Region B

[dtblair]

I am looking at purchasing a Region B blu-ray of LOTR which is much cheaper than the US Region A version. My blu-ray player won't play it. Will MakeMkv rip the disc in a standard PC or am I missing something?

[Romansh]

IIRC, it should. Unlike DVD, I don't think Blu-ray has any hardware-enforced region coding yet, it's all done in software.

Once the Blu-ray becomes one or more MKV file(s), then region coding no longer exists.

[paulster]

Yes, the drives themselves aren't region coded.

Be careful that the region B version has the same quality of audio codecs, etc. in it. There have been a number of instances where the US gets a dual-layer disc with lossless audio and the UK gets a single layer with more video compression and a non-lossless audio track but at a much lower price. Underworld is one such example.