Is it possible, with some device maybe, to bypass
area codes so that I could watch a movie from anywhere around the world ???

There are "code free" players in existance, and several companies offer code free modifications that you physically install on the main board of your player. So yes, though they're fairly expensive...

I'm spreaking from a UK perspective (Region 2) but cost depends on the machine. Some are fairly cheap ( Pioneer 505 springs to mind ) because it just involves shorting out a circuit inside the machine - others require special chips to be soldered in. There are a few in the UK which can be switched by using an engineering code via the remote control. On thing to watch out for is that European discs are encoded using different TV formats and unless either a) your TV supports these formats or b) the DVD player switches formats, you won't be able to watch the films.

Try www.dvdcity.com/ for no code machines

If you live in the US/Canada, don't bother with multi-zone. There's a reason why people outside the US/Canada go for multi-zone mods...but really only use zone 1. The US has more (much more) titles than any other zones, and better authoring/quality. I have many zone 1 discs....I have 8 zone 4 discs. I finally decided that buying zone 4 discs is not worth the hassles, because:
1) Sometimes the quality is no good (authoring).
2) Not many extras on the disc.
3) One of the major distributor here likes to code MPEG 5.1 as default, including the extras. Which means I get no sound coming out of my digital out and have to switch to analog.
4) My collection of zone 1 discs exceeds the range of zone 1 discs released so far!

Australia tends to get a lot of masters from the UK, so my dislike for zone 4 discs goes to zone 2 as well...Also, I keep reading in UK magazines that the DVD authoring for zone 2 discs are not as good as zone 1 discs....so I'm staying away from them. Plus they are not cheap to buy.

I tried looking for zone 3 (Asian) discs. Some countries censor the films, so I am not interested in getting them. The Hong Kong titles are very expensive, even in Hong Kong! I have seen many Hong Kong films, but I'm not sure if I really want to pay almost twice of what I pay for a US title for a Hong Kong title. Plus in Asia, you don't know if you're paying a lot of money for pirated video copies or not. A friend bought a Japanese made copy of Titanic. Cost him about US$30 to find out that it's pirated from the cinema! (As in, somebody took a video camera into the cinema to record it and put it on DVD to sell.)

Example 1: The very first DVD title I bought was Evita. It cost me $49.95 (about US$32) and it comes in Dolby Stereo 2 channels. US version costs less and comes with 5.1 channels.

Example 2: US version of Mask has deleted scenes. Australian version doesn't.

Hello,

i offer codefree DIY Kits for many DVD Players.
I've now an codefree and PAL upgrade solution for
the famous DVPs 7000 Player from Sony.

Also macrovision can be disabled on many dvd players.

All Features of the modification can be choosen with remote controll.

Bye

W. Meyer

If interesting write us an Email
Walter@psxtra.com