Should I Buy Blu Ray US Imports?

Scoobyh1 · 31/03/13 - 22:12

Hey guys,

I was looking through UK Amazon and found some Blu Ray films that are not yet released in the UK but have US Imports of the film.

For example, I would like to buy The Grudge on Blu Ray but only have the US Import. First of all, will this work on my UK Blu Ray Player or PS3?. Secondly, Will the picture quality, boxset be the same? Finally Is it worth waiting for a UK release?

If anyone has had any experience with Blu Ray US Imports, please let me know.

Thanks

Bluray · 31/03/13 - 22:29

A PS3 won't play US Blu-rays and only certain players will but The Grudge may be region-free as many US discs are. Most US selling websites such as DVDWorldUSA will tell you.
Picture quality will almost always be the same, not sure what you mean by the "boxset" - do you mean packaging?

Karis · 31/03/13 - 22:30

Scoobyh1 wrote: »

I was looking through UK Amazon and found some Blu Ray films that are not yet released in the UK but have US Imports of the film.

For example, I would like to buy The Grudge on Blu Ray but only have the US Import. First of all, will this work on my UK Blu Ray Player or PS3?. Secondly, Will the picture quality, boxset be the same? Finally Is it worth waiting for a UK release?

Same quality. Well worth it. I've purchased quite a few imports from the US and they've all been excellent.

Got Adventure Time and Regular Time on pre-order (among a few others).

Scoobyh1 · 31/03/13 - 22:47

Bluray wrote: »

A PS3 won't play US Blu-rays and only certain players will but The Grudge may be region-free as many US discs are. Most US selling websites such as DVDWorldUSA will tell you.
Picture quality will almost always be the same, not sure what you mean by the "boxset" - do you mean packaging?

OK Thanks for that. And yes, I just mean the packaging, sorry must have confused you with "Boxset" term.

Also when you say PS3 won't play US Blu Rays, do you mean AT ALL, even for a Region free US Import version of The Grudge Blu Ray?

Pink Knight · 31/03/13 - 22:49

Bluray wrote: »

A PS3 won't play US Blu-rays and only certain players will but The Grudge may be region-free as many US discs are. Most US selling websites such as DVDWorldUSA will tell you.
Picture quality will almost always be the same, not sure what you mean by the "boxset" - do you mean packaging?

Will a PS3 not ? about 3/4 of US blu rays are region free and if a google search is done, then the Region status of released Blu's can be found.
I would have thought any blu ray player including a PS3 can play any region free Blu as long as there isn't a firmware issue. I.e updates needed for some new releases.

Bluray · 31/03/13 - 23:19

Sorry for confusion - a PS3 won't play US region locked blu-rays but will play region free.

US blu-ray cases are slimmer than UK which is better in my opinion. Overall they take up less room if you have a lot.....and I have a lot. In fact I'm having some new shelving put up on Wednesday to accommodate my ever growing collection.

[Deleted User] · 01/04/13 - 00:32

only thing you gotta watch is customs charges. I got hit with a 12 quid charge with wreck it Ralph after already paying $33 for the product..

Bluray · 01/04/13 - 00:42

There's a seller on ebay called "libelex" who get US blu's very early and no customs charges

darkjedimaster · 01/04/13 - 06:42

Dombo wrote: »

only thing you gotta watch is customs charges. I got hit with a 12 quid charge with wreck it Ralph after already paying $33 for the product..

I ordered The Avengers movie from Blu Bastard & never got charged any customs fees as they are a UK based company. I know that I could have purchased the film, from any UK outlet but decided against buying the UK release of the film, due to the edit that the idiots at Disney made.

[Deleted User] · 01/04/13 - 16:46

darkjedimaster wrote: »

I ordered The Avengers movie from Blu Bastard & never got charged any customs fees as they are a UK based company. I know that I could have purchased the film, from any UK outlet but decided against buying the UK release of the film, due to the edit that the idiots at Disney made.

Blu Bastard is currently being berated on another forum for atrocious customer service, including repeated use of the "death in the family" excuse...

Ted C · 01/04/13 - 18:49

If you are keen to buy US blu ray imports, you may as well just buy a multi region blu ray player. Then you can play all blu ray and dvd's from anywhere in the world, for only a couple of hundred quid for a player.

It's a far simpler solution at the end of the day, and saves worrying about what will and will not play, and you can then order anything you want from reputable sites

UltraViolet · 01/04/13 - 23:37

Some places are customs friendly(I've never had a problem with Barnes & Noble for example) but Amazon is the one to watch out when it comes to customs, the last three things I've got from them that went over £15 got caught(except one, they sent it to me by accident without getting the fees! not complaining). It's not the customs fee that bothers me, it's the terrible £8 handling fee Royal Mail put onto the final total.

There are plenty of sites about that tell you what American blu-rays are region free or region A only.

I order off one site and they usually send out pre-orders a week or so before the release date in America, for example I got The Collection blu-ray a week or so before the official release date.

Finally Is it worth waiting for a UK release?

For me it depends on the film, I import from all over the world if I prefer the artwork/want a slipcover or it's not avaliable on blu-ray here in the UK. For example, Criterion edition blu-rays are something I adore and import.

