Region free DVD players

I have a Gateway Wireless Connected DVD Player that I found the hack to change region codes via the remote (unlimited times). A lot of the old (and super cheap) Apex units were the same - searching around on DVD/audiophile boards you can usually find out which units are hackable.

Big help, huh? ;)
 
I have one that I bought at a chinese electronics store here in Toronto. It's called "Shinsonic" Yeah I guess that doesn't help you either. A company called Malata makes alot of them. They might be chinese too I think.
 
I have two of them Matty. First is a Toshiba SD-4900, the other is a Daewoo (the call number escapes me for the moment).

I'd recommend the Toshiba over the Daewoo anyday. Do a search for pricing. I purchased it at Circuit City some time ago.

Darren
 
...other option is to rip 'em to DVD+R's and strip the region codes out. My normal routine to "back up" a DVD (which removes region codes, copy protection, etc.):

- Rip using DVD-Decryptor
- Compress / Re-author with DVD-Shrink
- Burn with Nero

It may sould like a lot of work, but it only takes a few minutes and works < very > well. Be happy to show you how to do this in person in about four weeks.... :cool:

Regards - B.B.S.
 
not sure what you are looking for...maybe try: :whistling:
SIMA CT-200 (small box) that essentially removes copy protection altogether, and is relatively inexpensive. (for backing up DVD's with copy protection).
 
I recently picked up an OPPO OPDV971H

It has a well documented service menu that allows setting it to region free. I have set mine to region free, and watched a few Kung-fu movies. Seems to work fine.

It also does very good upconversion to 720p, which is why I bought it.
 
thanks for all the help...the hacks work great...I do not want one with a hack...I need a region free player out of the box...it needs to do the NTSC-PAL conversion as well...It is not to watch "backups" of DVD's I already own..it is so I can buy movies anywhere in the world and watch them..so the conversion is paramount.

I am sick and tired of VCD's
 
Matty -

I picked up a Toshiba SD3900 at, of all places, Best Buy a couple of years ago. Don't recall how much it was anymore, but I seem to think it was around the neighborhood of $89 to $119 at the time. It's region free. I have tons of dvd's from Spain, Italy, Australia, Germany, etc. A lot of Region 2's and Region 4's in other words. It plays them all just fine, including our beloved Region 1's. It's an outstanding region-free player, and it's brought me nothing but joy and has been hassle-free for lo these many years.

Edited to add -

And, although I have no experience with the Daewoo mentioned earlier, I really have no hesitation steering you towards the Toshiba line at all. Good luck. :thumbs: It's really the way to go, especially as there are simply a *ton* of movies that are unavailable here in the U.S. that you can get easily from abroad.
 
I have a small portable 7 inch dvd player, that is region free, and will play Pal dvds.
It is an AMW, m270, all of the portable players they make are that way.
You can hook it up at home as well for a primary player, it has digital outs on it!
I mean this sucker plays everything from mp3 cds, to burnt dvd's, Kodak picture disc's......etc..
 
I've got the Phillips DVP 642. Awesome player and allowed me to watch downloaded tv shows on the TV while I was in Sweden. The player plays divx straight out of the box, plays NTSC and PAL, has progressive scan, and has a very simple hack to make it region free(I believe the hack is to open the tray and with it open, on the remote you key in 7-8-9-OK-0). Best of all, you can get one for less than $70. I've played European DVDs on my NTSC set here in the US and US DVDs on European PAL TVs. From my understanding, most DVDs are not encoded to PAL or NTSC and only encoded with the region that it should be played in. For the price, its worth trying the set and see if does what you need it to. If it doesn't, take it back to Best Buy.
 
I've had a couple Region Free players. Since I lived in Asia and speak the speak, I needed them for practivce and just to watch my other language films. Though I bought my first player in 2000 and my second in 2002 and neither is still on the market I would like to share a couple...

Lessons I have learned:

Try to avoid any player that advertises menu based region selection. It usually means it is a hacked DVD not base region free. Also, avoid remote "codes" as they are also indications of a hack.

Ensure that the new player has RCE capability (and this trumps number 1). Many US region 1 players now have Region Code Enhancement which deny playback on non-region 1 exclusive players. For people that have ARDVDs and would like a quick test, rent A Knights Tale or some other RCEDVD.
RCE - Scroll to the bottom for a short list of known RCE titles.

In my case, almost four years ago the only RCE capable RFDVD I could find was a menu hack that I had to manually switch the active region to play a disc. This was because RCE's basic function was that it checked teh players region while the disc was being "read" and if the player returned anything other than Region 1 exclusive (any combination, multiple or all settings) then the disc would lock itself out. I've heard this is no longer an issue, but some homework may be in order.

Good luck in your quest. I feel your pain, brother.

-K-
 
Treamayne said:
Lessons I have learned:

Try to avoid any player that advertises menu based region selection. It usually means it is a hacked DVD not base region free. Also, avoid remote "codes" as they are also indications of a hack.
Click to expand...

According to that link you posted, this is the opposite of what they reccommend. The ability to manually selct the region via a remote code is exactly what they suggest to work around the RCE programming, and that a unit set to ALL (base region free) would not allow the RCE DVD's to play at all (straight forward at least).

I'll stick with my Gateway (aside from the ability to manually change the region codes, I can stream MP3's and movies wirelessly from my server and play them throough my TV/HT system at 56mbps :thumbs: )
 
If I recall correctly - Best Buy sells a cheap Dynex for $39 that plays all regions - Ironmike can confirm this for me - He has one.

Lkyman
 
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