Cw is correct many budget players come with remote ready hacks in the UK to make zone free. Sony players have always required to be chipped to allow this-as far as I'm aware. The reason this is so popular in the UK is that American discs are cheaper and quite often out a lot earlier (this is not as common as at first.) Also the censorship laws are different with many UK movies having slight cuts that America doesn't-this quite often throws out audio commentaries-The Matrix being a famous case.
