Special features on region free discs - playback issues common?

[mistermono]

How common is it that the extras on import (but region-free) BR discs are unplayable (I'm talking about non-North American discs imported from Europe, etc.)? Is it limited to certain players or is it across the board when issues occur? Is there a list of titles known to have such issues?

[kannisto]

I'm not sure which region A players can play SD PAL extras but at least region A PS3 can't play them.

In my experience most smaller European native distributors (i.e. not the European divisions of the big Hollywood studios) do use SD PAL extras on their BD releases currently. I have 26 European BD imports so far and the majority (something like 75%) of them have SD PAL extras that can't be played on my Japanese PS3. Most of my Euro imports are from those native European distributors.

Luckily I have a PC setup as well so I could watch those extras on my PC if I really wanted to. However since the PC is in the bedroom and I often finish watching the movies when the rest of the family is already asleep, I can't easily watch them after watching the movie and I usually end up skipping them entirely then.

[lgans316]

Originally Posted by mistermono

How common is it that the extras on import (but region-free) BR discs are unplayable (I'm talking about non-North American discs imported from Europe, etc.)? Is it limited to certain players or is it across the board when issues occur? Is there a list of titles known to have such issues?

Depends upon the studio that owns the distribution rights. Hollywood movies on Blu-ray released by Hollywood based Studios are likely to have the extras encoded in NTSC 480i/p.

[DCSholtis]

IF your TV can handle PAL like mine can a LG BH 200 Combo player takes care of that for you via a simple hack. Now I'm able to play any PAL extras I find on a Blu disk.

[Merlins]

So far I have not encountered any Region A discs with NTSC material or both my PS3:s are able to play it. I have One Region A PAL PS3 and one Region B PAL PS3.

[kannisto]

Originally Posted by Merlins

So far I have not encountered any Region A discs with NTSC material or both my PS3:s are able to play it. I have One Region A PAL PS3 and one Region B PAL PS3.

It's very common for PAL area hw to support NTSC but much less common for NTSC area hw to support PAL. Most PAL area TVs and DVD players can handle NTSC without any problems but in the U.S. and Japan it's less common for players and TVs to support PAL.

Did you mean Region A NTSC PS3 or does your region A PS3 really support PAL? If yes, where is it from?