PRC1216

Hey there,
I was wondering if anyone has a suggestion about a certain DVD player I could buy. I need one that can play Cd-RW media, but one that also allows you to turn off the region coding via the remote contol. Thanks in advance

Sonic

Good luck.

PRC1216

What exactly does that quote mean? Can someone reccomend a model/brand available in the USA? Thanks

Iron_Giant

There are no DVD players that has the ability to play multi region DVDs. There were a few that were made in the bigging that had a jumper/switch on the inside of the DVD player that could change the DVD code, this would allow you to play any DVD from any region(a friend of mine has one of these DVD players, I can't remember the name of the player). I know I seen some of these players being sold on ebay, the price was a $1000 or more.

So, I don't believe you will be able to find a DVD player that changes the region code using the remote control.

Mr. Salty

Oh so wrong.

Everyone's current fave is the Malata, available at www.avdeals.com. It's a progressive-scan player that supports CD-R, CD-RW and MP3-encoded material. It also does near-perfect PAL-to-NTSC conversion. And, yes, the regions are selectable from the remote.

The player sells in two versions, one is $290, the other $340. The cheaper model defaults to Region 1. The more expensive one defaults to Region 0, plus I think the firmware is upgradable.

These prices include shipping, by the way.

PRC1216

Hmmmm....looks interesting, but I am sort of looking for one that I could say, buy at Circuit City, Best Buy, or another electronics store in the states. ANy other suggestions?

Mr. Salty

You're going to be looking for a long time then.

Apex was about the only company making multi-region players and halfway through the first model year they dropped the feature.

Trust me when I say that the Malata is your best bet. There are a few other Web sites that offer region-modified versions of major name brand players like Panasonic and Pioneer, but they cannot convert PAL to NTSC.

And you will NOT find any of these stocked in a major chain store. You're lucky you can find them in this country at all.

PRC1216

I guess im just a little concerned about shelling out that much money for a brand I haven't heard of. It sounds like a cheap japanese machine, like so many that are made there. Do you personally have one, and are you 100% satisfied with it? I would like a well known brand preferably, but this may have to do.

Mr. Salty

If you're looking for any DVD player that people are 100% satisfaied with you'll be looking even longer.

Look, the studios do a pretty thorough job of enforcing region coding in the U.S. It's how they control distribution worldwide, and they aren't very keen on players being sold that defeat the system.

Unless you find an early production Sony DVP-S7000 used on eBay, you're SOL.

Malata is Chinese, I believe, not Japanese. As I wrote above, the only major brands you'll find have been modified by a hacker, and they won't convert PAL format discs to NTSC, which I assume you will want to do. The modifications, by the way, will void the player warranties.

You are not going to find a multi-region Panasonic at Best Buy.

PRC1216

You didn't answer my question....do YOU have one, and are YOU happy with it? I guess your right though, any DVD player will be made overseas.

Mr. Salty

I haven't ordered mine yet, but I've been reading the user reviews pretty regularly over the last two or three weeks. People have been very pleased with the performance of this player, particularly at this price point.

PAL to NTSC conversion isn't easy and this player seems to handle it very well.

LennyNero

I agree, I was putting back on buying a multi-region player, because of Pal to NTSC conversion, for which I would need to spend 150 or more bucks to get a converter which suck half the time. I'm a fan of sony, the one I was going to buy was a Modified DVP-NS400 multi-region:
http://www.mindlogic.com/MSDVD_SONY.shtml
there are other models there, ranging from 350 to 600 bucks, and they are not progressive and cannot play MP3, some cannot even play CDR/RW.
Malata is like a holy grail, it "exploded" into everyone's face a few days ago, and now it's the hottest selling player, everyone is so hyped about it, and so am I, i've already ordered it and spend another half a thousand bucks on R2 and R4 dvds... I'm going crazy over here.

And if you want to play other than region 1 DVDs, you're gona have to buy this player. ... Or spend 600+ on a modified Sony/panasonic which will not have all these features, like Progressive, DTS/DD built in decoder chips, MP3/CDR/CDRW/VCD support... or if it will it's still twice as expensive and you're gona need a 200 dollar converter which will give you so much headache you're gona have to patch those thin cardboard walls of your condo/house from where you threw it at in rage.

ILikeDVD

Me too,
I have $250 !!
Wants Sony(dvp400),but hears Sony's suffer from Chroma bug
Wants Panasonic, heard their players' skip.
Wants a player that plays cd-r,vcd,cd.
adioreview.com is ok for reviews, but not up to date with new players that i see at my local store.
I have $250. And i would like to buy a player at my B&M store TOMMOROW. Please Help!!
Thanks- ILIKEDVD

ice1138

Most philips players can be made region free, with the help of a generic remote, As well as playing cd-r(w) vcd's. I've also had no problem playing RCE discs.

nekobus

You will not find multi-region players sold in your local big electronics B&M store. You will need to buy off the net. You can do a yahoo or google search and find multi-region player retailers.

If you watch a lot of interlaced material, need progressive output and don't need internal PAL->NTSC conversion then you may want to look at the Skyworth. It's better at handling interlaced material than the Malta.

babka

Mr Salty, thanks for the info. Hey , which model would you recommend I get?

I heard some dvds may not play if the dvd player is defaulted to play region 0 dvds? Is this true?

Also, Is it easy to go and buy other region dvds? For eg. I want to buy Breakdown region 4 which has more extras than the region 1 version, But at Amazon, they have everything written in German , so I can't order cause I cant understand it. thanks in advance.

babka

^

vwmaniac

most europe philips dvd players can be multi region, there is an remote hack for most players, the firmware of most is also upgradable via an selfburned cdr

Mr. Salty

I like what I'm hearing about the more expensive version of the Malata. The region is switchable on both, which means you can set the player to a specific region. Region code enhancement won't play on region-free players, which is why it's nice to be able to actually change the region setting to a specific number.

I also like the fact that the firmware is upgradable by downloading the firmware, buring it to a CD and popping it into the player.

I'm not sure where people buy their discs --- there are a lot of good Hong Konmg sites, but for European you'll have to ask around.