Your blu-ray of The Grudge is region free, so it will play on your PS3.

Pink Knight · 01/04/13 - 23:58

Ted Cunterblast wrote: »

If you are keen to buy US blu ray imports, you may as well just buy a multi region blu ray player. Then you can play all blu ray and dvd's from anywhere in the world, for only a couple of hundred quid for a player.

It's a far simpler solution at the end of the day, and saves worrying about what will and will not play, and you can then order anything you want from reputable sites

I went down the route of buying a Toshiba BDX 3200 for £70 and putting an Australian firmware on it. Probably not the best player in the world but does the job. AV Forums is a good site to check which players can be tampered with.
I've never encountered a firmware update problem with a disc, but they do occur occasionally.

Bluray · 02/04/13 - 00:14

Pink Knight wrote: »

I went down the route of buying a Toshiba BDX 3200 for £70 and putting an Australian firmware on it. Probably not the best player in the world but does the job. AV Forums is a good site to check which players can be tampered with.
I've never encountered a firmware update problem with a disc, but they do occur occasionally.

That's exactly what I did - managed to get one for £62. I had to have multi-region for Criterion and Scream Factory releases.
The occasional Twilight Time release too - they're limited edition of Christine arrived last week.

UltraViolet · 02/04/13 - 00:20

Yep, don't have to spend a couple of hundred on a multi region player, mine was £80.

[Deleted User] · 02/04/13 - 01:24

Scoobyh1 wrote: »

Hey guys,

I was looking through UK Amazon and found some Blu Ray films that are not yet released in the UK but have US Imports of the film.

For example, I would like to buy The Grudge on Blu Ray but only have the US Import. First of all, will this work on my UK Blu Ray Player or PS3?. Secondly, Will the picture quality, boxset be the same? Finally Is it worth waiting for a UK release?

If anyone has had any experience with Blu Ray US Imports, please let me know.

Thanks

What do you mean by boxset?
If you mean packaging. No, US Blu Rays normally come in slightly thinner packaging. For major releases the artwork is normally the same, for indie releases it's normally different...

[Deleted User] · 02/04/13 - 23:56

Bluray wrote: »

That's exactly what I did - managed to get one for £62. I had to have multi-region for Criterion and Scream Factory releases.
The occasional Twilight Time release too - they're limited edition of Christine arrived last week.

and me.. helped by a forum member on here,

Scoobyh1 · 05/04/13 - 02:36

Hey,

Thanks a lot guys for the feedback.

I just bought my first US Blu Ray Import! I thought I would go with I Know What You Did Last Summer as I have the sequel on Blu Ray but the 1st film has never been released in the UK so just received it today and it plays well and is perfect quality, love the US packaging too!

Thanks so much! Can't wait to get my favourite childhood movie Hocus Pocus too on Blu Ray because it STILL hasn't been released over here!

Bluray · 05/04/13 - 03:03

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http://blushots.weebly.com/

UltraViolet · 05/04/13 - 20:40

Thanks so much! Can't wait to get my favourite childhood movie Hocus Pocus too on Blu Ray because it STILL hasn't been released over here!

Yep, Hocus Pocus is safe, it's region free.

Love the film.

lovedoctor1978 · 05/04/13 - 20:51

Im after getting an internal bluray drive for my pc. Are these the same as regular players, where it may be region locked or are all these region free?

[Deleted User] · 05/04/13 - 21:02

lovedoctor1978 wrote: »

Im after getting an internal bluray drive for my pc. Are these the same as regular players, where it may be region locked or are all these region free?

The lock is usually in the software rather than the drive, and with the right software you can make a drive region free.

You need to be careful though, I have an external bluray drive and an internal DVD drive. My internal drive will play DVDs from any region, but my external bluray drive seems to only play region 1 DVDs...

Bluray · 05/04/13 - 21:02

lovedoctor1978 wrote: »

Im after getting an internal bluray drive for my pc. Are these the same as regular players, where it may be region locked or are all these region free?

I had a new pc custom made a few months ago and asked for a region-free BR drive putting in. I was told they were region-locked.

I just use software to remove the restrictions.

lovedoctor1978 · 05/04/13 - 21:07

theonlyweeman wrote: »

The lock is usually in the software rather than the drive, and with the right software you can make a drive region free.

You need to be careful though, I have an external bluray drive and an internal DVD drive. My internal drive will play DVDs from any region, but my external bluray drive seems to only play region 1 DVDs...

Bluray wrote: »

I had a new pc custom made a few months ago and asked for a region-free BR drive putting in. I was told they were region-locked.

I just use software to remove the restrictions.

Cheers guys.

[Deleted User] · 05/04/13 - 21:11

lovedoctor1978 wrote: »

Cheers guys.

I should mention that even though the external Blu Ray drive is fishy with DVDs, it's fine with BDs from any region and you can get software which will allow it to play DVDs from any region as well...

[Deleted User] · 05/04/13 - 23:07

Disney is usually always better than the EU releases. Most of them are region free too.

And that includes Pixar and Marvel too.

Hey there!

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Should I Buy Blu Ray US Imports?

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