I just became aware of Hannu Lintu's Sibelius symphony cycle on DVD And Blu-ray, and I'm interested in hearing/seeing it, not least because I heard him conduct an outstanding performance of Rachmaninoff's The Bells in St. Louis a couple years ago. But it's Region 2/B, not playable on most U.S. equipment. Is there any way to access this?

On Wednesday, April 13, 2022 at 3:56:05 PM UTC+10, Richard Kaplan wrote:
> I just became aware of Hannu Lintu's Sibelius symphony cycle on DVD And Blu-ray, and I'm interested in hearing/seeing it, not least because I heard him conduct an outstanding performance of Rachmaninoff's The Bells in St. Louis a couple years ago. But it's Region 2/B, not playable on most U.S. equipment. Is there any way to access this?

One way to get around the area coding is to buy a program that will rip the disc into a machine-readable file which you can then play on your computer, or media players which will play that format. I've never tried to rip Blu-ray, but I believe there are programs out there that will do the job. All my DVDs have been ripped as mp4s and stored on a hard drive, except for a couple of Studio Ghibli which only allow you to rip the story board. I use the WinX DVD ripper to do the job:

<https://www.winxdvd.com/>

You will now get a number of replies from our resident scrooges, advertising programs that you can get for free.

Andrew Clarke
Canberra

In article <a448b34b-b25e-47fa-8474-18415d02795cn@googlegroups.com>,
Richard Kaplan <richard.a.kaplan.78@gmail.com> wrote:
> I just became aware of Hannu Lintu's Sibelius symphony cycle on DVD And
> Blu-ray, and I'm interested in hearing/seeing it, not least because I
> heard him conduct an outstanding performance of Rachmaninoff's The Bells
> in St. Louis a couple years ago. But it's Region 2/B, not playable on
> most U.S. equipment. Is there any way to access this?

I have found from time to time that Amazon are wrong about Region coding.
It would be silly for a company producing classical music blu-rays to
seriously limit their market so it is best to contact Arthaus musik
directly to find out if they can suggest a source for the region free
blu-ray.

https://arthaus-musik.com/en/

Alan

--
alan.dawes@argonet.co.uk
alan.dawes@riscos.org
Using an ARMX6

On Tuesday, April 12, 2022 at 10:56:05 PM UTC-7, Richard Kaplan wrote:
>
> I just became aware of Hannu Lintu's
> Sibelius symphony cycle on DVD And
> Blu-ray, and I'm interested in hearing/
> seeing it, not least because I heard him
> conduct an outstanding performance of
> Rachmaninoff's The Bells in St. Louis a
> couple years ago. But it's Region 2/B,
> not playable on most U.S. equipment.
> Is there any way to access this?

Two solutions:

1) Buy a universal, worldwide player.
These are available from overseas
vendors as well as from some 220V
stores in the US.

2) Use a computer drive and software
to rip the disk and save an image
file.

dk

I have the blu-ray, and it plays without any problems on my Oppo.
David

On Wednesday, April 13, 2022 at 1:56:05 AM UTC-4, Richard Kaplan wrote:
> I just became aware of Hannu Lintu's Sibelius symphony cycle on DVD And Blu-ray, and I'm interested in hearing/seeing it, not least because I heard him conduct an outstanding performance of Rachmaninoff's The Bells in St. Louis a couple years ago. But it's Region 2/B, not playable on most U.S. equipment. Is there any way to access this?

On Wednesday, April 13, 2022 at 3:52:20 AM UTC-7, Dan Koren wrote:
>
> Two solutions:
>
> 1) Buy a universal, worldwide player.
> These are available from overseas
> vendors as well as from some 220V
> stores in the US.
>

E.g.

https://www.walmart.com/c/kp/multiple-region-dvd-players

https://www.bestreviews.guide/multi-region-dvd-players

The top multi-region players are
Sony, Pioneer and Panasonic, e.g.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1438328-REG/pioneer_dv_2042ke_multi_region_multi_system_disc_player.html

You will need a player that is not
only multi-region but also multi-
system NTSC/PAL(/SECAM).

