RE: this is a first...

Living in Japan as I do, I often run into encoding issues.
Check with your local dealer about players manufactured by LG
ELectronics of
Korea - mine is a top of the line model, handling DVD, CD and a few
other
flavors, and comes with a "maintenance function" that allows the user to
switch it to any encoding, or encoding-free. Legal, too!
There are a couple websites listing all the models with this option and
how
to access the "maintenance functions."

> Anyone know if there are any plans for a Region 2 version of the DVDs?

Edward Lipsett
Fukuoka, Japan