Bastiaan en Lily's blog

Yup, i went out to the store today to buy DVD player #4 of this year today. We bought a cheap DVD player at Aldi when we just moved to Sydney because our DVD player from Holland hadn''t arrived yet. That DVD player desided to blow its amplifyer probably because the only way to get some resonable sound out of it was running it on its max setting. I had off course lost the reciept and since my old trusty DVD player had been sitting in a corner ever since it had arrived from Holland, I decided to use that instead. About a month back, after 4 trusty years of operation and abuse, it also decided it had enough.

So everything being closed I just ran into the local Coles, they had this cheap 50 dollar DVD player (it would be discounted to 29 a few weeks afterwards grrrr) so I thought I would give that a go. My trusty playstation only plays region 2 DVDs and my WII off course doesnt come with a DVD player software at all (go Nintendo!). This player from Coles turned out to be a region 4 player so I''ve been switching back and forth between the playstation and the MTV (yeah MTV!) DVD player.

Last week we decided to finally get a STB for free arial digital (not really worth the 29 bucks I paid for it but they are pulling the plug on the analog system soon). Plugging it in seems to have caused a small surge and blew the internal fuse on the MTV Player.. Hurray!

I had enough of this cheap stuff and went out to get a proper DVD player at Dick Smith today. I wasn''t ready to get a blue ray yet (we don''t have a capable TV anyways) but I did want to get a good DVD player and found a really nicely specced LG one. After making sure with the sales guy it was region free as I''m tired of switching we went home.. Its a good player, I''ve got Wall-E running on it now and I must say, sweeet! It is however, Region 4.... BLAST!

Now I''m all for copyright, I''m not one of those narrow minded people who think they should watch movies for free. I do agree with them to some extent music is over priced and movie companies do tent to earn more then their share, but it is not enough excuse for me to blatently violate copyright. Don''t get me wrong, I''m no saint on the matter, but in general I''m the movies industies wet dream.

The only thing thats stopped me recently from watching every major movie in the cinema is being a father and as such wanting to spend quality time with my daughter in stead of watching every numbrain movie coming out. Still when something special comes out, I call up my friends and make sure I get to see it when my daughter is sleeping and my wife has made addequate plans for herself.

But it doesn''t end there, when I like a movie, or when I''ve missed out on one running in the cinema, you can bet your ass I''ll buy it. If I don''t like to enough to buy it right away, I''ll buy it when its on discount. When I like it so much that the DVD breaks, or when I loose it somehow, you an bet your ass I''ll buy it again.

I litterely spend thousands of dollars on movies each year. When we moved from Lisse to Holland I had the same amount of boxes filled with VHS tapes as my wife had with clothes! And I''m not counting the boxes of DVDs.

When we moved to Sydney I made the hard choice to give my VHS collection away, my VHS player had broken anyways and it would just be crazy to incure the shipping costs. I was still shipping a couple of boxes of DVDs, the guys at customs must have scratched their heads a few times...

It is why I can''t for the life of me find an acceptable reason for region codes. Yes I understand the logistical and tax related issues behind releasing movies at different times throughout the world but region codes hardly help in the matter. Those 0.0001% of people who will buy DVDs overseas so they can get them before they are released in their own country will do that regardless of the region code limitations. One has to understand the DVDs might even be cheaper in the country of origin, but after you add postage and often import taxes, you are left with a DVD that is more expensive, and lacks the region specific options such as aduquate subtitling. Most people will simply wait the month or so extra until the DVD is found at the local video store. For me, I fit in both catagories only ordering DVDs overseas of different region code if I know the movie isn''t being released in ''my'' country at all (as happens with many Japanese and HK movies).

It also doesn''t help piracy, for all the money that went into protecting DVDs, those who pirate DVDs haven''t even got region codes on their radar.

In the end though, it does effect people like me. People who''ve donated thousands to the movie industry while executing their enthousiasm for this great medium called film. I now have thousands of dollars worth of DVDs that I have legally obtained, but I can''t watch on my region locked DVD player.

Way to go guys! Maybe it is time to let go of this region code nonsence and figure out the money it costs to support it isn''t worth the gains.

Way to go internet for providing me with the solution as well. Can''t stop the signal!