Hi All,

I'm a newbie here and looking forward to having a place to discuss DVD things!

My question is this... We are looking to purchase (in the UK) a portable DVD player that we can take on vacation with us to places like France, Cyprus, and most importantly - the US. We'd like to be able to plug it in to the hotel TV set - is this possible? Would the PAL/NTSC be any issue with a portable DVD player? (would be using our own dvds that we bring with us)

Sorry if that sounds a dumb question but I have no clue with this stuff, and can't find much clear and definitive info on the net.

Thanks in advance
Rachel

Most portable players are compatible with both PAL and NTSC, and many can be made region free easily. Try looking up the model # on www.videohelp.com.

Europe uses a different voltage than the US, so you will need a voltage convertor. You should be able to pick one up in any travel shop.

you know, i think a lot of portable players in the UK arent necessarily worth it - if you look at retailers selling japanese electronics (yesasia.com or j-list) they have small portable players without screens and with multiregion funtionality - if your carting around a screen and plugging it into a TV then its much better all round... i think.

Thanks, Josh, that website is excellent. There's so much information on it I don't know where to start...! The model I had looked at is on there, so that's good news. Logboy, I agree with what you're saying - why bother with a screen if we are going to plug it in to a TV anyway - but on some trips we are going to want to use it while travelling on a train etc.

Also, does the region-support of the player affect how it will work on a US TV? The DVDs will be ours so will be the correct region, I am not looking to buy DVDs from the US or anything.

Anyone know what lead will connect a UK portable DVD player to a US TV?

Thanks again!

i suppose a player intentionally meant for multiregion should have ability to output signals covering both UK and USA tvs... cant be entirely sure, but i expect this is the case... as for cable, i suppose scarts way too large for a portable player, so you probably have the option of that little yellow-headed composite cable (remember, you often get red / yellow / white composite leads with things like consoles and other electronics that plug into tvs)...

just thought of something else, be wary of carrying so many dvds around - especially through customs points - both because theyre valuable and youll probably pack them in a convenient small case (easy to steal), but because they might try and charge duty (?)... these are also other issues...

...why, if you're going to visit such exciting places as France, Cyprus, and the USA, where there are many wonderful, entertaining things to do - I say WHY would you want to lug around a DVD player and DVDs (and a current converter for the USA, where current is 110V/60C, as against Europe's 220V/50C) -plus a multi-plug, so you could plug in the unit in Europe (where plugs are medium-sized, as against the huge, klutzy, onerous plugs used in the UK) and the USA (where plugs are small, compared to the medium-sized European ones)... good luck trying to get an all-purpose plug in the UK - I tried and was unable to find one anywhere in London (although they are available in any big store in Switzerland, for instance...)

(signed) Curmudgeon

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