DVD PLAYER HELP NEEDED!!!

[Flint]

Hey all-
Well, it looks like I'm going to have to break down and buy a region free DVD player. There's just too many discs like "Chimes", "Immortal Story", "The Trial" as well as films of other directors that I want to see but can't here in the US. I went on line and was overwhelmed by the choices of players out there. Can any US members with region free players give me a recommendation? MUCH APPRECIATED!

Flint

[Jeff Wilson]

Depends what options you want; if you want a player than can zoom out to eliminate TV overscan, you'll pay more. Players made by Malata do this, and probably some others. For simple PAL conversion, there are any number of options; several of my friends have the Cyberhome 500, which has been available at places ranging from Best Buy to Radio Shack, and runs around $50, last I saw. It does a very nice job at converting the PAL signal, from the discs I've looked at. And for the price, it can't be beat. Check out the forums at DVD Talk, nerdout.com and other sites to get reviews and such.

[TheMcGuffin]

I totally feel you on the region free DVD player. The best all around Region Free players can be bought at www.hkflix.com under the hardware section. I personally have the Malata DVP-520 and it is great, never had a problem with it. Malata's tend to be the more popular Region Free PAL/NTSC players...but hte site has two more players the look interesting, the Skyworth DVP-1050P and the Pioneer DV-563A, neither were available when i made my purchase, and if they were, I would have taken a long look at these two. But these players are more in the $300-$400 range and work more as full time DVD players and not as occasional players to watch region DVDs. Hope this helps.

Rob

[Flint]

Jeff & McGuffin-
Thank you so much for the response. This defintely helps a lot. And HKFlix is DEFINITELY the best site I've been to yet that has region free players for sale. Anyone else out there with a Region free & NTSC/PAL player they can recommend? I don't need anything with all the bells and whistles. Just something basic, cheap & reliable. (That Malata looks pretty nice).

-Flint

[colwood]

Flint, I feel you pain. This past summer I got sick of hearing about all the great titles on Region 2 dvd and decided to jump right in. I picked up the Sampo DVE 612(n). Plays all DVD's and almost any other media type. Multi-region. Correctly converts PAL to NTSC. Only drawback, it's not VCR-friendly. Picked mine up for $109.

Info on this and other Sampos: area450.com

I picked up mine from 220-electronics.com. It was their monthly special. They seem to be offering a different model for there current monthly special, but it seems to be very similar to the Sampo I bought from them (they called mine and similar models the "international dvd players").

[Cole]

There are many DVD players on the market that can be converted into a region free player by entering a code – a “hack” – with the remote control device. To find out if there’s a “hack” for a particular DVD player, check the following website. It’s invaluable for this type of information.

http://www.dvdrhelp.com/dvdhacks

I picked up a Philips DVD 726 for about $80 a couple months ago at a Best Buy, entered the code listed at the above web site, and so far it has been able to play the Region 2 (European) DVD’s I’ve given it, including the French DVD of The Trial (which looks beautiful). It also converts PAL to NTSC just fine.