Sony suing apex over dvd rights.

[Guest]

According to a story posted on TheDigitalBits Sony is suing Apex over the cheap DVD players they are selling. Supposedly they can be used as all region machines by using some hidden feature. Sony is pissed cuz Apex isn't paying some fee to them for licensing and Apex has passed Sony as the #1 seller of DVD players. After reading about it, I picked one up at Wal-Mart for $150 (Cdn) in case they take them off the shelf. It's a damn good price for all region. You may want to grab one while you can, a few of my friends have also snagged some.

 

You can read the entire article about the lawsuit here:

 

Sony Lawsuit

[Guest Vyce]

What's the trick to make them region free?

 

I have an Apex DVD player, I'd like to know.

[Guest treble charged]

Pardon my ignorance, but what exactly does "region free" or "all region" mean?  I have an Apex player as well, and I'd like to know, too.

[Guest swan]

Just about any DVD player on the market has the ability to go no region. Just have to find the codes on the web. Which, BTW, is very easy.

[Guest swan]

Pardon my ignorance, but what exactly does "region free" or "all region" mean?  I have an Apex player as well, and I'd like to know, too.

Grab a DVD box and look at the bottom of the back cover. If you live in North America it'll be region 1. Making it no region gives you the ability to view DVD's from all parts of the world. This is cool cause sometimes other countries get movies released before we do or sometimes another country will just have say have a Pro Wrestling Noah release in Japan only, but you can watch it. You can find the code on-line.

[Guest El Satanico]

Where can you find the codes? Well i wouldn't buy foreign Dvds often because they are usually much more expensive but i'd like to know if my DVD machine can play them.

[Guest swan]

Where can you find the codes? Well i wouldn't buy foreign Dvds often because they are usually much more expensive but i'd like to know if my DVD machine can play them.

Try something like "Sony 1234 DVD Region Free Code" in a search engine like google. You can find the codes in various hack news groups and sites. I have never bothered looking myself since I don't really care.

[Guest swan]

Ok, try these:

 

http://www.vcdhelp.com/dvdplayershack.php

 

http://www.laserdiscarchive.co.uk/dvd.htm

 

http://www.apexmodchip.com/

 

 

If you want to go region free then just buy a region free player. Might have to copy and paste this last link:

 

http://www.dealtime.com/SearchR....ipCode=

[Guest starvenger]

My parents own an Apex player, and all I can say is that it's cheap because, well, it's a crappy player.  How?

 

- No remote on/off.  Generally, this isn't a problem since you have to get up to change DVDs anyway, but it'd be nice to have the option.

- audio/video features. For some reason, the movies always default to subtitle.

- changing audio on the fly.  Want to switch to director's commentary?  Well, you gotta stop the movie, go to the menu, and turn on the commentary.  If you're lucky, the movie might start playing at the same place you stopped it.

 

Basically what I'm saying is that saving $50 or so on a DVD player isn't worth the frustration it causes.

[Guest crandamaniac]

I work at a wal-mart, and we do sell those dvd players.  They're pretty cheap, $70-90.  But from what i seen, they're a piece of crap.  More of them get returned a day then any other model we sell.  I always try and not sell them, b/c they such a crappy dvd player

[Guest treble charged]

See, I have nothing to compare my Apex player to, so it's just fine by me.  Yes, the default subtitles are annoying, but it only takes a few seconds to go to the menu and change it.  But yeah, the fact that there is no On/Off button on the remote (but there is an eject button) kind of pisses me off.

[Guest Speed 6]

I used to own an Apex (before I traded it in for a Samsung).  And just let me say that it is SHIT.  I had to return it 3 times before I got one that wasn't fucked up in a certain way.  I don't think that the multi-region accessibilities could over-rule just the general crappiness of the Apex.  If you just like the Apex because it's cheap, go out and buy an Electrohome DVD player.  My parents got one for $150 Canadian the other day.  Thats like 4 dollars American, so it's gotta be a good deal.

[Guest evenflowDDT]

Oh c'mon, I've had an Apex for two years now, or however long since that Apex stuff first went down and there was a mad scramble to buy a "no-region" DVD player.  It's really not that bad - the only major problem I have with it is that

 

a) It can't handle some seamless menu branching.  Don't know what the hell that means but I can't play my "Fantasia Anthology" DVD because of it.

b) There's no manual over-ride on the adult check! This is a problem with a lot of DVD players (at least among those my friends and I own).  What I mean by this is that you can turn off adult check from the settings menu, but there is no way to have it so that there's just a code that you type in when you want to watch an adult-coded DVD.  This really sucks because it means I can't play my "Jack Frost 2" DVD, leading to a story I wrote about once in a sample column nobody read about how I had to use my mom's DVD player and accidentally broke it.

 

Anyway, Sony sucks.  I have never understood the point of Region codes other than to have big-name corporations like that take total control over the DVD distribution market.  Film is a free medium, and Sony and the other corporate American movie distributors have no right to say I can't watch Futurama on DVD until THEY release it ('cuz it's Region 2, and American DVD players are Region 1).  There's no legitimate reason for region codes other than to promote censorship through lack of fair distribution/access.  I believe there was a lawsuit in Australia over this too, since the companies release barely anything in Region 4.

[Guest El Satanico]

Well there are different models of Apex players so some of the models may be low grade. But from everything i read while trying to find out about this region free player said the 600a which does the Region free trick is a good player and comparable to many much higher priced brands.

 

It seems like the Apex 600a is the only model capable of doing the region free trick and i've seen many positive reviews of it so it may be the top of the line model while the other cheaper priced models are the bare bone players.