I'm looking for a code free player for my brother, and he watches a lot of British comedy TV shows which are Region 2. Is there a good (hopefully cheap) DVD player out there that can do the following:

- play all regions
- play RCE protected discs
- output PAL discs to a NTSC TV

I don't really care about the macrovision free thing, 'cuz I don't think he'll really use that, but if it there's, it's allright. Any suggestions people? Keep in mind, he already has a DVD player for region 1, so this would be a second player. Most important is the fact that it should play PAL discs onto his NTSC tv and that it's region free. Please help.

p.s.: Don't know if this goes in hardware forum or international, so i took a chance.

i have the samsumg 709 dvd player that is macrovision free and multi region.it also plays rce discs no problem!

You can get the Sampo 620 for around $160 from 800.com. Then visit the forums at http://www.nerd-out.com to get the low-down on how to access the loophole menu. It does region-free, MP3, and PAL to NTSC. The only catch with the PAL conversion is that, if the PAL disc is anamorphic, the player cannot convert to NTSC and downconvert at the same time. The end result is a tall and skinny image unless you can do the squeeze trick with your TV.

As for RCE, it won't play them in region-free mode so you just hop into the loophole menu and set it for the particular region you need and it then plays fine.

ALL players output a PAL signle, but only a few will convert it to NTSC.

Those few decks will convert it wrong, giving you a picture that is either too tall (not enough scan lines removed) or too short (too many scan lines removed).

If you can live with that, then you will do fine with any of these bargain players.

I heard about the SMC 330s or the Odyssey VD-2080. They all do the PAL to NTSC conversion, but they're not cheap.

AliJ, does your Samsung 709 convert PAL to NTSC? I can get a Samsung 711 for $150 from Bestbuy, does that have the same loopholes as the 709?

If you're talking about Apex, that's correct. But if you're talking about any other manufacturer, this is NOT true, as most American players will NOT output PAL. I have a region 0 PAL disc, and I've tried it on both Sony and Panasonic region 1 players, and it gives a message like "this disc is not compatible with this player" (or close to that). If you modify a region 1 player (I have a Pioneer that is), it can pass though the PAL. This player does NOT (and most also do not) covert to NTSC. There is a new breed of players using the same chipset (Apex, Sampo, Raite, etc etc etc) that have the capability to convert PAL to NTSC (and NTSC to PAL), but the conversion is far from perfect.

yes it does convert the signal and the samsung 711 has the same loophole!!!!

Electric2k , That is not correct. Nearly player will output ANY signal, as long as the region is correct. My non code-free players will output any region 0 PAL discs I put into it. The key is, you have to then convert the signal.

I have tried my region 0 PAL discs on dozens of different players over the years and they all play them. The picture will be scrambled, of course, but that is why I bought myself the Tenlab converter.

Matt,

Can you suggest some worthwile PAL R0 or R1-6 disks? I am very curious if my Toshiba 3109 will output PAL, but all my PAL disks are R2 and I use a Sampo 620 for the R2 stuff.

Ted

Well, I can tell you that I've used both Sony and Panasonic players that absolutely REFUSED to play the PAL disc. It's definitely region free, because it will play on my unhacked DVD Rom drive.

I have to agree with Electric2k here, Matt. Not every DVD player with output a PAL signal... many will refuse to even play the disc.

My Pioneer DVL-700 will not play Region 0 PAL titles. It simply displays a "Cannot be Played." message and stops.