Apex 1100w $68 at Walmart - Region Free + PAL Conversion
 

I'm betting there's plenty in your neighborhood Walmart and they can be made region free by a simple flash via cdr. Owners say it does PAL conversion.

I thought it appropriate here since a lot of people watch R2 R3 dvds.

This dvd by no means is a high end dvd player. But it's great for the money. Nice and silver too. Please note, there's no display screen on the unit itself.

I am out of touch on specific Apex models -- any idea if this player also removes macrovision?

There are two variants of the 1100w. One is the 1meg version, the other is the 512k version.

The 1 meg version is MV and Region free while the 512k is only Region free (for now).

Thanks for the info. I'll likely check it out.

Not that I need to record any DVDs on VHS. I just would really like to be able to hook up my players to an older TV without an extra RCA-coax converter box. So annoying.

How's the PAL conversion?

As several of us say every time this comes up, most players' PAL to NTSC conversion compresses anamorphically enhanced widescreen pictures too much. The only players I know of that do it correctly are most of the Malatas and some modified JVCs. These players have the Mediamatics chip that is able to do the job properly.

Since it seems one has to spend at least around $250-$300 to get a player that does proper conversion, I'd be pretty certain this Apex won't do it.

what's mv?

Macrovision.

PAL works
 

Here's a site w/ more information than you will want on this player:

http://www.nerd-out.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=25

Sorry for the first-grade question, but I guess I've been way out of the loop on this...

In addition to playing discs from all regions and defeating macrovision, this player will also hook-up directly to an old TV that only has a composite input (no RCA jacks nor S-video/component inputs)?