Region-free DVD players: A few questions for those "in-the-know"...

[Dark_One79]

Thanks for checking out this thread, and hopefully you can help shed some light on this issue for me...

I've been giving some serious consideration to buying a region free DVD player online. Basically I'd like to hear about any fellow schmoe's experience trying to do the same thing. What were your good experiences? What were your bad? What site did you buy it from? What brand and model #? I'd like to place an emphasis, as far as questioning, on what are the reputable websites to deal with in this field.

When it comes to region free DVD players I am a complete novice. I have only been researching it for the past couple of weeks, and I know that there must be a couple of people out there who will read this that have gone through a similiar learning process.

So, if you have purchased a region free player online (or physically from a store) I'd love to hear about it. Quite simply, before I spend a few hundred dollars at an online site I've never used before, I'd like to tap the source of knowledge that is this message board.

Any pertinent info... and I mean any... would be much appreciated. Thank you.

[Scully1888]

I don't know how much I can help you with this because of where I live but I'll tell you what I know.

I bought my first region-free DVD player way back when DVD Players were first coming out. Needless to say it was shite and not worth even mentioning, but that was mostly because it was a chipped player and the multi-region chip caused all sorts of problems, including terrible lip-synching problems.

However, I can assure you that this won't be an issue for you.

Despite this, I would still recommend that instead of going for a "chipped" machine (such as a Sony player that has had a chip insterted to override the region coding), you buy a single-region player that can be hacked with a remote control to play any region.

My current DVD player, a Toshiba SD-330E, is by far the best I've had yet. I bought it from Amazon UK for £69.99 and despite its low price, it's been working perfectly for a year and a half now.

I'm not sure how to go about finding remote control hacks for US DVD players, but I'm sure there's a US equivalent of a site like http://www.dvdhacks.co.uk/forum/index.asp?id1=1 which provides a list of all the players that can be hacked (though using Internet Explorer you can go to that page and use Edit --> Find On This Page) to quickly see if a certain player has a remote control hack.

Don't know if that helps much, but I would certainly recommend a remote control hackable player over a chipped one.

After all, if something goes wrong with it, your warranty will still be protected, whereas a chipped player probably won't because the machine has been opened and tampered with.

[JCPhoenix]

I check this place out for dvdhacks

http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks.php

Granted I've never used any of them just cause I don't trust hacks period. But in any case the site is really helpful and tells you lots about whatever model of dvd player you have.

[rilocay]

I'd say instead of going for sony and other big brand's go for a smaller one because A) they usually do all the regions and most often more than what the other players do, & B) Much cheaper.

Iv'e done this and needles to say, its better than the sony dvd players around especially for its price.

Look around, and if your anytime in Australia try hooking yourself up with a DEC player - great quality and they have never fucked up one bit with me.

[Hot-Handed Fury]

I highly recommend the PHILIPS DVP 642 dvd player which can be picked up at just about any WalMart or Target for around 79.99.

All you gotta do to make it region free is a simple hack pressing a few buttons on the remote. The hack can be found at www.dvdrhelp.com.

Besides being a region-free player, the philips dvp 642 also converts PAL -> NTSC, so now you'll be able to watch any DVD from any part of the world. I recently got an excellent quality R2 German PAL DVD of Dellamorte Dellamore(aka Cemetary Man), a movie thats only been released here on VHS. And I just picked up the region 3 Director's cut of Dawn of the Dead(2004) which just came out..I just can't wait till October.

I also higly recommend signing up for an online rental service like www.nicheflix.com, since they have all the best asian, european, and rare/uncensored/superbit american DVDs that haven't(a lot that will never) been released here.

[bowieee]

I bought a cheapie 100 dollar region free and it broke on me in about two weeks and then a fellow schmoe recommended that I pick up this:
http://www.dvdoverseas.com/store/index.html?catalog86_0.html

and it's a bit pricey but it's crystal clear and I've never ever had a problem with it.

It wont let me direct link it but it's the jvc option there for 179 bucks.

[Dark_One79]

Originally posted by Hot-Handed Fury
I highly recommend the PHILIPS DVP 642 dvd player which can be picked up at just about any WalMart or Target for around 79.99.

HHF,

You are the man. Tonight I stopped by a local WalMart and picked up a DVP 642 and the remote code worked like a charm. I haven't yet tried to play anything in it that isn't a r1 or r0 disc, so I may still run into problems. However, as a test, I did set it to region 3 and throw in a regular r1 release... sure enough I got the "wrong region" error message. I threw it back to r0 and it played just fine. That more than suggests I should have no trouble playing the r3 DotD and r2 KB v.1 that I just picked up from play-asia.com.

So, I would have no problems with the PAL/NTSC conversion with this player?

Once again, thanks for your help. Also, thanks to all who suggested the remote code hack instead of a modified player. Your guys really came through for me.

[Fisting Ackbar]

http://www.bombayelectronics.com is where I got mine. Unfortunatly the particular model that I got they don't seem to sell anymore, but I don't think you can go wrong with most of their Daewoo players.

[Hot-Handed Fury]

Originally posted by Dark_One79


So, I would have no problems with the PAL/NTSC conversion with this player?



I have lots of PAL discs now, and they've all played perfectly.
But, I do have a NTSC/PAL projector, so I haven't tested the PAL -> NTSC conversion yet.

Everyone in this thread has reported no problems thus far:

http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks.php?dvdplayer=philips+dvp+642&Search=Search