Page 1 of Blu-ray Newbie

Ok thinking of updating to blu-ray as my amp has just packed in was looking at Samsung HTBD2R any advice/comments?

Also, Im confused with the whole multi-region thing are can blu-ray players be made universal so I can play discs from anywhere?

Thanks for any comments.

Don`t know much about that particular system, but it reckons the player is only profile 1.0 compatible. If I were you I`d wait a bit and go for a 1.1 compatible machine as more and more discs are starting to utilise its feature-set. The Samsung BD-P1500 is due out soon. You could then buy a separate amp that decodes everything for about £400. Total cost would be about the same (I`m assuming you have at least a 5.1 speaker set-up at the moment).

As for multi-region, there are a few sites that claim to offer such players, but I`d be very careful. BD doesn`t work like DVD, and the discs can reprogram the players with updated copy protection routines. They can also render machines that have been tampered with useless (in theory). Basically I`d decide whether I wanted mostly region A or B titles and then buy a player accordingly. It`s a crap situation, but it`s in the corporate interest so we`re stuck with it (unless you buy a PC as you can get around it with software).