As one of those not living in USA/North America, and having recently been asked about different regions and zones and Kaleidescape a few times, I thought i'd brain-dump my experiences here.
I hope it will help others, and please feel free to correct any mistakes I make.
Most of this is well covered in the excellent Kaleidescape FAQs, but I will also cover how I have set up my system as it may be useful to others trying to work out how to do multi-region systems.
Firstly, what are regions/zones: - For some reason, the DVD and Bluray designers decided to split the world into areas, so that films/content could be released in different parts of the world at different times and not work in the wrong parts of the world.
There are 6 DVD regions (Region 1 to 6). USA is 1, Europe is 2, - you can find the full list on wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD_region_code
There are 3 Bluray Zones, A, B and C. USA is covered in A, and Europe in B - again, covered in the above wiki, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD_region_code#Blu-ray_Disc_region_codes
I am in UK, so Region 2 and Zone B.
With respect to DVD and Blu-ray, Kaleidescape systems behave differently, so I will cover them separately.
DVD regions. The players will play back any content that is stored on the server, no matter what region the content was originally or what region the DVD drive in the player (if the player has a drive) is set to. A DVD drive can only read in content (onto the server) for the region it is set to. If a player is playing back a DVD straight from a drive (i.e not from server content), again the DVD region setting of that drive must match the DVD.
The DVD region code on a player can be changed 4 times from the installer interface. Note that Bluray drives have DVD region codes as-well as Blu-ray zone codes, and the DVD region code can be changed 4 times on a Blu-ray drive.
So, in summary, to make a multi-region DVD playing system, you need a DVD drive in each region you want to import from or you can't get the content onto the system! If you have stopped buying anything but your local region DVD, and are trying to import a large collection, you could sort it all out into Regions and change the Region code on a player each time, but chances are you'll run out of region code changes and stuff yourself.
Blu-ray Zones. Kaleidescape Blu-ray players (even those without drives) come set to a single Bluray Zone and can never be changed. All players with drives (i.e M500, M700) will import content from a disk of ANY zone.
If you want to playback a Blu-ray disk direct from the blu-ray drive in a player (i.e not yet imported to the server), that player MUST be the same Zone as the Blu-ray disk you are trying to play.
However, a player will play stored Blu-ray content from a different zone to whatever it is as long as there is a player in the content's Blu-ray zone somewhere in the system.
So, in summary, you can import any Blu-ray content, but to play back mult-region, you need a player *anywhere* in the system that is in the Blu-ray zone that you want to play back.
It is also worth pointing out, that Blu-ray disks must be present somewhere in the system for the system to play the content (even though the content is on the servers hard disk). This means Blu-ray disks end up in a 'Vault' which the system then knows the disk is in the system. DVD disks are not the same, they do not need to be "in the system" physically after they have been scanned in.
So. how did i build my multi-region system? My requirement was as follows
a) to be able to play / store DVDs of Region 1 or Region 2
b) To be able to play / store Bluray of Zone A and Zone B, but occasionally to play back a new Zone B disk before it is scanned into the server.
My initial Blu-Ray mult-region/zone system was therefore setup as follows
a) 1U server with 4x2TB drives
b) M500-B with KVAULT-10 attached, set to DVD Region 2. (I.e Zone B, Region 2).
c) M300-A
d) KMUSIC-4000 with DVD set to Region 1.
e) KPLAYER-5000 with DVD set to Region 2.
The M500 was bought as Zone B because of my requirement to play disks before they had been scanned in occasional. It was also set to DVD Region 2 for the same reason.
The M300 was in Zone A, because it has no drive, so no need for playback ever, it was just enabling the whole system to play Zone A Blu-ray content.
The KMUSIC4000 is used to import my Region 1 content, or any Region 1 DVDs I happen to purchased
The KPLAYER5000 was a spare player, so was just there for extra importing ability, since the system can import multple disks at once as a result.
What are the limitations? I can't do anything with Zone C blu-ray content (well, I can import it, but can't play it), And I can't even import DVD Region 3-6 content.