dk

from the MusicWeb International web site it give this info
Jean SIBELIUS (1865-1957)
Introduction to Symphony No 1 + Symphonic Themes [31:03]
Symphony No 1 in E minor, Op. 39 (1899) [41:16]
Introduction to Symphony No 2 + Symphonic Themes [26:50]
Symphony No 2 in D major, Op 43 (1902) [45:49]
Introduction to Symphony No 3 + Symphonic Themes [24:40]
Symphony No 3 in C major, Op 52 (1907) [30:12]
Introduction to Symphony No 4 + Symphonic Themes [27:05]
Symphony No 4 in A minor, Op 63 (1911) [40:15]
Introduction to Symphony No 5 + Symphonic Themes [27:13]
Symphony No 5 in E-flat major, Op 82 (1919) [34:20]
Introduction to Symphony No 6 + Symphonic Themes [24:59]
Symphony No 6 in D minor, Op. 104 (1923) [30:58]
Introduction to Symphony No 7 + Symphonic Themes [28:53]
Symphony No 7 in C major, Op. 105 (1924) [22:32]
Special feature: ‘Sibelius, Lintu and 7 Symphonies [59:37]
‘Sort of Sibelius!’ A series of short films by Pila Hirvensalo [80:00]
Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra/Hannu Lintu
rec. live Helsinki Music Centre, dates unspecified.
Region code: 0. Picture format: 16:9; Sound format: PCM Stereo DD 5.1.
Audio language: Finnish. Subtitles: English, French, German, Japanese, Korean
ARTHAUS 101796 [5 DVDs: 565 mins]

On 2022-04-13 1:34 a.m., Andrew Clarke wrote:
> On Wednesday, April 13, 2022 at 3:56:05 PM UTC+10, Richard Kaplan wrote:
>> I just became aware of Hannu Lintu's Sibelius symphony cycle on DVD And Blu-ray, and I'm interested in hearing/seeing it, not least because I heard him conduct an outstanding performance of Rachmaninoff's The Bells in St. Louis a couple years ago. But it's Region 2/B, not playable on most U.S. equipment. Is there any way to access this?
>
> One way to get around the area coding is to buy a program that will rip the disc into a machine-readable file which you can then play on your computer, or media players which will play that format. I've never tried to rip Blu-ray, but I believe there are programs out there that will do the job. All my DVDs have been ripped as mp4s and stored on a hard drive, except for a couple of Studio Ghibli which only allow you to rip the story board. I use the WinX DVD ripper to do the job:
>
> <https://www.winxdvd.com/>
>
> You will now get a number of replies from our resident scrooges, advertising programs that you can get for free.
>
> Andrew Clarke
> Canberra

I have a couple of Sokolov DVDs from which I would like to rip the music
so that I can play them in the car etc. None of the free programs work.

On Wednesday, April 13, 2022 at 2:43:13 AM UTC-7, Alan Dawes wrote:
> In article <a448b34b-b25e-47fa...@googlegroups.com>,
> Richard Kaplan <richard.a...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > I just became aware of Hannu Lintu's Sibelius symphony cycle on DVD And
> > Blu-ray, and I'm interested in hearing/seeing it, not least because I
> > heard him conduct an outstanding performance of Rachmaninoff's The Bells
> > in St. Louis a couple years ago. But it's Region 2/B, not playable on
> > most U.S. equipment. Is there any way to access this?
> I have found from time to time that Amazon are wrong about Region coding.
> It would be silly for a company producing classical music blu-rays to
> seriously limit their market so it is best to contact Arthaus musik
> directly to find out if they can suggest a source for the region free
> blu-ray.
>
> https://arthaus-musik.com/en/
>
> Alan
>
> --
> alan....@argonet.co.uk
> alan....@riscos.org
> Using an ARMX6
I would second this (that the region information in amazon is incorrect). The ARTHAUS website lists the Lintu DVDs as region 0 and blu-rays as region A/B/C. I own a bunch of classical blu-rays and DVDs published in Europe, and all of them are region-free. Region restriction seems to be more of a thing for movies.

On Wed, 13 Apr 2022 00:34:17 -0700 (PDT), Andrew Clarke
<andrewclarke437@gmail.com> wrote:

>One way to get around the area coding is to buy a program that will rip the disc into a machine-readable file which you can then play on your computer, or media players which will play that format. I've never tried to rip Blu-ray, but I believe there are programs out there that will do the job

http://makemkv.com/

You will need a Blu-Ray player/burner in your computer, obviously.

There is a code you need to make this program work OK, it is on the
site somewhere, constantly being updated.

The program will extract the various parts of the Blu-Ray into MKV
files, which can then be used to create DVDs (the biggest extracted
file is the "main" program usually).

If you are using the DVD creation program called DVDStyler, it will
overcome regional differences.

