they knocked a few quid off as the price went down before shipping. I won't get around to playing/watching for some time as I'm busy.