I spend a lot of time overseas and have the opportunity to pick up hardware that hasn’t been tampered with by the US companies. I have yet to purchase a region free DVD player and being we purchased a home theater system today and I stuck a DVD in it that I had purchased in Japan that is in no way possible to obtain here. (Like how many Americans are going to run out and buy a Instruction CD for traditional Okinawan dancing). My wife wants our kids to participate in some of the Hawaiian/Okinawan festivals around here for them to retain some of her culture.
Root of the story nope it did not work but thank goodness for my laptop. I plugged that into the TV and fired the DVD up. Go ahead knock on my door and try and get me not to play it.
Whoever the flaming idiot was that came up with region restriction needs to be shot on site. Anyway I did some snooping around and came up with more data for current region restricted DVD players which was quite eye opening. Soldering gun anyone ;) It was more than I could digest but here is a great starting point for those that are interested DVD information.
They have a rocking FAQ with about a million links.