Bring the noise.

Top film. Top DVD. A tenner from Tesco - I think I was the first to buy it, seeing as it was still in the new titles drawer, and not on the shelves. But why the utterly pointless cardboard sleeve, which conveyed absolutely no new information than the plastic case? A complete waste.

Just saved meself £18

I've got a Panasonic DVD recorder, which until now has been resolutely Region 2 only. Most of the cheapo players and recorders have a code sequence you can enter using the remote, but not the quality ones. Panasonics also use a sequence of infra-red commands to change the region coding, but one of the commands is not on the standard remote. You had to either buy a multi region player, or pay £18 or so to buy a special remote to send the command sequence. As I only have a few region 1 discs, I never bothered.

Then I found this site. These guys have not only been hacking Panasonic firmwares, but they've discovered the hitherto unknown command sequence to make the majority of Panasonic DVD players and recorders region free! There are methods to suit just about any device with an infra-red port (I used a boot CD for a laptop), and you can make your player any region you wish. Now I can watch The Last Starfighter (unavailable on a region 2 disc!)

Kudos to Tom & Martin!