slymer

I picked up a "Norcent" DVD player at Best Buy for 74.99. I had never heard of this brand, but I needed to pick up a cheap DVD player. This thing is great!
It's region free, and plays PAL movies right out of the box.
Anyone else have one of these?

ScreachingWeasel

Sweeeeet! Now you can pick up that region 3 Disturbing Behavior disc you were drooling for. I think Marsden has a deleted scene where his ruby glasses come off and he shoots some sort of eye blast.

Trigger

Is this true or are you two just jerkin around with each other?

p.s. I mean is it true about the DVD player, not about the eye blast thing.

ScreachingWeasel

No it's true about the player, but like the Apex and Sampo it doesn't convert PAL anamorphic movies right.

slymer

It's true about the DVD player. He's just mocking my taste in movies.

Startide

Out of the box, do the Norcent units play ALL regions and do NOT have Macrovision without using a hack?

slymer

Not sure what "Macrovision" is. It played a region 2 "Orgazmo" just fine though.

Trigger

What's the model number? I can find nothing on the web about this being a region free player. I would also like to confirm if it can convert and play from any region fresh out of the box or if it requires a keypad code.

Trigger

Nevermind - I found it in a few places...

chaver

I'm curious as to how well it plays PAL anamorphic DVDs on ordinary 4x3 televisons.

Trigger

I imagine about the same as the Shinco or the Apex.

ScreachingWeasel

You got it punk!!

chaver

Which is...?

ScreachingWeasel

If the movie is anamorphic it will stretch the picture 1:85 looks almost fullscreen and 2:35 will look like 1:85 widescreen. If you want the player for watching PAL movies you are probably better off without it, since it doesn't really do the job right. If you want it for region 2 and 3 asian dvds I guess it's a decent cheap player.

chaver

Thanks for the info. Right now, all I want it is for watching the R3 Korean disc of My Sassy Girl. But I expect I'll be getting some HKL PAL discs in the future, so I guess I really need good PAL-to-NTSC conversion as well. Any suggestions?

Chaver.

thalion

Do I have to say "Malata"? There should be a few threads around ... it is supposedly quite good at adjusting the different aspect ratios of PAL and NTSC discs. No idea how it copes with the different framerates, though.
If you plan on getting a new TV set sometime, you might consider getting a multi-norm TV-set ... no idea if these are readily available in NTSC country. I live in PAL land & getting decent NTSC->PAL conversion even from brand-name players is about as tough as the PAL->NTSC way. Thus I will probably go for that second option ...

Spicollidriver1

I am thinking about getting this for my mom because she needs one, and then I can get her the CSI series 1 for it also.

Trigger

I would still like some confirmation on this - checking out nerd-out.com they say that it isn't region free at all.

slymer

It is. Believe me. I bought this player for my brother. We've tried it. You may have to go to "setup" and change the mode from "multi" to "NTSC", but that's it. Then you're free to watch all the Takishi Mikie movies you want.

Trigger

Sorry to drive this into the ground, but... so you're saying that you have watched DVDs from regions other than 0 or 1 and the player allows it? And you didn't have to press any special key sequence or upgrade any firmware?

ScreachingWeasel

He used my region 2 Kairo and Orgazmo.

slymer

No, I did not have to enter any key sequence, or upgrade any firmware. It works right out of the box.

Startide

Wow! Those mainland China companies are sure making all kinds of DVD players and getting them into the USA distribution network! They already make plenty of airplane parts for cheap (various mainland China companies stamp the Boeing trademark logo on parts and voila, it's a freshly-minted Boeing jackscrew part).

Now, if they would only mass produce all of the American DVD titles for $3.99 or less. Lord of the Rings 4-disc set for $8.99 at Suncoast. Star Wars 3 DVD for $3.99 at Best Buy! The Roughnecks boxset for $7.99. And of course, DVD/RW drives at $89 each with DVD/RW blanks $0.25 each or less. Don't forget the AOL Time Warner stock will be down to $0.50 per share though. They can sell these discs thru their DeepDiscountDVD.com.CN company or BestPrices.com.CN outlet stores!

It's clear that something is broken in the USA-side law enforcement process. Perhaps a few key American gov't individuals owe too much to the Chinese political machine or something. In the meantime, whilst the RIAA, MPAA, and Boeing are fuming and fuming and fuming, I will go visit BestBuy B&M to check out the Norcent. It seems that the parent company of Norcent makes some large LCD and flatscreen TV too, so maybe in the future, they will mass-produce a bunch of IBM technology flat screen monitors for cheap....

Yellow Hammer

They already do! But only sold in select places in HK, China and Vancouver...

Trigger

I've got someone who bought a Region 3 DVD from me saying they just bought a Norcent player from Best Buy and that they can't figure out how to get it to play my DVD. Apparently it won't. Would one of you who owns one be able to walk her through it? Could you tell me which model number you picked up at Best Buy and if it matches the picture above or does it look different. Please and thank you.