Are 4K Discs starting to get region locked?
- Thread starter Stygian
- Start date
Could just be accidental. Remember - UHD discs are just larger Blu ray discs - but basically the same as standard blu ray with larger storage. It is entirely possible that when they authored the 4K disc they forgot to turn off the region coding setting they used for the standard 1080p blu ray discs.
Damn! I was just about to buy Greenland 4K from Amazon.it, if the one from Finland is region locked there’s a good chance the Italian edition is as well. That’s a major bummer because unfortunately it’s not available in 4K here in the States. Now I gotta figure out what I’m going to do. ??? 
There have only been 3 UHD discs reported so far. Which I think supports my earlier conclusion that these are authoring errors.Damn! I was just about to buy Greenland 4K from Amazon.it, if the one from Finland is region locked there’s a good chance the Italian edition is as well. That’s a major bummer because unfortunately it’s not available in 4K here in the States. Now I gotta figure out what I’m going to do. ???
I have authored many discs - and I can easily see someone forgetting to turn off the region coding on the software when switching from authoring 1080p Blu ray discs to 4K blu ray discs.
Maybe grab the one from Germany
Amazon product
IDK I may just hold off until they eventually do release a US version of it whenever that will be is anyone’s guess. I don’t want to have a dud of a good movie on my hands just in case it is legit.
@Savage Clown @C.C. 95 Finnish Greenland is not locked. 4K's are not locked. See the pic.
...tho this looks like german version.
...tho this looks like german version.
Yes, The UHD Alliance has regulated that UHD discs are region free. However, there have been 3 UHD releases that have been confirmed to have been released region locked.
DEATH WISH release in Finland, Sweden and Denmark
GREENLAND release in Finland.
WEATHERING WITH YOU release from Shout Factory U.S.A.
Whether this is accidental, or certain companies ignoring the UHD Alliance rules, we don't know yet.
(i personally vote for authoring error)
*fingers crossed that it is only the Finland GREENLAND that has the region lock. No reports on the German version yet.
I'm gonna end up doing it at some point too. I have the Nova blu ray slipcover, and I'm gonna wanna swap that disc with 4K disc at some point.
Yeah that's the German version because it says Berlin down at the bottom, that's probably the one I'll go for. I believe that ABC symbol is referring to the BluRay not the UHD disc.
...IMO it should notice somewhere if UHD was region locked. Could those 3 be mistakes in production or something ?
You would think so but it's most likely due to a authoring error like @C.C. 95 said, I mean UHD discs are supposed to be absent of region coding. Straight from the horses mouth perse Sony.
The question is though, how much of the production line got out before the error was caught?
Well I was going to buy Greenland from Germany but I don't feel like spending $44 on it and it's not even a steelbook. I would possibly pay that much for a steelbook but not a regular release...no way.
I'll just have to wait for it to release on 4K here in the States. 
@Savage Clown @C.C. 95 @Space Cadet
As suspected, the issue with Greenland is an unintended manufacturing error.
I inquired about the situation and this was the response from the Head of Home Entertainment Distribution of SF Studios:
I also sent a follow-up question about how to acquire a guaranteed region-free copy.
As suspected, the issue with Greenland is an unintended manufacturing error.
I inquired about the situation and this was the response from the Head of Home Entertainment Distribution of SF Studios:
I also sent a follow-up question about how to acquire a guaranteed region-free copy.
Ahhh, nice work. Good to know now going forward. Thanks.
Yep you were right.Great sleuthing!
I was pretty sure that was the case. Nice to have confirmation.
Start voting for intentional. I recently bought a 4k version of the Australian film "Razorback". It came with two 4k discs (the third disc was bluray). One of the discs was coded to region B, the other was Region Free (it said so on it). So, it looks like we're starting to get coding with purpose.
Note that both Death Wish and Greenland are Nordic releases, i.e., exactly the same product is sold in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden.
For both of these releases, the distributor is the same, SF Studios, and it's absolutely certain that exactly the same disc is sold nowhere else. They sell only in these four countries and their releases typically have subtitle tracks only in Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish and no other subtitle tracks.
[Edit: I also got confirmation from the distributor that region locking of Greenland 4K UHD was a manufacturing error. I'm confident that the situation is exactly the same with all region locked 4K UHD discs]
Looks like it was a mistake, and (rumor is) Umbrella are going to be doing a disc replacement program.
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