asianxcore

I was just wondering if anyone can recommend me and good/affordable Region Free DVD players. thanks!

DrGerbil

I would do a search of the site http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/search.php?s=

I suggest a Toshiba sd-3900 (or 4900). It is readily available under $80, can be hacked easily to play all regions and does pal --> ntsc very well.

foxdvd

Another vote for the Toshiba 4900....Best Buy just had it for 79 bucks.....and the quality is much better then a Malta I paid much more for.

marty888

Lots of information and discussion in this thread:

http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...hreadid=316570

I purchased a Philips 727 (about $70 from Amazon right now) about 4 months ago - it has performed perfectly, playing all regions and doing a great PAL conversion.

Jose Q

Trying to narrow down my purchase to 3 models. Looking for all your basic features plus the lesser hassle when it comes to entering codes, etc.

Thanks!

Trigger

Jaton, Malata, JVC

brombie

Malata/Jaton if you have a non-HD TV
Momitsu if you have an HDTV, it can upscale to 1080i

the_dude8

how about a tosiba sd-4900 that can be hack to be region free under $100.00.

foxdvd

I have not seen the quality of the Jaton (though I hear it is good) I find the Toshiba 4900 is a better quality player then the Malta, sound and picture, and under 100 bucks.

benedict

<small></small>Agreed.

Among others, see also: http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...hreadid=315866

benedict

<small></small>

• Region Free Player - help [merged]
• One & only Malata [non-520] advice thread
• One & only region-free [non-Malata] advice thread

DVD Smurf

But no X-Y scaling, and on the Malata you can set your own settings, which will affect the quality... Nevertheless, the Malata looks much cheaper, but costs much more... I was lucky and got my Malata as a birthday gift from my wife .

Cheers

DVD Smurf

nadeama

Here's a copy of another post I made on the forum, but Benedict suggested it might be better if I posted on an already existing thread.

For what it's worth, I did a lot of searches for various models, but I've been having a hard time finding info about the difference in PQ of the PAL-NTSC conversion between interlace and progressive.

-------

Last week, I bought a Jaton DVD player for the purpose of playing PAL DVD titles on my NTSC television set. I'm a little disappointed by the picture quality of the Mediamatics chipset on my interlaced tv. There's a lot of "shimmering" on PAL DVD's, and a bit on NTSC titles also. I had read that the chip was better at progressive output, but still the picture on my set is a little worse than I had expected.

I'm going to return the Jaton anyway because of another problem, and I was thinking that I might go with another, non-Mediamatics based DVD player.

Are there any region-free players that have particularly good PAL-NTSC conversion (i.e. correct aspect ratio and no "shimmering") on *interlaced* tv sets?

I've heard that the CyberHome CH-500 does not produce shimmering, but it's known for a few other problems. I've also read good comments about the Toshiba 3900/4900, but nothing specifically regarding interlace output quality. Could this player be a good choice?

I've also read nice things about the Philips 727, but I have a Ronin P807 that is based on the same Mediatek chipset, and I see a lot of shimmering and digital artifacting, plus a slightly annoying flaw with the bottom black border not being quite straight (there's a sort of little dent in the middle) on anamorphic PAL DVD's.

Any other players I should be aware of? Right now, I'm leaning towards the Toshiba 4900 but I'd like to have comments about its interlaced output of PAL DVD's.

Thanks.

foxdvd

Side by side my Toshiba looks much better then my Malta on ever Non-Pal dvd I have tried. So far I have tested 6 PAL dvds and everyone has looked better on my Toshiba. It does a better job then the Malata in the conversion, and thus less need for messing with the image. When I do find a DVD that would need to be tweaked I guess I can run it through my Malta but the quality of the Malta is so much less on every dvd I tried (esp. sound quality) that I can not see using it much anymore.

jblackie

Bought a Philips 727 6 months or so ago. Just took delivery on a second. Great machine at a wonderful price. Never regretted it.

Slowpc

Tossing my hat in and saying get the 4900. I love it and so far so good!

haiweigh

I have a cinevision 650 I bought from radio shack for $50.00 It plays fine, have it hooked up using component video and I think it looks fine. I did the region free remote code and I've been playing region 2 and 3 dvd's on it as well as dvd+r's I've burned on my computer.

I also have a Toshiba 4900, I didn't realize there was a region free hack for it, where's the best info on opening the regions up for that guys? Thanks!!

calhoun07

I also would be curious to know what it takes to hack one of these. I've been considering buying a region free DVD player for somebody as a gift, and this is a good alternative to sinking money into a Malata.

nadeama

See the thread named Attn TOSHIBA SD-3900 owners: No need for the remote code anymore! for the region hack.

OldBoy

Can someone please tell me if the Philips DVD727AT with the AT at the end is the same as without the AT? I want to make sure that the region free hack will work for this if it is different? Thanks to anyone for any help.

Djangoman

Hmmm... apparently region code regulation as well as application of PAL/NTSC system are very strict in US ... If you buy DVD players in Indonesia, I'm sure most of them are multi-region- even from the prominent manufacturers like Pioneeer, Sony, Toshiba, LG, Samsung, JVC, etc. not to mention Chinese and Taiwan brands. This also geos fro TV-all of them are multi-system. You can ask the dealers. Simply because if we stick to our region code, nobody's gonna buy the player.

iiwr

Hi all!

Sorry for a dumb question, but I'm a newbie here :-)
Where can I find a comprehensive list of region-free dvd players?

Thanks a lot!!

the_dude8

the best tips i could offer you is to search for region free in the dvdtalk international forum. the only 3 players that i know that is region free that are affordtable prices are
1. philip 727
2. toshiba sd-3900
3. sd-4900

Spiky

Go to dvdrhelp.com and look in the Hacks section. It lists dozens (hundreds?) of players and any hacks that will allow all region use. Not all players listed there have region hacks, though.

NoxHaveN

Alright...

Philips 727

or

Toshiba 3950

or

Toshiba 4900




-nox