from ITV Studios's UK Blu-ray of Michael Powell's The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (Region B locked)
Rian Johnson had a dilemma yesterday. The Hive Mind tried to help. I hope this solves it for him.
This guide is written from the English-speaking, US perspective (predominantly), but its contents are generally applicable regardless of which region-locking wall you're behind. Just about everyone in Europe can just swap the UK/EU references for US and vice versa.
Did you just hear about some amazing release of a movie that's not yet available in the States? Whether a BFI or Masters of Cinema disc from the UK, or a Ghibli Collection disc with English subtitles (Region B people, think Criterion), the solutions are generally the same.
from BFI's UK Blu-ray of Yasujiro Ozu's Good Morning (Region B locked)
Revisiting DVD Region Codes (and Liberation)
Broadly speaking, DVD and Blu-ray region-locking are completely different. Standard def content is still shackled to NTSC versus PAL encoding, but HD discs are all just plain HD (with the exception of Standard Def extras in some cases...more on that in a bit).
Via Computer: Whether on a Windows computer or a Mac, VLC is a region-code-agnostic player that will play every DVD I've ever thrown at it. If on a Mac, just make sure you shut off Auto-Play in the DVD Player app's preferences.
On Your TV: All-region players are cheap, and most commercial players have some sort of region lock-removal code that can be input, immediately making everything work like magic.
UK discs (Region 2) are encoded in PAL format, which requires some monkeying with your TV settings.
The problem with some UK discs is that some of the extras on them (in rare cases, the movie itself) have "refresh rates" unsupported by some US players. The magic number to be worried about is 50Hz. If your player or TV doesn't support 50Hz, you're boned.
from Optimum Classic/StudioCanal's 50th Anniversary UK Blu-ray of Michael Powell's Peeping Tom (Region B locked)
Regions and Which Ones Matter
Here's the Wikipedia article, but in brief: the 3-region split of Blu-ray is rather different than the 6 regions of DVD.
Region A is (mostly) the US, Canada, and all of the Americas, plus Hong Kong, Japan, and South Korea. Make sure those Asian discs you want have English subtitles. HK: usually, Japan: 50-50 chance from my experience, Korea: your results may vary.
Region B is the UK and all of Europe (minus Russia/Ukraine/Belarus), Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. These are the vast majority (if not all) import discs that US/Region A people care about. Make sure non-English language movies have English subtitles...many UK, EU, and Australian discs are all-region already.
Region C is mainland China, India, Russia, and assorted others. China has built its own competing HD format, infused with Socialist Genius or something, and most discs from these regions are released after the US anyway, cost WAY too much to import, or don't have English subtitles.
Where to Buy Import Discs
The handful of great brick and mortar independent video stores generally have them, but they will almost always cost more than they do online, but not often by very much. Here's a breakdown of which online retailers I generally use.
Canada: Amazon Canada
UK: Amazon.co.uk is the only place I get UK discs from, period. Shipping is generally free.
EU: Amazon France, Germany, Spain.
Japan, Hong Kong, Korea: YesAsia or Amazon Japan (unfortunately, SensAsian closed down in 2011)
from Freemantle Media's UK Blu-ray of John Carpenter's Elvis (Region-Free)
That Import Blu-ray Might be All-Region Already...But Always Double-Check
The Lawrence of Arabia disc is a good example: loads of import Blu-rays are All-Region already. Germany and France are usually good for completely All-Region discs (like the German Watership Down), but France can be worthless when it comes to English subtitles.
Make sure foreign language films you're into have English subtitles if you need them, or don't waste your money.
Check the description on Amazon, but double-check with a Google search, or in the threads on the Home Theater Forum and other Blu-ray enthusiast havens.
I Want to Watch Region-Locked Blu-rays on my HDTV
The easiest and cheapest (and best) thing to do is to get a UK Blu-ray player for the purpose of playing Region B discs.
This LG player on Amazon UK is currently 49.99 GBP, or around $100. All you need in addition to that is a UK to US power adapter, which are $2-$4, like this one on Amazon US.
from BFI's UK Blu-ray of Tony Scott's debut feature Loving Memory (Region-Free)
What About Modded Players? Isn't PS3 Region-Free?
Modded players exist and work, but cost hundreds of dollars. If you want to spend on one of these, make sure you get one that is hardware-modified, not software-hacked or modified. Oppo is good for this, but again, modded players are way overpriced.
The PlayStation 3 is absolutely NOT region-free, and there is no safe or surefire way to hack it that wouldn't be overridden or bricked by their frequent firmware updates.
One Caveat
Remember that some import Blu-rays have Standard Def, 50Hz extras included on them, so don't expect that every single extra on those discs will necessarily work on your US player or TV. Google is your best friend there.
On a Computer
Watching Blu-rays on a computer is an entirely different matter, which I'd have to address in a followup.
It is much easier to do on a Windows PC than a Mac, but Mac Blu-ray playing is actually possible (though very imperfect).
Feedback
I hope this is helpful. Hit me up on the Contact page for clarification and so on. I'll be addressing this briefly in this week's episode of Screen Time on 5by5.