On Wed, 13 Apr 2022 08:47:07 -0600, Graham <g.stereo@shaw.ca> wrote:

>I have a couple of Sokolov DVDs from which I would like to rip the music
>so that I can play them in the car etc. None of the free programs work

DVD Decrypter?

On 2022-04-13 2:08 p.m., Mr. Mike wrote:
> DVD Decrypter
Thanks!! I'll give it a try.

On Thursday, April 14, 2022 at 1:45:59 AM UTC+10, Fymido Lenito wrote:

> I would second this (that the region information in amazon is incorrect). The ARTHAUS website lists the Lintu DVDs as region 0 and blu-rays as region A/B/C. I own a bunch of classical blu-rays and DVDs published in Europe, and all of them are region-free. Region restriction seems to be more of a thing for movies.

I've just had a look at my own small collection - mostly opera - and they are all region-free except for a DVD of Figaro from the then-new opera house at Glyndebourne with Renee Fleming as the Countess and Haintink conducting. My copy is region 2-6!

Andrew Clarke
Canberra

On Tue, 12 Apr 2022, Richard Kaplan wrote:

> I just became aware of Hannu Lintu's Sibelius symphony cycle on DVD And Blu-ray, and I'm interested in hearing/seeing it, not least because I heard him conduct an outstanding performance of Rachmaninoff's The Bells in St. Louis a couple years ago. But it's Region 2/B, not playable on most U.S. equipment. Is there any way to access this?

The obvious searches on Amazon don't turn this up (Amazon seems to have
made searching more and more difficult). But if you just want to hear/see
them (not free), they are all on medici.tv. Each is preceded by an
introductory talk (already mentioned in this thread) - I've only watched
a couple so far, but found those talks to be impressive in their
outline of the musical ideas, illustrated by rehearsal footage. I've
been intending to view the whole series.
--
Al Eisner

On Wednesday, April 13, 2022 at 11:46:42 PM UTC-5, Al Eisner wrote:
> On Tue, 12 Apr 2022, Richard Kaplan wrote:
>
> > I just became aware of Hannu Lintu's Sibelius symphony cycle on DVD And Blu-ray, and I'm interested in hearing/seeing it, not least because I heard him conduct an outstanding performance of Rachmaninoff's The Bells in St. Louis a couple years ago. But it's Region 2/B, not playable on most U.S. equipment. Is there any way to access this?
> The obvious searches on Amazon don't turn this up (Amazon seems to have
> made searching more and more difficult). But if you just want to hear/see
> them (not free), they are all on medici.tv. Each is preceded by an
> introductory talk (already mentioned in this thread) - I've only watched
> a couple so far, but found those talks to be impressive in their
> outline of the musical ideas, illustrated by rehearsal footage. I've
> been intending to view the whole series.
> --
> Al Eisner
It turns up in an Amazon search of "Movies and TV." On the advice of several members of this group, I've ordered the Blu-ray, and will report.

Rich

On Wednesday, April 13, 2022 at 3:56:05 PM UTC+10, Richard Kaplan wrote:
> I just became aware of Hannu Lintu's Sibelius symphony cycle on DVD And Blu-ray, and I'm interested in hearing/seeing it, not least because I heard him conduct an outstanding performance of Rachmaninoff's The Bells in St. Louis a couple years ago. But it's Region 2/B, not playable on most U.S. equipment. Is there any way to access this?

Incidentally, the Lintu Sibelius performances + accompanying material are available on Stingray Classica. In Australia we get this via Amazon Prime, although there is a separate subscription.

Andrew Clarke
Canberra

On Thursday, April 14, 2022 at 4:12:32 AM UTC-5, andrewc...@gmail.com wrote:
> On Wednesday, April 13, 2022 at 3:56:05 PM UTC+10, Richard Kaplan wrote:
> > I just became aware of Hannu Lintu's Sibelius symphony cycle on DVD And Blu-ray, and I'm interested in hearing/seeing it, not least because I heard him conduct an outstanding performance of Rachmaninoff's The Bells in St. Louis a couple years ago. But it's Region 2/B, not playable on most U.S. equipment. Is there any way to access this?
> Incidentally, the Lintu Sibelius performances + accompanying material are available on Stingray Classica. In Australia we get this via Amazon Prime, although there is a separate subscription.
>
> Andrew Clarke
> Canberra
Thanks to David, Andrew et al., I ordered the Blu-ray from Amazon, and lo and behold, it's universal, and played fine on my Cambridge Audio player. I enjoyed the First Symphony today, including Lintu's articulate exegesis (in Finnish, but with subtitles).
Rich