Richard
I hope it will help others, and please feel free to correct any mistakes I make.
Most of this is well covered in the excellent Kaleidescape FAQs, but I will also cover how I have set up my system as it may be useful to others trying to work out how to do multi-region systems.
Firstly, what are regions/zones: - For some reason, the DVD and Bluray designers decided to split the world into areas, so that films/content could be released in different parts of the world at different times and not work in the wrong parts of the world.
There are 6 DVD regions (Region 1 to 6). USA is 1, Europe is 2, - you can find the full list on wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD_region_code
There are 3 Bluray Zones, A, B and C. USA is covered in A, and Europe in B - again, covered in the above wiki, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD_region_code#Blu-ray_Disc_region_codes
I am in UK, so Region 2 and Zone B.
With respect to DVD and Blu-ray, Kaleidescape systems behave differently, so I will cover them separately.
DVD regions. The players will play back any content that is stored on the server, no matter what region the content was originally or what region the DVD drive in the player (if the player has a drive) is set to. A DVD drive can only read in content (onto the server) for the region it is set to. If a player is playing back a DVD straight from a drive (i.e not from server content), again the DVD region setting of that drive must match the DVD.
The DVD region code on a player can be changed 4 times from the installer interface. Note that Bluray drives have DVD region codes as-well as Blu-ray zone codes, and the DVD region code can be changed 4 times on a Blu-ray drive.
So, in summary, to make a multi-region DVD playing system, you need a DVD drive in each region you want to import from or you can't get the content onto the system! If you have stopped buying anything but your local region DVD, and are trying to import a large collection, you could sort it all out into Regions and change the Region code on a player each time, but chances are you'll run out of region code changes and stuff yourself.
Blu-ray Zones. Kaleidescape Blu-ray players (even those without drives) come set to a single Bluray Zone and can never be changed. All players with drives (i.e M500, M700) will import content from a disk of ANY zone.
If you want to playback a Blu-ray disk direct from the blu-ray drive in a player (i.e not yet imported to the server), that player MUST be the same Zone as the Blu-ray disk you are trying to play.
However, a player will play stored Blu-ray content from a different zone to whatever it is as long as there is a player in the content's Blu-ray zone somewhere in the system.
So, in summary, you can import any Blu-ray content, but to play back mult-region, you need a player *anywhere* in the system that is in the Blu-ray zone that you want to play back.
It is also worth pointing out, that Blu-ray disks must be present somewhere in the system for the system to play the content (even though the content is on the servers hard disk). This means Blu-ray disks end up in a 'Vault' which the system then knows the disk is in the system. DVD disks are not the same, they do not need to be "in the system" physically after they have been scanned in.
So. how did i build my multi-region system? My requirement was as follows
a) to be able to play / store DVDs of Region 1 or Region 2
b) To be able to play / store Bluray of Zone A and Zone B, but occasionally to play back a new Zone B disk before it is scanned into the server.
My initial Blu-Ray mult-region/zone system was therefore setup as follows
a) 1U server with 4x2TB drives
b) M500-B with KVAULT-10 attached, set to DVD Region 2. (I.e Zone B, Region 2).
c) M300-A
d) KMUSIC-4000 with DVD set to Region 1.
e) KPLAYER-5000 with DVD set to Region 2.
The M500 was bought as Zone B because of my requirement to play disks before they had been scanned in occasional. It was also set to DVD Region 2 for the same reason.
The M300 was in Zone A, because it has no drive, so no need for playback ever, it was just enabling the whole system to play Zone A Blu-ray content.
The KMUSIC4000 is used to import my Region 1 content, or any Region 1 DVDs I happen to purchased
The KPLAYER5000 was a spare player, so was just there for extra importing ability, since the system can import multple disks at once as a result.
What are the limitations? I can't do anything with Zone C blu-ray content (well, I can import it, but can't play it), And I can't even import DVD Region 3-6 content.
Richard
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